44 DECEMBER 2015 • WORLD AQUACULTURE • WWW.WAS.ORG and fisheries value chains. The division of labor is not strongly marked, although women are important in the collection of aquatic organisms and in post-stocking activities such as fertilization and feeding. There is not much known regarding women’s decision-making power in relation to aquaculture. In general, women’s involvement in seed and feed production has not been documented. In ponds, men are more involved in pond preparation and stocking whereas, in cage culture, both men and women are involved in stocking. Various NGOs in Cambodia have promoted the importance of women’s involvement in aquaculture, such as empowering women to innovate in pond infrastructure, local seed production, on-farm feed production and management. Women are also involved in cross-border fish trade. With more than 50 percent of aquaculture work done by women and ponds managed by women resulting in greater production, it is imperative that more attention be given to women to further increase fish production. The role of women is also related to household food security. In general, gender inequity continues to exist in formal and informal employment sectors in Cambodia. Women’s work is more emphasized in household family labor, where there is no documentation of work efforts. Women are less likely to benefit from extension services and credit, limiting access to other opportunities to improve their skills in farming. In Thailand, the Gender Policy of the Department of Fisheries considers opportunities for women to participate at national and community-level activities, such as school fish ponds for students, fish cage culture and at the industry level in seafood processing plants. In 2008, the Department of Fisheries was awarded the most outstanding government agency in promoting gender equality projects. This occurred when the Director General (the highest position) of the Department was a woman. Fewer social pressures enable women to participate more in higher-level responsibilities and for their contributions to be recognized. Some examples of women’s participation in aquaculture production/grow-out stages include those in tilapia cage farming, blood cockle farming and oyster production. In the post-harvest sector, sale and marketing roles are mixed and it was unclear who controls income. In general, more intensive, exportoriented aquaculture sectors have greater gender inequality. Gender inequality also exists in access to government extension programs. For example, women fish farmers have less chance to participate in extension programs for various reasons, such as scheduling. Thus, instead of setting extension programs corresponding to official working hours, i.e. 8:30 am to 5 pm, extension programs should recognize how women fish famers spend their time working, both at farm and at home, and set the time and venue for extension programs that are more convenient for the participation of women fish farmers. For small-scale aquaculture in Thailand, household and farm are considered an inseparable single unit. Households and farms are interconnected in terms of finances, labor, space and time. When the household and aquaculture farm of a Thai fish farmer are considered as one, women in Thailand can be understood to play more important roles in aquaculture compared to the general trends previously reported. In Vietnam, women are involved in minor, less technically or physically demanding tasks at the farm level and in postharvest and support activities. There is a marginal presence of women in industrial farming activities such as shrimp farming. Women are also present at management and technical levels, including as owners in processing, feed manufacturing and laboratories. In seafood processing, 75-80 percent of workers are women. Regarding marketing and trading of aquaculture fishery products from farms to final markets, these are done equally by men and women, with women playing a major role in smallscale collection networks. However, stereotypes continue to exist regarding typically-held male and female positions. Key issues in women’s empowerment. Despite the existence of national policies and the intention to promote gender equality and women’s empowerment in aquaculture, several issues continue to be faced by advocates and women themselves. These include: • Lack of continuous action plans to make gender a crosscutting theme, despite having policies and budget allocations to support gender-based activities. • The impact of efforts by government departments and NGOs for greater gender integration in aquaculture at various levels and the community is undocumented or unknown. • Gender issues are not explicitly considered in various aquaculture and fisheries projects and thus there is a lack of gender disaggregated data from these projects. • Few studies document changes in women’s empowerment and participation in value chains that benefit women. Most studies focus on roles and labor division, but lack analysis such as causes, effects, benefits and quantitative information. • Lack of employment for women due to lack of knowledge and skills and access to information and knowledge, affecting available options. • Providers need to improve access to knowledge, information and credit to women farmers and workers. Traditional extension services may not be gender sensitive, thereby limiting access to opportunities to improve skills or enhance knowledge for increased and more sustainable production. • More opportunities for empowerment are needed in terms of ownership rights, negotiating skills, social and trade power relations, wage inequality and social protection. In general, although there have been some efforts to improve women’s status, women continue to suffer inequalities in terms of access to knowledge and opportunities, credit, division of labor, decision making, compensation and participation in the political and business arena. Emerging issues such as labor and migration add another level of challenge in ensuring gender equality and empowerment in government programs, policies and legal frameworks, private sector employment practices and worker well-being and civilsociety relationships and social dynamics. Gender in professional organizations. Some international and national organizations encourage gender integration in their projects, mainly agriculture and fisheries, but very few in aquaculture. Gender features in project documents and proposals but during actual project implementation, it is either limited or not featured or implemented at all. The majority of project implementers would say that they do not have any skill or idea of
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