Millions of women working in the fishing industry are left behind, even as new technologies are developed to counteract the effects of climate change and economic pressures.

A new study led by the University of East Anglia (UEA) looks specifically at post-harvest fisheries and aquaculture, where women make up 50% of the total workforce. Despite their significant contribution, women often remain invisible, are unpaid or underpaid, and their work is seen as an extension of domestic chores.

The findings of the report “A systematic review of the impacts of post-harvest aquatic food processing technology on gender equality and social justice” were published today in Natural food.

Fisheries and aquaculture are a vital source of livelihoods and food for many of the world’s poorest, supporting around 67 million people directly and around 492 million people indirectly worldwide. Fisheries and aquaculture provide around 17% of animal protein for human consumption, yet more than a third of global fisheries and aquaculture yields are lost or wasted.

Prof Nitya Rao, Professor of Gender & Development at UEA and Director of the Norwich Institute for Sustainable Development, is the lead author. She said: “Given the large number of people, particularly women, engaged in post-harvest activities around the world, this research aims to better understand how processing technology and technical change have affected those working in this sector and how labour, resources, power and decision-making are influenced and changed in this process.”

“In the context of climate change and other economic pressures, we are witnessing rapid development of post-harvest technologies to increase productivity and efficiency, reduce losses and waste, and ensure quality. However, if we do not address the social justice aspects of these changes, there is a risk that they will exacerbate existing and persistent inequalities.”

Women are disadvantaged in both traditional and modern technologies, especially in terms of control over resources. Women often lack access to social benefits such as minimum wage, health insurance, housing and transportation because they are concentrated at the lower levels of the labor hierarchy.

As companies expand and adopt more capital-intensive technologies, women often report less agency and less equal opportunities due to limited resources, individual characteristics such as education, societal norms and care responsibilities.

In the larger factories where advanced technologies are used, women and migrant workers tend to have lower status; they often work in temporary, lower-paid jobs that are culturally stereotyped as ‘women’s work’; they experience gender pay gaps, lack access to workers’ rights and leadership positions, and face occupational health risks. The division of labour is strong and reinforced by social norms.

While power and control over resources are more unequally distributed in factories, they are not necessarily equally distributed in traditional contexts either, although they offer more flexibility. These technologies are sometimes less productive but usually allow women more agency. Here, there is a trade-off between increased productivity, income and gender equality, which is reflected in women’s control over resources and agency.

Dr Julie Bremner, from the UK Centre for Environmental, Fisheries and Aquaculture Sciences and co-author of the paper, said: “Food from the sea is an important part of our global food system, particularly for seafood-dependent countries such as the major ocean states, and demand for seafood products is expected to increase. The sustainability of these foods depends not only on their environmental and economic footprint, but also their social footprint.

“Our review shows that there is still a long way to go in terms of the equity component, but there are opportunities just waiting to be exploited.”

The review contains several recommendations for policy, research and practice:

• Fisheries policy must focus on the entire aquatic food system, going beyond fishing and aquaculture to include post-harvest processing, storage and consumption.
• More rigorous and comparative research is needed to examine the impacts of a range of technologies on different population groups, including women and men, young and old, migrants and non-migrants, and to formally consider intersectionality.
• When developing and implementing improved technologies, diverse opinions, particularly those of women and migrant workers, should be taken into account in policy-making and investment decisions on post-harvest processes at local, national and global levels.

The research team, which also included colleagues from UEA and the Norwich Institute for Sustainable Development, reviewed 42 studies covering 55 sites in India, Bangladesh, Cambodia, the Philippines, Japan, Canada, the USA, Mexico, Brazil, Norway, Ghana, Nigeria, Tanzania and Zambia.