Thanks for your answer, Ehsan. This idea is from Ellen Woortmann (1992) and recited by Motta-Maues (1999).

Below you may see the quote in Englisn and then in the original form in Portuguese:

"In general, the studies of "fishing" communities tend to privilege male social actors, and the point of view of man. The speech of the researcher as a public discourse that replicates these communities whose identity is built on fishing activity

conceived as male. Women's activities is then relegated to silence, even when they contribute substantially to the livelihoods community. This means that it is ignored an important part of economic activities of those communities, i.e., agriculture and gathering. It is also ignored the social agents of these activities - the female half of communities. It also means that sets aside a portion of the environment on which these groups act. Privileging the sea, it is unknown land" (Woortmann 1992: 31).

"De uma maneira geral, os estudos de comunidades “pesqueiras” tendem a privilegiar os atores sociais masculinos, e o ponto de vista do homem. O discurso do pesquisador como que replica o discurso público dessas comunidades, cuja identidade se constrói sobre a atividade da pesca, concebida como masculina. Relega-se, assim, ao silêncio, as atividades femininas, mesmo quando estas contribuem substancialmente para a subsistência da comunidade. Isto significa que se ignora uma parte importante das atividades econômicas daquelas comunidades, isto é, a agricultura e a coleta. Ignora-se também os agentes sociais dessas atividades – a metade feminina das comunidades. E significa também que se deixa de lado uma parte do ambiente sobre o qual atuam esses grupos. Privilegiando o mar, desconhece-se a terra" (Woortmann 1992: 31).

But it is interesting to observe that even in her critical comment, Woortmann (1992) still localizes women on the land and not at the sea....

Here in South Africa I know that certainly within the last few hundred years, before and after colonialism, probably earlier too, fishing was apparently as much a woman's activity as a man's. Pictures drawn by explorers show both men and women carrying what seem to be fishing rods, and modern Khoisan woman descendants tell stories of the old days when their grandmothers and mothers caught fish in the lakes and camped down on the beach with the whole family to catch fish every few months. This was while it was possible for them to easily access the coast and camp is they wished! Nowadays access is not so easy but they nevertheless fish whenever and wherever possible, women and men.

I think you might find it interesting to see fishing as an industry with a number of processes where gender may play important roles in particular parts of the process. In the Nordic context, men historically did the actual fishing, while women were engaged in the processing of the fish, cleaning, drying etc. Then men took over again if the fish were to be sold for export. Otherwise women sold it at local markets. This is not static and in modern industrial fishing where much of the work is done on-broad large fishing boats the work is automated and probaly degenderised. In Mumbai, men fish but women take over all other parts of the process from cleaning to the market. I would suggest that you think about what you really want to know about the fishing industry. Depending on place and time you will find that both men and women are active in the industry, but if you only look at fishing you will probably find mostly men and miss hearing the voices of those performing at least 50% of the work.

When I lived in Playa de Panama, Costa Rica, in the early 1980s, there were 3 female heads of households who procured a small boat and earned their money fishing. Women were not welcome on the larger fishing boats where the crew was exclusively male. Women sold their catch around town, and managed to survive through their fishing activities. Now, Playa de Panama, I have heard, is a major tourist center.

Thanks Yvette, Linda and Tamar. Your considerations and suggestions have been helping me to think and adjust my research goals.

From experience going out to sea as a boy with a fisher friend in Prince Edward Island it was clear at the time that fishing was a male exploit. But this has changed. While men still dominate after my friend retired one of his daughters got her own boat and took up the nets. In Canada there is nothing socially to stop or hinder any woman who has the interest, strength and stamina to live the life of a fisher. The language in Canada actually changed to reflect this change. As a boy the word was fisherman but now it is fisher, which is gender neutral.

Thanks a lot for you contribution, Jeffrey. Do you have any texts or literature suggestions that exemplify this situation and changes (in language) in Canada? 

I will look into it!

I found the following and hope it will help. At least it should give you a start. The Canadian Statistics department should have the most up to date figures should yoiu need them.

A usefull bibliography from St.FofX University can be found at: http://sites.stfx.ca/womens_and_gender_studies/fishing

There is also an article by Kleiber et al. from Vancouver :http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/faf.12075/abstract

For recreational fishers: http://www.statcan.gc.ca/pub/16-002-x/2008002/article/10622-eng.htm

Historical stats: see table: Table N49-58 - Market value of fisheries products, by major process forms, Canada, 1870 to 1975  http://www.statcan.gc.ca/pub/11-516-x/sectionn/4057755-eng.htm

Many thanks for your help and suggestions, Jeffrey. I´ll look each one of your suggestions. Thanx a lot!

In my country Galicia ( NW Spain) there are some papers that explain the important role of women in management of local fisheries:

“Marisquadoras of the Shellfish Revolution:The Rise of Women in Co-management on Illa de Arousa, Galicia” http://dlc.dlib.indiana.edu/dlc/handle/10535/3487

“From open access to co-governance and conservation: The case of women shellfish collectors in Galicia (Spain)”

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0308597X07001145

Let me point out that in your country there are several important and organized groups of “Marinheiros” e “marisqueiras”. Movimento Pastoral Nacional dos Pescadores, etc.

Also check information in Fundaçao Joaquim Nabuco, in Recife. I visited them the last year, to present my work in the IV Seminário Pesca Artesanal e Sustentabilidade Socioambiental

All the best

Hi Maria,

Is this a research paper or you just want to elaborate a fact?

Well, I should say that it depends on your definition of fishing whether as a hobby, sport or as a job; and whether it includes the role of a manager of a fishery or not.

In addition, the cultural and economic aspects should be taken into resolution.

For instance, I should agree that generally fishing and angling as a hobby are regarded as masculine hobbies. However, in classic form of fishing due to cheaper labor force many women work in that industry in East Asia,

In addition, fishing industry has been modernized, and huge ships and their crew trawl with sophisticated tools. Hence, women can work as part of the crew or in the office. Yet again, Nordic and East Asian countries are good example of such.

Many thanks, Alireza Salehi Nejad, for your answer and comments. 

Definetely the debates I have been participating here have helped me a lot in defining the contextualization and "crop" of my research. This is a research for my doctoral thesis. And certainly one of the first things I needed to do was to define what I meant by "female performance in fishing". I have been reading different things and the texts have also helped me a lot to reorganize my ideas. 

Surely women have been participating in fishing activities in different places and in different ways. I have read about "marisqueiras" and "catadeiras" (seafood fisherwoman), or about "salgadeiras" (salting women) and saleswoman, but I was interested in researching the discourses and narratives about women who go to the sea and fish there. 

The best text I found discussing these different places and values attributed (to these places) was written by Ellen F. Woortmann (1991) named "Da complementaridade à dependência: a mulher e o ambiente em comunidades “pesqueiras” do Nordeste". In this text, she explains a basic and usual territorial difference, man act at the sea and woman act in land. And this different territoral location are related to cultural beliefs and sometimes cultural characteristics attributed to men and to women, in which the second ones are considered fragile, dependent, limited an so on. 

Since I believe there are mutiple ways of being man and woman and that these ways are always social and historical ways of being I decided to analyse the women who decided to travel and sail through male territories. 

Of course this is not so simple, there are many questions, prejudices, social expectations and all these things sometimes emerge on the narrative I listen to. 

But basically this is the point. 

I´ve been far away because I needed to work hard on my thesis and I still have many things to do, read and change. But as soon as I have more news, I will share here. 

Best wishes!