Revisiting Women’s Roles in Small-scale Fisheries: Our Post-Conference Note from GAF9 Bangkok

_{by Adjie Dharmasatya}

Often an overlooked member of the small-scale fishing communities, women took the center stage at Gender in Aquaculture and Fisheries Conference (GAF9), where MDPI presented community-based research drawn from Indonesia’s coastal regions. The conference, hosted by the Asian Institute of Technology in Bangkok from October 1 to 3, 2025, served as an intellectual platform for on gender dynamics across fishery sectors.

MDPI contributed three peer-reviewed journal articles and one research poster, all grounded in field experience with coastal communities it has supported over the years. The studies span diverse locations: from South Sulawesi, to East Lombok, and finally to the Indonesia’s eastern archipelago of Maluku.

Studies examine women’s participation in family life, village economies and social institutions. MDPI’s participation was driven by several strategic goals: to broaden its international academic networks; to elevate community-based knowledge using low-bias social science approaches; to learn from best practices across different regions; and to open new opportunities for collaboration, including potential partnerships with donors in developing future knowledge products.

Alongside more than 10 non-MDPI Indonesian contingents, we brought a small-scale fisheries perspective to the forum, particularly on women’s roles in fishing operations, post-harvest activities, business institutions and fisheries resource management.

Gendered labour in tuna fisheries in Maluku

One of MDPI’s largest research projects in 2025 was presented in the session “Gender in Fisheries: Contextual Understanding of Gender-Based Labour Divisions among Tuna Fishing Communities in Maluku.” The study involved more than 480 husband-and-wife tuna-fishing households across seven villages in Buru and Central Maluku, examining how gender shapes labour divisions and decision-making in small-scale tuna fisheries.

“Gender-based decision-making is far more complex than we often assume,” said Maman, one of the researchers. He explained that socio-economic, socio-cultural and socio-ecological factors intertwine to shape power relations between men and women within fishing households.

Looking ahead, the research aims to measure women’s contributions beyond financial indicators. “Women’s roles outside the economic sphere are often invisible, yet they are crucial for the sustainability of tuna fisheries,” he said.

Revisiting Gender Roles in Fisheries: A Case Study of the Segare Harapan Jaya Cooperative

Another study, “Revisiting Gender Roles in Fisheries: A Case Study of the Segare Harapan Jaya Cooperative,” focused on a fishermen’s cooperative in East Lombok. While women have not yet entered managerial positions, their post-harvest contributions have proven significant.

Between 2021 and 2024, the cooperative’s annual turnover grew by an average of 32 per cent, largely due to the consistent management of post-harvest operations by fishermen’s wives. However, the absence of women in strategic leadership roles highlights persistent structural bias limiting their participation in decision-making.

Understanding the Meaning of Shifting Roles in SSF Business Institutions: Empowering Fishers’ Wives in Toro Village

In “Understanding the Meaning of Shifting Roles in Small-Scale Fisheries Business Institutions: Empowering Fishers’ Wives in Toro Village,” MDPI documented the experiences of fishers’ wives who have taken on new leadership roles in business institutions such as cooperatives.

The study traced how these women navigated role transitions, the challenges they faced and the impacts of empowerment on their economic capacity and social standing.

“It feels like I am living in a completely new world,” one of the study’s participants said. Economic empowerment opened access to networks, recognition and skills that were previously unimaginable. This remark then became central to the research narrative.

Yet the study also highlighted a less visible cost: women’s public roles added to their workload, as domestic responsibilities remained largely unchanged. The findings underscore the need to involve men in redistributing household labour if empowerment is to be truly transformative.

Behavior Change for Inclusive Blue Economy

In the session “Nurturing Behaviour Change for an Inclusive Blue Economy: A Case Study from Bone, Indonesia,” MDPI presented its work with Mama Tuna Mandiri (MATUMA), a women-led fish processing and marketing group in Toro.

Using the COM-B behavioural model, researchers mapped significant behavioural changes following intensive mentoring. Women assumed new roles as entrepreneurs and business managers, strengthening not only household incomes but also their self-worth and bargaining power in family decision-making.

One participant recounted how income from the enterprise enabled her daughter to attend a leading university in South Sulawesi. This proved that changes can give agency to women in having better negotiation power within their family.

Presentation from MDPI’s Board Member: Engendering Community-Based Marine Conservation Area in Banda Islands, Indonesia

MDPI board member and livelihoods and gender expert Ria Fitriana presented “Engendering Community-Based Marine Conservation Areas in the Banda Islands.” She noted that traditional conservation practices such as sasi have long governed marine resource use in the Banda Islands, but women’s roles in customary decision-making remain limited.

Sasi in Maluku is a traditional, customary system of local wisdom that prohibits harvesting natural resources from specific land or sea areas for a set period. This custom allows nature to regenerate, ensuring sustainability, and strengthening community bonds through shared management and ceremonial openings.

This exclusion is driven by a lack of female leadership in customary institutions, low confidence in public forums and limited access to marine governance knowledge. “Equitable and sustainable conservation is impossible without women’s involvement,” Fitriana said, calling for strengthened capacities, gender awareness and greater space for women’s participation in indigenous governance systems.

What We Learned

Across the research shared at GAF9, MDPI underscored that coastal women don’t sit on the sidelines, but rather act as key agents of change in small-scale fisheries. From Banda to Bone, and from Lombok to Maluku, women emerge as post-harvest managers, informal leaders, entrepreneurs and household decision-makers.

Yet challenges persist: double workloads, restricted access to public spaces and underrepresentation in strategic positions remain widespread. The findings suggest that empowerment must go beyond training and micro-finance to address deeper social values and structures.

Women’s roles in small-scale fisheries, the research concludes, are not complementary, but foundational to the social, economic and ecological sustainability of coastal communities.

What We Can Do

Women’s empowerment in fisheries must move beyond participation towards leadership. NGOs, research institutions, government agencies and the private sector must work together to create safe and supportive spaces for women to assume strategic roles in cooperatives, business groups and marine resource governance forums.

Equitable change, however, will not be achieved without men’s involvement. As long as domestic burdens fall disproportionately on women, equality will remain elusive. Household and economic accountability must be built collectively.

GAF9 served as a reminder that stories from the field are the building blocks of a more inclusive ocean future. By grounding knowledge in community experience, amplifying women’s voices and fostering shared awareness, stakeholders can move towards fisheries that are both just and sustainable.

“A fair ocean begins with empowered women.”