According to the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), around 45 million people are involved in the global fisheries industry, 5.4 million of which are women, accounting for around 12 percent of the workforce.
On an EU level, Eurostat and STECF put the percentage of women in fisheries related activity in 2012 at 12.6 percent. Seafood processing accounted for 65 percent, aquaculture for 32 percent and fishing for just 3 percent.
The percentage of total female employment varies from country to country, with France top of the list at 17.7 percent, followed by Poland at 14.4 percent, U.K. at 14.6 percent, Greece at 14.4 percent and Spain at 13.6 percent. Apart from Latvia at 12 percent, women in other EU countries make up less than 10 percent of the workforce in the fisheries and aquaculture sector. However, information is not available for all member states as some currently neither collect nor report accurate gender-based statistics.
Many women have traditionally worked in small family fishing or seafood businesses or supported their male relatives by undertaking unpaid tasks, and have consequently received no recognition nor access to state social benefits. To improve this situation, a recent EU Directive 2010/41/EU recognized the contribution of life partners put the onus on member states to implement relevant legislation by August 2013.
France was already ahead of the game on this and since 2008 had obliged all assisting spouses and life partners to opt for recognition either as an associate, worker or assisting spouse. So far 1,143 women have opted for assisting spouse status, which gives them legal recognition and rights.
Dr. Katia Frangoudes from the University of Brest, an expert on gender issues in fisheries, says that despite some small progress, there was still no mention of the word “women” in the EU Common Fisheries Policy reform Green Paper. “AKTEA, the women in fisheries network has campaigned hard for integration of women’s equality in all EU fisheries policies, but there is still a long way to go,” she said.
A recent hearing by the EU Committees on Fisheries and Women’s Rights and Gender Equality entitled “Developing the Role of Women in European Fisheries and Aquaculture,” heard from Lowri Evans, director general for Maritime Affairs and Fisheries at the European Commission. She explained that the commission acknowledges that women in fisheries already play an important role but they believe there is potential for them to do more.
“The proposal for the new European Maritime and Fisheries Fund (EMFF) provides explicit recognition of women working in fisheries communities, and the aim is to facilitate and encourage member states to pay particular attention to their untapped potential. We think that more investment here makes economic sense,” she said.
Evans explained that as well as women “hidden” in family businesses, there are also many skilled women working for example as net menders and shellfish gatherers, who often work in precarious conditions, and women carrying out low-grade, unskilled tasks with limited access to decision-making.
“What official figures do not show is the vital contribution women bring to the socio-economic fabric of local fishing communities,” she stated.
The EMFF will offer women opportunities to undertake training and to build networks to exchange ideas, experiences and good practices. It will also support land based activity such as processing and marketing, where women already play a major role, in a measure designed to help add value to the catch.
The fund explicitly recognizes fisherwomen, spouses and partners of self-employed fishermen, who can all directly benefit from measures to improve e.g. business management or accounting skills, in order to develop their businesses to make them more profitable.
However, Katia Frangoudes argues that whilst this sounds good in theory, the EU Commission will need to work hard to ensure member states to put it into practice.
Earlier this month, the EU Fisheries Commissioner Maria Damanaki tweeted “#SmallScaleFisheries is not only an economic activity but a way of life. Read more about our support on my blog http://blogs.ec.europa.eu/damanaki/our-support-to-small-scale-local-fisheries/ .”
AKTEA President Marja Bekendam was saddened to find that the blog made no mention of women, and was moved to reply that “#SmallScaleFisheries is family based, run by men and women: fisherwomen and collaborative spouses!”
“I hope that our commissioner and her staff realise that women should be mentioned every time to make society aware of the importance of women’s contributions to fisheries, and I have urged my members to write to Ms. Damanaki to reinforce this,” she said.
