Constructing realities: Documenting women's fisheries in the Pacific Islands

Research on Pacific Islands has revealed the pivotal involvement of women in all aspects of fisheries, from harvesting through processing to marketing. Women are not 'just gleaning'; they are making essential contributions to local food security and in many cases, also enabling the commercial fishing activities of male family members. They are increasingly engaged in food and commercial fisheries that employ modern technologies as well as traditional skills and detailed marine ecological knowledge. Nevertheless, stereotypes persist that reflect androcentric Western paradigms and that allow women's work to be undervalued or ignored. This leads in turn to the perpetuation of policies and societal institutions that discriminate on the basis of gender and inhibit women's full participation in fisheries management and economic development.