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20 Industry Profile//

not represented when decisions are made. All of these factors and difficult to handle. With the sector’s strong emphasis on
are huge barriers to the equitable recognition of women. economic growth, leaders want a cast iron economic case
for gender equality, and often discount the more important
Yes, cultural factors often support these factors, more so as social justice and social benefits arguments.
men feel insecure when their work has become more tenuous
due to overfishing, environmental degradation, and intense And on a final note, congratulations on yet another
competition. Advocacy efforts do need to be culturally recognition of your contributions to agriculture and gender
fine tuned, and hence are best run by the people affected. equality - the Meryl Williams Fellowship programme, funded
However, we have also seen the power of external ideas to by the Australian Centre for International Agricultural
change the world for the better, and worse, and the flexibility Research (ACIAR). According to reports, the Fellowship is to
of culture as circumstances change. “support women in agricultural research for development
to enhance their leadership skills and increase their impact
One of the points you have mentioned several times in your through a combination of immersive learning, mentoring,
opinion pieces is how important it is that women come networking and professional development”. Could you
together to help other women to find their voices and to elaborate a little on this programme and what thematic
push the gender agenda front and centre. One of the ways areas do you hope to see will be the focus, specific to
is through websites such as Genderaquafish.org., which you fisheries and aquaculture?
established, and highlighting shortfalls such as the fact that
more global emphasis tends to be placed on putting gender MW The programme is for developing women leaders in
agricultural research, as part of ACIAR’s Gender Equity in
targets into work under SDG 14 (Life Below Water) and less Agricultural Research for Development (GEAReD) initiative.
on thinking that the gender-specific SDG5 will do much The programme involves training, mentoring, targeted
for fisheries. For readers who may be interested, could professional development activities and networking. It is a
you list some of the leading organisations and websites highly competitive programme.
which actively advocate for women in fisheries? Has there
been much progress in getting a critical mass of men to be In the first round, ACIAR selected 20 women from six countries
involved in advocacy for women? (Cambodia, Fiji, Indonesia, Lao PDR, Papua New Guinea and
Vietnam). Earlier this year, I had the immense pleasure to
MW On our website we have a wealth of information, including meet them and their mentors. They were awe-inspiring. Most
under the Discover GAF menu (https://www.genderaquafish. have already jumped personal and professional hurdles to
org/discover-gaf/). This menu provides an overview (https:// achieve what they have, and all are enthusiastic and realistic
www.genderequality.genderaquafish.org/), specific topic about the future they want to help create. Aquaculture and
pages, e.g., on women in aquaculture, gleaning and diving, fisheries leaders are eligible, but they have to meet the
a page that gives links to Networks and Resources. On the criteria and compete with the wider field of agriculture and
Events pages (https://www.genderaquafish.org/events-2/), forestry research. I would love to see more from our sector
we also have all the presentations, published papers and in the next round and our networks will encourage women
reports from our nine conferences going back to 1998. to apply.
On the Networks and Resource page, I would like to highlight
materials from: the Secretariat for the Pacific Community
(Women in Fisheries Information Bulletin), the International
Collective in Support of Fishworkers gender newsletter,
Yemaya, FAO’s gender materials on the Small Scale Fisheries
Voluntary Guidelines and the WSI materials, including videos.
Is a critical mass of men yet involved in advocacy for women?
The numbers are growing, but more are welcome. I often
sense a caution among senior men (and women) in speaking
out when they are not sure of their knowledge on gender
equality. This is one reason we need simple, clearer messages.
But we should not be naïve about a general reluctance by
leaders to rock the boat or challenge the current power Credit: Shibani Choudhury, ICSF
structures. Ridicule, or worse, backlash is always possible Lakshmi and other seaweed harvesters, Bharathi Nagar, Ramanathapuram,
Tamil Nadu, India

INFOFISH International 3/2020 ● www.infofish.org