FAO.org

Policy-makers worldwide have traditionally assumed that fisheries are a male domain. The policy agenda has for decades given priority to the production sphere,  where men generally predominate, and has largely neglected processing and  marketing activities, where women often play a key role. Recent sex-disaggregated  data (from the World Bank, FAO and WorldFish Center) represent an initial, positive  step in providing the quantitative evidence needed to convince policy-makers of  the impo rtance of women in the sector. The data indicate that women represent  47 percent of the 120 million people engaged in capture fisheries. Worldwide,  they are even more important in inland capture fisheries including post-harvest  activities, where there are more women (33 million) than men (28 million).  Employed mainly in processing and marketing, women considerably outnumber  men in large-scale marine fisheries (66 percent) and small-scale inland fisheries (54  percent), and also repres ent significant shares of labour in small-scale marine and  large-scale inland fisheries (at 36 and 28 percent, respectively).