Policy briefing released

It’s international women’s day and we’re launching our new ‘Voices from the industry’ policy briefing.

We’ve spent the last two years learning about women’s experiences in the UK fishing sector. In one meeting, we were joined by women from across the industry who shared perspectives which were moving, insightful and inspirational, and we’ve distilled some of the themes arising from that session into a new policy document.

The briefing outlines recurring themes around women’s important roles in the UK fisher sector and discusses some of the issues they commonly experience. These include cultural and traditional prejudices, recruitment challenges and an undervaluation of women’s contributions.

A spread from the Voices from the industry policy briefing.

The document calls for efforts to improve the position and recognition of women’s work and suggests that government, industry and non-government bodies should take the lead in these efforts – at a time when domestic fishing policies are being reconsidered.

The group behind the ‘Voices from the industry’ briefing have also created a network for women in fisheries to connect, share experiences and discuss plans for the future. You can read more about the network here or use the link below to join the group.

We’d like to thank everyone involved in creating the briefing and the network, which we hope will be valuable resources for progressing conversations around women’s roles in the fishing industry.

Now that the data collection phase of this project has ended, we’re busy analysing our findings and will have more updates to share soon.