From the Editor
Dear friends,
Greetings from ICSF!
This issue has articles from Pakistan, France, Chile and Thailand. The article from Pakistan describes the manner in which women’s work in the fisheries sector has gradually reduced over time as a result of various developmentsa familiar pattern in many parts of the world. Interestingly, the author highlights the fact that women of fishing communites have traditionally enjoyed greater freedom and status than have women of agrarian communities. This seems to be the reality in many parts of the world, and is a certainly an issue worth exploring more.
The write-up from France describes vividly the way in which the work of women of fishing households is trivialized, and they are made the butt of jokes, in an effort to maintain class distinctions. The report from Chile highlights problems of workers in salmon processing plants in Chile.
And finally, we carry a report of a workshop, held in Thailand, which brought together fishworker organizations and NGOs from the Asian region. Participants met to discuss the impact of globalization processes on their lives and fisheries, and, in this context, to evolve strategies on ways to protect their life and livelihood interests. The extent to which the meeting could take into account the concerns of women fishworkers is discussed.
In this issue of Yemaya we have compiled, for the first time, information on women in the fisheries sector available at ICSF’s Documentation Centre (DC). Gender and fisheries is one of the priority themes in DC and, in this issue, we discuss some of the information available with us, and describe how it can be searched and accessed over the net.
A web search on the theme of women in fisheries took us to some interesting websites and we carry information from these. Not surprisingly, it was more difficult to come by information on women in fisheries in countries of the South, even though women are known to play vital roles in the fisheries of these countries. We hope to continue compiling information of relevant websites in future issues of Yemaya. In case you know of websites and web resources dealing with women and fisheries, do let us know.
The next issue of Yemaya will be brought out in July 2002 and we request you to send us your write-ups and views by 15 May 2002. Yemaya is to enter the double digits in June,and we would like to seek your feedback on its relevance for your work, if any.
