In the seafood industry, well known as a “male dominated business”, one seafood worker out of two is a woman. In spite of their importance in number and major contribution, gender has not yet become a priority on the agenda of fisheries and aquaculture businesses. Based on this observation and in line with SDG 5, the International Organization for Women in the Seafood Industry seeks to bring the gender (in)equality discussion to seafood stakeholders by raising awareness of its importance.
The Gender on the Agenda exploratory survey (2017) is a WSI initiative that collected 700 responses of male and female professionals from all over the world and from different seafood activities sectors. By interrogating its own actors, the survey sought to get how they see gender issues in the industry and in their own companies. The survey allowed detecting barriers to gender equality and to identify a range of good practices that would support gender equality in this industry. The analysis was complemented with qualitative information about male and female respondents’ experiences in this matter.
Among main results, we found that despite their number, working and treatment conditions that women face in this industry are little questioned. Indeed, WSI survey data showed pervasive inequalities, discrimination at work, unfavourable working conditions to women, strong prejudices, unequal opportunities and many companies don’t even recognize gender inequality as an issue. The analysis showed that these barriers create a sort of vicious circle that reproduces gender inequalities in the seafood industry.