A Gendered Analysis of Fisherfolk’s Livelihood Adaptation and Coping Responses in the Face of a Seasonal Fishing Ban in Tamil Nadu & Puducherry, India

Abstract

Summary. -This study investigates how people respond to economic stresses incurred as a result of natural resource regulations. Previous research has demonstrated that in some cases, men and women adapt differently to livelihood stresses. We argue that looking only at an individual's sex is insufficient for understanding why they adapt the way they do. Instead, using the framework of intersectionality, we examine individuals' adaptation strategies and coping responses influenced not only by their sex but also their power and class. Using the case of a closed fishing season in Tamil Nadu and Puducherry, India we employ interviews, seasonal activities calendars, and surveys to identify key variables that influence an individual's likelihood of employing reactive strategies that may threaten their longer term livelihood sustainability. We show that if we categorize individuals only by sex, then women are more likely to resort to reactive coping than men. However, this sex divide in reactive coping is driven by particular subsets of people who also lack power and/or capital. Furthermore, we find that power and class lead to different outcomes for men and women, with networked power most helpful to women above a certain financial threshold. This study highlights the necessity of examining gender and livelihood adaptations beyond the male versus female dichotomy: considering intersecting and locally relevant measures of power, class, and sex are pivotal in understanding why people adapt and cope the way they do. This understanding of adaptation options may also have implications for resource management decisions that do not force individuals to choose between long-term livelihood resilience and response to immediate stresses.

A Rising Tide Does Not Lift All Boats: Intersectional Analysis Reveals Inequitable Impacts of the Seafood Trade in Fishing Communities

“…Researchers have increasingly applied intersectionality within the context of natural resources, highlighting the role of natural resource systems in producing and maintaining social differences and power hierarchies (Nightingale, 2006;Valentine, 2007). Recent studies have examined how gender interacts with ethnicity (Lau and Scales, 2016), class (Colwell et al, 2017), individual decision-making (Kusakabe and Sereyvath, 2014), religious denomination and place of birth (Rohe et al, 2018), and nationality (Yingst and Skaptadóttir, 2018) to shape fishers' access to and control of marine resources. In this paper, I examine how the harms and benefits of the seafood trade are distributed among fishers, focusing on gender as it intersects with nationality and marital status, in the context of the sea cucumber trade in Palau.…”

“…Moreover, scholars and policymakers have tended to treat fishing communities as homogenous groups, assuming that policies will affect all fishing community members equally (Agrawal et al, 1997;Gibson, 1999, 2001;Allison and Ellis, 2001). But we know that fishing communities are diverse across many dimensions, including gender (Harper et al, 2020), ethnicity (Lau and Scales, 2016), power and class (Colwell et al, 2017), religious denomination and place of birth (Rohe et al, 2018), and nationality (Yingst and Skaptadóttir, 2018), as well as other identity markers, which intersect with one another (Hooks, 1984;Collins, 1986;Crenshaw, 1989Crenshaw, , 1991. Fishers' identities shape their access to marine resources and their interactions with globalized seafood markets (Porter et al, 2008;Fabinyi et al, 2018;O'Neill et al, 2018).…”

A gendered perspective on the fish value chain, livelihood patterns and coping strategies under climate change - insights from Malawi’s small-scale fisheries

“…Women also used group coping strategies like Village Saving Loans (VSLs). Coping with changes as a group is common for women [29] since it improves their bargaining power [3]. Having many coping strategies and flexibility between which to switch suggest opportunistic behaviour, which could lead to unsustainable natural resources use [39].…”

“…This vulnerability is socially produced and influenced by many factors including poverty, culture, political processes, place and time [2]. Exposure and sensitivity to such effects vary between men and women [3], and rural women suffer most because their livelihoods depend directly on ecosystems services [4]. One such ecosystem service is Malawi fisheries, where little is known about how men and women are affected by climate-induced vulnerabilities.…”

“…Fluctuating fish catches affect livelihoods for women and men [3]. Therefore, if sustainable resource management and community well-being are to be maintained, men and women must be mobilized together.…”