ABSTRACT
The maritime-fishing sector, in certain specially feminized professions, involves peculiarities of the working and social conditions. Women are victims of labor segregation in the fishing and aquaculture sector maintained by the traditional gender roles that have lasted to this day. This strong horizontal segregation in the labor market in the fishing sector leads to scarce presence of women. This situation is even worse as for fishing activity on board, while, on the contrary, there is a high prevalence of women in activities such as the processing industry and retail trade. In the fishing and aquaculture sector there is also a vertical segregation, which has traditionally resulted in fewer opportunities for women and bars them from advancement in the profession. The imbalance of power between the sexes is also to be observed in the participation of both in decision-making processes, as well as in occupying management positions within the sector and their organizations. Indeed, the European Parliament has drawn attention to the economic discrimination suffered by women at sea, recognizing that they receive less compensation than men for the development of the same tasks. In this sense, different organisms of the European Union have requested the regulation of measures that protect these workers giving them the visibility that, in reality, they have always had as a fundamental part of the family economies in certain regions, among which the Northwest of Spain stands out. It is therefore imperative to introduce the gender perspective in the legal work at sea regime.