The 13th Asian Fisheries and Aquaculture Forum (13AFAF) was a watershed for how gender was included in Asian Fisheries Society’s triennial Forums. Gender topics were in the Plenary, as a topic session and in the Forum’s graphic elements. The gender theme has come a long way in Asian Fisheries Society and can still go much further. Three messages to take home: why and how research is practices is critical to gender; need to focus more on women’s agency rather than their victimhood and marginality; and gender relations are dynamic under changes in resources and even new technologies.

The assumption that the tuna industry is dominated by men, or that only men fish, is not only wrong, but also damaging. As women make up half of the population, it is important to know if the development of fishing industries benefits both women and men. To do that, a first step is making women visible through gender-disaggregated data to have a better picture of how women are impacted in their societies.