Defiant Women of the Sea: Challenging the Gendering of the Spanish Fishery Sector

Women's role in fisheries has generally been underrecognized, both in science and in society. Engaging with anthropological and interdisciplinary literature on women in fisheries, as well as discussions about gender perspectives in studies of political economy, this article explores how women in the Spanish fishery sector are organizing and strategizing to rectify their historically marginalized position and improve their social and economic rights. Drawing on fieldwork with the Spanish National Association for Women in Fisheries and in fishing communities in northwestern/northern Spain, I explore how the historical insertion of women into fisheries has relegated them to an economically, socially, politically, and symbolically inferior subject position. Furthermore, I examine how this historical marginalization is reproduced, and contested, in a context where public authorities are recognizing and supporting fisherwomen's organizations. The article foregrounds the composite challenges that women face as they endeavor to strengthen and legitimate themselves as fishery workers and how state institutions and legislation at times pose further barriers to their struggles. The analysis thus illuminates how state support is not a panacea for empowering female fishers but rather only a first step toward addressing the compound obstacles to gender equality in the sector.