SpringerLink
Log in

Fish Is Women’s Business Too: Looking at Marine Resource Use Through a Gender Lens

  • Chapter
  • First Online:
Perspectives on Oceans Past

Abstract

The majority of studies in fisheries history have turned a blind eye on the role of women. This is mainly a result of the roles that most societies have traditionally allocated to men and women, with fisheries usually perceived as a male domain. However, women have always had a major influence on fishing practices and fish trade: as harvesters and collectors of marine resources, as processors and traders, and as central actors in informal networks that are especially relevant for small-scale fisheries. This chapter analyses gendered processes in fisheries, by shedding light on the manifold roles of women, in order to complement and challenge the results of historical fisheries research. It reviews studies on fisheries, gender and history, and provides a systematic overview on important aspects pertaining to women’s role in fisheries. It also contains a case study on giant clam collection and trade in Indonesia which illuminates how women have influenced and sustained fisheries in practise, and through time.

To be a women is not to be a fisher(man) (Yodanis 2000).

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution

Subscribe and save

Springer+ Basic
EUR 32.99 /Month
  • Get 10 units per month
  • Download Article/Chapter or Ebook
  • 1 Unit = 1 Article or 1 Chapter
  • Cancel anytime
Subscribe now

Buy Now

Chapter
EUR 29.95
Price includes VAT (Germany)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
EUR 117.69
Price includes VAT (Germany)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
EUR 160.49
Price includes VAT (Germany)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free ship** worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book
EUR 160.49
Price includes VAT (Germany)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free ship** worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

Notes

  1. 1.

    Law of the Republic of Indonesia No. 5, year 1990 on the Conservation of Natural Resources and Ecosystems, and Appendix Indonesian Government Regulation No. 7, year 1999: Types of Plants and Fauna.

  2. 2.

    The research was set up as a multi-sited ethnography. Whereas all three of Berau’s inhabited islands were involved in the research as fieldwork locations, one island functioned as base from where different trips and visits were made elsewhere. Because the commercial exploitation of giant clams is officially banned in Indonesia the names of places and people are not given here, in order to protect research informants.

  3. 3.

    To illustrate: When the researcher asked around for giant clam traders, people mostly directed her to male traders first. But when asking these men about the clam trade (price, organization, logistics) they referred the researcher to their wives instead, saying something like: ‘for the specifics you’ll have to ask my wife, it’s her business’.

  4. 4.

    In 2012, 1 k of sun-dried clams was worth 100.000 IDR to 130.000 IDR on the island (8–11 Euros at that time).

  5. 5.

    Providing the women with fishing or household products that she imports from Malaysia.

References

  • Abreu-Ferreira, D. (2000). Fishmongers and shipowners: Women in maritime communities of early modern Portugal. The Sixteenth Century Journal, 31(1), 7–23.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Allison, E.H. (2013). Maritime masculinities – And why they matter for management. Paper presented at the Conference People and the Sea VII, Amsterdam.

    Google Scholar 

  • Allison, E. H., & Seeley, J. A. (2004). HIV and AIDS among fisherfolk: A threat to ‘responsible fisheries’? Fish and Fisheries, 5(3), 215–234. doi:10.1111/j.1467-2679.2004.00153.x.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Baillie, J. E. M., Hilton-Taylor, C., & Stuart, N. S. (2004). IUCN red list of threatened species™. A global species assessment. Cambridge: IUCN Publication Services Unit.

    Google Scholar 

  • Béné, C., & Merten, S. (2008). Women and fish-for-sex: Transactional sex, HIV/AIDS and gender in African fisheries. World Development, 36(5), 875–899.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bennett, E. (2005). Gender, fisheries and development. Marine Policy, 29, 451–459.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Berggreen, B. (1979). Kvinner i maritime naeringar. Syn og Segn, 3, 163–176.

    Google Scholar 

  • Binkley, M. (2005). The bitter end. Women’s crucial role in the Nova Scotia coastal fishery. In B. Neis, M. Binkley, S. Gerrard, & M. C. Maneschy (Eds.), Changing tides. Gender, fisheries and globalisation (pp. 64–77). Halifax: Fernwood Publishing.

    Google Scholar 

  • Buck, P.H. (1930). Samoan material culture. Bernice Pauahi Bishop Museum Bulletin 75, Bernice Pauahi Bishop Museum, Honolulu, Hawaii.

    Google Scholar 

  • Chapman, M. D. (1987). Women’s fishing in Oceania. Human Ecology, 15(3), 267–287.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Choos, P. S., Nowak, B. S., Kusakabe, K., & Williams, M. J. (2008). Guest editorial: Gender and fisheries. Development, 51, 176–179.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Chou, C. G. H. (2006). Research trends on Southeast Asian Sea nomads. Kyoto Review of Southeast Asia, 7, 1–11.

    Google Scholar 

  • Clay, P. M., & Olson, J. (2007). Defining fishing communities: Issues in theory and practise. NAPA Bulletin, 28, 27–42.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Clifton, J., & Majors, C. (2012). Culture, conservation, and conflict: Perspectives on marine protection among the Bajau of Southeast Asia. Society & Natural Resources, 25(7)

    Google Scholar 

  • Cole, S. C. (1991). Women of the Praia: Work and lives in a Portuguese coastal community. Princeton: Princeton University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Davis, N. Z. (1975). Women’s history in transition: The European case. Feminist Studies, 3, 83–103.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Davis, D.L. & Gerrard, S. (2000). Women and the fisheries crisis. Women’s Studies International Forum, 27(3). Special issue.

    Google Scholar 

  • DKP Dinas Kelautan dan Perikanan. (2012). Laporan statistik perikanan 2011. Dinas Kelautan dan Perikanan Kabupaten Berau, Tanjung Redeb, Berau.

    Google Scholar 

  • Endemano Walker, B. L. (2002). Engendering Ghana’s seascape: Fanti fishtraders and marine property in colonial history. Society and Natural Resources, 15, 389–407.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Firth, R. (1957). We, the Tikopia. London: George Allen and Unwin.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fischer, L. R., Hamre, H., Holm, P., & Bruijn, J. R. (1992). The North sea. Twelve essays on social history of maritime labour. Stavanger: Stavanger Maritime Museum, Association of North Sea Societies.

    Google Scholar 

  • Frangoudes, K., Marugán-Pintos, B., & Pascual-Fernández, J. J. (2008). From open access to co-governance and conservation: The case of women shellfish collectors in Galicia (Spain). Marine Policy, 32(2), 223–232.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fröcklin, S., de la Torre-Castro, M., Lindström, L., & Jiddawi, N. (2013). Fish traders as key actors in fisheries: Gender and adaptive management. Ambio, 42, 951–962.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gaynor, J. L. (2010). Flexible fishing: Gender and the new spatial division of labor in eastern Indonesia’s rural littoral. Radical History Review, 107, 74–100.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gunawan, B. I. (2012). Shrimp fisheries and aquaculture: Making a living in the coastal frontier of Berau Indonesia: Wageningen University, Wageningen.

    Google Scholar 

  • Handy, E.S.C. (1923). The native culture in the Marquesas, Honolulu. Bernice Pauahi Bishop Museum Bulletin 9, Pernice Pauahi Bishop Museum, Honolulu, Hawaii.

    Google Scholar 

  • Harper, S., Zeller, D., Hauzer, M., Pauly, D., & Sumaila, U. R. (2013). Women and fisheries: Contribution to food security and local economies. Marine Policy, 39, 56–63.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hauzer, M., Dearden, P., & Murray, G. (2013). The fisherwomen of Ngazidja island, Comoros: Fisheries livelihoods, impacts, and implications for management. Fisheries Research, 140(0), 28–35.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kato, K. (2006). Waiting for the tide, tuning the world. Paper presented at the the 2nd international small Island cultures conference, Norfolk.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kelkar, M. (2007). Local knowledge and natural resource management: A gender perspective. Indian Journal of Gender Studies, 14(2), 295–306.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Krom, J. S. (1940). Memorie van overgave van de controleur van de onderafdeling Beraoe. Leiden: KITLV.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kronen, M., & Vunisea, A. (2007). Women never hunt – but fish: Highlighting equality for women in policy formulation and strategic planning in the coastal fisheries sector in Pacific Island countries. SPC Women in Fisheries Information Bulletin, 17, 3–15.

    Google Scholar 

  • Löfgren, O. (1979). Marine ecotypes in preindustrial Sweden: A comparative discussion of Swedish peasant fishermen. In R. Andersen (Ed.), North Atlantic maritime cultures: Anthropological essays on changing adaptions. The Hague: Mouton de Gruyter.

    Google Scholar 

  • MacGregor, G. (1937). Ethnology of Tokelau Islands. Bernice Pauahi Bishop Museum Bulletin 146, Bernice Pauahi Bishop Museum, Honolulu, Hawaii.

    Google Scholar 

  • Maneschy, M. C., & Alvares, M. L. (2005). Identities in construction and in conflict. Restructuring and the social roles of women in the fishing communities of Pará State, Brazil. In B. Neis, M. Binkley, S. Gerrard, & M. C. Maneschy (Eds.), Changing tides. Gender, fisheries and globalisation (pp. 51–63). Halifax: Fernwood Publishers.

    Google Scholar 

  • McCay, B. (1993). Fisherwomen, fisheries policy, and maritime anthropology. Reviews in Antropology, 22, 77–89.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • McGrath, C., Neis, B., & Porter, M. (1995). Their lives and times: Women in Newfoundland and Labrador: A collage. St. John’s: Killick Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Meltzoff, S. K. (1995). Marisquadoras of the shellfish revolution: The rise of women in co-management on Illa de Arousa, Galicia. Journal of Political Ecology, 2, 20–38.

    Google Scholar 

  • Morrison, J. (1993). Bajau gender: A study of the effects of socio-economic change on gender relations in a fishing community of Sabah, East Malaysia. Department of Sociology, The University of Hull.

    Google Scholar 

  • Muszynski, A. (2005). Globalizing fisheries in an historical context: The Salmon canning industry of British Columbia. In B. Neis, M. Binkley, S. Gerrard, & M. C. Maneschy (Eds.), Changing tides. Gender, fisheries and globalisation (pp. 98–113). Halifax: Fernwood Publishers.

    Google Scholar 

  • Nadal-Klein, J. (1988). A fisher laddie needs a fisher lassie: Endogamy and work in a Scottish fishing village. In J. Nadal-Klein & D. L. Davis (Eds.), To work and to weep (pp. 190–210). Newfoundland: Institute of Social and Economic Research Memorial University of Newfoundland.

    Google Scholar 

  • Nadal-Klein, J., & Davis, D. L. (1988). To work and to weep. In Social and economic papers. St. John’s: Institute of Social and Economic Research, and Memorial University of Newfoundland.

    Google Scholar 

  • Neis, B., Binkley, M., Gerrard, S., & Maneschy, M. C. (2005). Changing tides. Gender, fisheries and globalisation. Halifax: Fernwood Publishing.

    Google Scholar 

  • Nolde, L. (2009). “Great is Our Relationship with the Sea”. Charting the Maritime Realm of the Sama of Southeast Sulawesi, Indonesia. Explorations: A graduate student journal of Southeast Asian studies, 9, 15–33.

    Google Scholar 

  • Oliver, D. L. (1989). Oceania: The native cultures of Australia and the Pacific Islands. Honululu: University of Hawaii Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Overå, R. (2003). Gender ideology and manoeuvering space for female fisheries entrepreneurs. Research Review, 19(2), 49–66.

    Google Scholar 

  • Pauwelussen, A. (2015). The moves of a Bajau middlewoman: Exploring the disparity between trade networks and marine conservation. Anthropological Forum, 25(4), 329–349. doi:10.1080/00664677.2015.1054343.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Pauwelussen, A. (2016). Community as network: Exploring a relational approach to social resilience in coastal Indonesia. Maritime Studies, 15, 2. [online] doi:10.1186/s40152-016-0041-5

  • Pelras, C. (1996). The Bugis. Oxford: Blackwell Publishers.

    Google Scholar 

  • Pollnac, R. (1984). The divison of labor by sex in fishing communities (Anthropology Working Paper). International Center for Marine Resources Development University of Rhode Island.

    Google Scholar 

  • Resurreccion, B. P. (2008). Mainstreaming gender in community fisheries in the Tonle Sap: Three myths. In M. Kummu, M. Keskinen, & O. Varis (Eds.), Modern myths of the Mekong: A critical review of water and development concepts, principles and policies (pp. 65–77). Helsinki: Water & Development Research Group, Helsinki University of Technology.

    Google Scholar 

  • Saat, G. (2003). The identity and social mobility of Sama-Bajau. Sari, 21, 3–11.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sather, C. (1997). The Bajau Laut: Adaptation, history, and fate in a maritime fishing society of south eastern Sabah. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sather, C. (2002). Commodity trade and maritime nomadism in southeast Sabah. Nomadic Peoples, 6(1), 20–44.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Scott, J. W. (1986). Gender: A useful category of historical analysis. The American Historical Review, 91(5), 1053–1075.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Scott, E. M. (1994). Those of little note: Gender, race, and class in historical archaeology. Tucson: University of Arizona Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Seeley, J. A., & Allison, E. H. (2005). HIV/AIDS in fishing communities: Challenges to delivering antiretroviral therapy to vulnerable groups. AIDS Care, 17(6), 688–697. doi:10.1080/09540120412331336698.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Siason, I. M. (2012). Women in fisheries in the Philippines. Paper presented at the Symposium on women in Asian fisheries, Chiangmai, Thailand.

    Google Scholar 

  • Thompson, P. (1985). Women in the fishing: The roots of power between the sexes. Comparative Studies in Society and History, 27(1), 3–32.

    Google Scholar 

  • Tvedten, I., & Hersoug, B. (1992). Fishing for development: Small-scale fisheries in Africa. Uppsala: Nordiska Afrikainstitute (TheScandinavian Institute of African Studies).

    Google Scholar 

  • Volkman, T. A. (1994). Our garden is the sea: Contingency and improvisation in Mandar women’s work. Amercian Ethnologist, 21(3), 564–585.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Vunisea, A. (1997). Women’s fishing participation in Fiji. SPC Women-in-Fisheries Information Bulletin, 1, 10–13.

    Google Scholar 

  • Vunisea, A. (2005). Women’s changing roles in the subsistence fishing sector in Fiji. In I. Novaczek, J. Mitchell, & J. Vietayaki (Eds.), Pacific voices: Equity and sustainability in Pacific Island fisheries (pp. 89–105). Suva: Institute of Pacific Studies, University of South Pacific.

    Google Scholar 

  • Warren, C. (1980). Consciousness in social transformation: The Bajau Laut of east Malaysia. Dialectic Anthropology, 5(3), 227–238.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Weeratunge, N., Snyder, K. A., & Sze, C. P. (2010). Gleaner, fisher, trader, processor: Understanding gendered employment in fisheries and aquaculture. Fish and Fisheries, 11(4), 405–420.

    Google Scholar 

  • Williams, M. J. (2008). Why look at fisheries through a gender lens? Development, 51, 180–185.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Williams, M. J., Nandeesha, M. C., & Choo, P. S. (2006). Changing traditions: A summary report on the first global look at the gender dimensions of fisheries. In P. S. Choo, S. Hall, & M. J. Williams (Eds.), Global symposium on gender and fisheries (pp. 1–6). Penang: The World Fish Center.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wit, A. d. (2008). Leven, Werken en Geloven in Zeevarende Gemeenschappen. Schiedam, Maassluis en Ter Heijde in de zeventiende eeuw. Amsterdam: Aksant Publishers.

    Google Scholar 

  • Yodanis, C. L. (2000). Constructing gender and occupational segregation: a study of women and work in fishing communities. Qualitative Sociology, 23(3), 267–290.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Zhao, M., Tyzack, M., Anderson, R., & Onoakpovike, E. (2013). Women as visible and invisible workers in fisheries: A case study of Northern England. Marine Policy, 37(0), 69–76.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Leibniz Center for Tropical Marine Ecology (ZMT), Bremen, Germany

    Kathleen Schwerdtner Máñez

  2. Asia Research Center, Murdoch University, Murdoch, Australia

    Kathleen Schwerdtner Máñez

  3. Wageningen University, Wageningen, The Netherlands

    Annet Pauwelussen

Authors
  1. Kathleen Schwerdtner Máñez
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Annet Pauwelussen
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Kathleen Schwerdtner Máñez .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Ecology (ZMT), Leibniz Center for Tropical Marine, Germany

    Kathleen Schwerdtner Máñez

  2. Aalborg University, Denmark

    Bo Poulsen

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2016 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht

About this chapter

Cite this chapter

Máñez, K.S., Pauwelussen, A. (2016). Fish Is Women’s Business Too: Looking at Marine Resource Use Through a Gender Lens. In: Schwerdtner Máñez, K., Poulsen, B. (eds) Perspectives on Oceans Past. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-7496-3_11

Download citation

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation