USING INTERSECTIONALITY TO ADDRESS WOMEN’S PROBLEMS IN FISHERIES
18 October | Bangkok: Women in fishing communities all over the world face similar problems and over 120 delegates will gather today at a special workshop to collectively try to address them.
The special workshop, ‘Using intersectionality in research on gender in aquaculture and fisheries’, is part of ‘Expanding the Horizons’, the 7th Gender in Aquaculture and Fisheries conference in Bangkok on 18-21 October 2018.
The workshop is being run by Marilyn Porter, Professor Emerita, Memorial University, Canada, and Kyoko Kusakabe, Associate Professor of Gender and Development Studies, Asian Institute of Technology, Thailand.
Marilyn Porter: “Women face a diverse range of challenges. These include a rigid sexual division of labor that confines women to the least profitable and rewarding parts of the fishing industry, violence against women in various forms, environmental hazards, unsafe work practices and the interconnectedness (intersectionality) of gender discrimination in all parts of the fishery and all parts of fishing communities.”
“The intersectionality approach allows us to examine how different aspects of a person’s or groups’ identities “intersect” with each other, changing the overall experience in complex ways. For example, a woman fisher in India will have a different experience than a male fisher or a Canadian woman fisher although they are all fishers.
“Intersectionality allows us to unpick the differences in experiences and identities as well as, more importantly, see how these differences interact to affect the overall experience of both individuals and groups. In turn this leads to a more sophisticated analysis and better targeted policy interventions.
“Coming together at events like GAF7 allows researchers from very different contexts to share their experiences and findings. This enables all researchers to leave the conference with ideas on how their own research connects with that of other researchers in different parts of the world and kinds of fishery and aquaculture experiences,” she said.
The workshop takes place on Thursday 18 October at 13:30-15:00 in the Asian Institute of Technology Conference Center auditorium. All media are welcome to attend.
Media contact: Kate Bevitt, bevitt.k@gmail.com