Saving Seafood

Submissions open for WSI’s second “Women in Seafood” video contest

March 22, 2019 — Women at work in the seafood industry is the focus of an international video competition that’s now open for entries. The scope includes all segments of the industry – fishing on boats, fish farming, processing, selling, managing, research, monitoring, teaching, and any related services.

It’s the second round for the contest that was launched last year by the Paris-based group Women in the Seafood Industry.

“Women are very numerous in the industry, but not very visible,” said Marie Christine Monfort, WSI president, and co-founder.

Read the full story at National Fisherman

Seafood sector urged to commit to gender equality

March 8, 2019 — A group of leading women from the seafood sector, including prominent figures in aquaculture, have called on more seafood businesses to actively promote gender equality.

An open letter, to mark International Women’s Day, was penned by nine women engaged in seafood communities and promoting gender equality: Marie Christine Monfort, president and founder of the International Association for Women in the Seafood Industry (WSI); Natalia Briceno-Lagos, project manager at WSI; Meryl Williams, chair of the gender in aquaculture and fisheries section of the Asian Fisheries Society; Jayne Gallagher, member of Women in Seafood Australasia (WISA); Leonie Noble, past president of WISA and Australian Seafood Hall Inductee; Editrudith Lukanga president of African Women Fish Processors and Traders Network (AWFISHNET); Tamara Espiñeira, coordinator at She4sea; Marja Bekendam, president of AKTEA; and Katia Framgoudes, spokesperson at AKTEA.

The letter states:

March 8, International Women’s Day, has become the day of the year to highlight what women do and review progress. Some workplaces have joined in celebrating this day, featuring heartening commitments to gender equality. But it is also frequent to see in the workplace the omission, forgetfulness or ignorance of what this day commemorates: the international day of women’s rights. We are living in a historic moment where the fact that women still participate in society and in the labour market on an unequal footing with men is more topical than ever. The seafood sector, in which at least 100 million women participate but wield little authority, is, like other male-dominated industry sectors, a fertile environment for reform.

Read the full story at The Fish Site

Women in the seafood work place report discrimination

August 6, 2018 –Alaska appears to be an exception in terms of gender parity at all levels of its seafood industry.

Women comprise roughly half of the world’s seafood industry workforce, yet a report released last week revealed that 61 percent of women around the globe feel they face unfair gender biases from slime lines to businesses to company boardrooms. The women’s overall responses cited biases in recruitment and hiring, in working conditions and inflexible scheduling.

The findings were based on 700 responses gathered in an online survey from September through December of last year. Thirty percent of the respondents were men; 27 percent of the total responses came from North America.

In my view, Alaska doesn’t fit the picture.

Based on “empirical evidence” spanning 30 years as a fisheries writer, I always have encountered women at all levels of seafood harvesting and processing, business, management, education and research, as agency heads and commissioners and in top directorships in industry trade groups and organizations.

Read the full story at the Alaska Journal of Commerce

LAINE WELCH: Gender parity and the seafood industry

August 2, 2018 — Alaska appears to be an exception in terms of gender parity at all levels of its seafood industry.

Women comprise roughly half of the world’s seafood industry work force, yet a report released last week revealed that 61 percent of women around the globe feel they face unfair gender biases from slime lines to businesses to company boardrooms. The women’s overall responses cited biases in recruitment and hiring, in working conditions and inflexible scheduling.

The findings were based on 700 responses gathered in an online survey from September through December of last year. Thirty percent of the respondents were men; 27 percent of the total responses came from North America.

In my view, Alaska doesn’t fit the picture.

Based on “empirical evidence” spanning 30 years as a fisheries writer, I always have encountered women at all levels of seafood harvesting and processing, business, management, education and research, as agency heads and commissioners and in top directorships in industry trade groups and organizations. While women may be outnumbered by men in the state’s seafood industry overall, they are highly visible and valued throughout the workforce hierarchy.

Read the opinion piece at the Juneau Empire