Fishing communities are faced with massive aquatic ecosystem degradation caused largely by unsustainable fishing, and associated socio-economic challenges. In this context, aquaculture has given mixed signals with high economic growth rates but some unsustainable consequences. This raises the question about women’s contribution in fisheries and aquaculture towards sustainability and restoration of lost productivity. Empirical evidence of women’s roles in all continents shows patterns of unrecognized, unpaid labour that clouds the economic signals of increasing resource rarefaction. Historically, women have been associated with resource conservation embedded in traditional belief systems, which have been progressively eroded. Where social recognition is achieved through e.g. enforcement of modern equal opportunity legislation—especially when combined with access to formal education and training—women regain capabilities for enhanced social organization and leadership. This can lead to significant contributions to restoration of natural resources. The paper proposes a participatory method to render women’s role visible and enable development of socio-economic organization supportive of social justice and sustainable resource use. The case studies are from Canary Islands in Spain, Brittany region of France, Southern Nigeria, Amazonian and South Eastern Brazil, Mexico, Newfoundland and Labrador, Pacific Islands, coastal Asia and the Mekong Region.