In the small-scale fisheries sector of most Third World Countries, including Malaysia, the economic participation of women is grossly underestimated, their contributions towards the socio-economic well-being of their families are often taken for granted, and their economic potentials not fully utilized. Moreover, there remains a strong sexual division of labour where the men fish while the women look after the households. Although women in most fishing communities do not go out to the seas to fish, their contribution after the fishing operation itself cannot be underestimated. Besides helping out in post fishing activities like unloading, sorting, net drying, net repairing etc., the women are also responsible for the distribution and marketing of the catch. Without the indispensable labour provided by their womenfolk, the fishermen would have to be saddled with more work than they can handle. Unfortunately, such useful contributions by women in fish production and related activities are usually not recognized as being economically productive.
In addition to assisting the men after the fishing operations, women in small-scale fishing communities also perform varied income-earning activities to supplement the household incomes. The three main income sources where women play a major role are: (1) income earned through wage employment as factory workers, farm labourers etc.; (2) income earned through sales of fisheries products, agricultural produce and local handicrafts; and (3) income earned through sales of services as in fish distribution and marketing and tourism-related activities. Beside cash incomes, another livelihood source where women contribute significantly is from goods produced and services provided for the family's own needs or sustenance. On the East Coast of Peninsular Malaysia, women's contribution to the family's sustenance becomes more apparent during the monsoon seasons when the men are not able to fish because of bad weather and rough seas conditions. In fact, during lean fishing seasons when cash is short it is the women who contribute immensely to make both ends meet. To help sustain the needs of their families during the monsoon period, women are responsible for seeking not only supplementary incomes but also food for household consumption or sources of credit for the family subsistence.
Currently, the economic activities undertaken by women in small-scale fishing communities are generally confined within the informal sector: seasonal, temporary, home-based and an extension of their household tasks. Given the low educational attainment and lack of skills of the majority of women in small-scale fisheries, one may argue that the non-monetized informal sector is perhaps the best avenue to promote women's productive activities. However, this does not necessarily mean that in the future the women's economic potentials could and should not be extended to the more market-oriented sector. In reviewing women's productive activities in the small-scale fisheries sector, the notion that women are mere secondary earners should be changed. Our discussions earlier had shown that the “wives and daughters” of fishermen not only perform tasks crucial to the economic and sound survival of male-headed fishing households but are also major economic contributors in their own right, especially during lean fishing seasons.
The following are broad recommendations necessary for enhancing women's economic participation in the small-scale fisheries sector:
Uplifting level of education and skill of women by drawing them into rural learning institutions such as elementary schooling, adult literacy classes, vocational training and fisheries and agricultural extension training;
providing training for women in the basics of handling, preservation and processing of fisha and fisheries products;
providing extension services for guiding and supervising few selected women leaders or “link workers” from fishing villages. These workers are expected to function as a “link” between women in the fishing communities and the relevant government agencies;
creating employment opportunities for women by setting up small home-based industries which use local raw materials available; based on traditional craftmanship; require small investment; employ simple hand-operated technology; and manufacture products that are easily marketable. Logical possibilities include processed fisheries and agricultural products, local handicrafts, poultry products etc. The products should be marketed through intermediaries, localshops, or cooperatives;
setting up central workplace in fishing villages where most government and private social programmes aimed at raising the level of living of women can be conveniently conducted. The programmes to be conducted in these workplaces should concentrate on not only encouraging greater productivity in the home through training in child care and nutrition, cooking, sewing, vegetable gardening, poultry rearing but also promoting small cottage industries such as batik-making, weaving, basket making, silvermaking, tailoring and embroidery. Locating the economic activities of women in a central workplace has several economic and social advantages which include, among others: enjoys an economy of scale and division of labour that are impossible to achieve in a dispersed production system; facilitates efficient marketing and distribution of the products; enables closer supervision of workers; better control over the quality of goods; provide better working conditions; facilitates transfer of technology and investment in capital equipment; facilitates dissemination of knowledge and skills; and socially, it brings women out of the drudgeries of their home environments into social interaction with one another (Dixon, 1978);
initiating special programmes for women to promote cooperative forms of economic organization such as seafood processing cooperatives, credit and marketing societies and producers' associations;
promoting family development and planning information and services to reduce family size in the context of enhancing economic role of women;
developing and improving basic household amenities such as water and electricity that would help to reduce the work load of currently burdensome and time-consuming household tasks such as fuel and water collection, food preparation etc;
providing facilities like creche, kindergartens, childcare center etc. where women can leave their young children while they are out working;
promoting national campaigns to change prevailing social traditions, cultural constraints and conservative attitudes that are discriminatory against women and thus limit their opportunities and access to economic resources and activities; and
where women must work for wage employment, ensuring minimum wage legislation and social security measures and creating enforcement machinery to ensure successful implementation of the legislation and measures.
It is clear from the above that the issue of promoting income-earning or productive activities for women in small-scale fishing communities goes beyond fisheries development planning alone. Adequate attention and commitment should also be extended into the other fundamental forces influencing social barriers and perceptions, cultural values and sexual inequalities. Moreover, programmes aimed at enhancing the economic roles of women cannot be carried out in isolation but have to be integrated into other activities which come under the general rubric of rural development. Finally, it can be argued, that the success of enhancing women's economic participation in the small-scale fisheries sector depends very much on the political will and conviction of the planners and policy-makers. Without such will and conviction, the concern to enhance women's economic participation and to integrate women into development will remain only as a widely-discussed academic issue.
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