Are you a fisher or mussel collector?: Examining gendered identity markers in the small-scale fishing industry

Abstract

abstract The marginalisation of small-scale fisheries is a global phenomenon. The transformative agenda of small-scale fishing policies in South Africa (SA) since the late 1990s as a response is apparent in literature (Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, 2012). Poor black African women,1 who are the focus of this study, form part of this economically lower class of the fishing industry. The 2012 small-scale fishing policy recognises women’s needs, previously overlooked in the small-scale fisheries. However, these policy initiatives do not effectively interrogate gender-specific socio-economic dynamics. Women, especially from poor black African coastal communities of SA, continue to face gender-specific challenges that deny them equality of access to marine resources and the benefits therein. Gender inequalities manifest themselves in words that are used to refer to women involved in small-scale fisheries. These include ‘mussel collectors’, ‘fish traders’ and ‘processors’ as identity markers of their involvement, which refer to a fishing activity next to the shore, complementary to men’s, and analysed in the context of household livelihood strategy. Such words stereotype offshore fishing as essentially a male profession. Therefore, poor women are not only part of the lower class of the fishing industry, they also face gender-specific challenges within the already diverse fishing industry. The intersectionality of gender and class in this study thus highlights economic and sociocultural dynamics that produce these identity markers and perpetuate inequalities in terms of knowledge, access, economic status, power relations and human interactions within the small-scale fishing industry. On the basis of literature and unstructured interviews with women in some regions in KwaZulu-Natal, this focus piece underscores the role of words in isolating women’s participation in the sector, producing gender-specific categories. Such categories become identity markers that bring about structural economic challenges for women within the fishing sector.