November 5, 2025
Anchored in Struggle, Rising in Solidarity
Across the world’s coasts, rivers, lakes and deltas, millions of women sustain fisheries — not only as workers, but as custodians of ecosystems, bearers of knowledge, and leaders of communities. They are the unseen hands that keep the waters alive, the quiet anchors of local economies, and the defenders of the commons in an age of enclosure.
The International Fisher Women’s Day (IFWD), celebrated each year on 5 November, was born from this history of struggle and solidarity. It was first declared at the India Fisher Women Assembly in 2024, later endorsed by the World Forum of Fisher Peoples (WFFP) at its 8th General Assembly in Brazil, and reaffirmed at the Global Fisherwomen Assembly in Hat Yai, Thailand (August 2025) — the first independent global assembly led entirely by fisher women.
The day symbolises the long, interlinked fight for gender justice, livelihood rights, and environmental integrity within traditional and sustainable fisheries — and calls on the world to recognise the women who have always been at the heart of the sea.
The Global Picture: Women in Fisheries
According to FAO’s State of World Fisheries and Aquaculture, women constitute nearly 28 per cent of the global fisheries and aquaculture workforce, and more than 50 per cent of all small-scale fisheries labour when pre- and post-catch activities are included. In processing and marketing alone, women account for over 90 per cent of jobs in some regions.
Over 60 million women are engaged in fisheries and aquaculture worldwide, yet fewer than 15 per cent have formal recognition as fishers or workers. Their unpaid labour — from net-mending and sorting to drying, smoking, and selling — forms the backbone of food systems and community resilience.
Still, policy invisibility persists. FAO’s own gender review of the Voluntary Guidelines for Securing Sustainable Small-Scale Fisheries shows that women’s access to resources, decision-making, and financial services remains severely restricted in most national fisheries frameworks. The International Collective in Support of Fishworkers (ICSF) observes that despite decades of advocacy, women in fisheries continue to be marginalised in law, data, and representation — while carrying the heaviest load in sustaining fisheries and households.
From the Margins to the Movement
The origins of IFWD trace back to decades of organising by fisher women’s collectives across Asia, Africa, Latin America and Europe — from Sri Lanka’s coastal sangams and Senegal’s processing cooperatives to Chile’s women’s seaweed unions and the Pacific Islands’ shellfish gatherers.
Before its global declaration, regional fisher women’s assemblies were held across South Africa, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Indonesia, Thailand, the Philippines, and India, linking struggles that are different in geography but united in purpose. Each gathering affirmed that women’s roles are not “support functions” but central, irreplaceable labour that keeps communities, cultures, and ecosystems alive.
Across centuries, women have:
– Governed fish markets and community trade networks
– Preserved artisanal processing traditions — salting, drying, smoking
– Passed on ecological knowledge of tides, fish behaviour, and marine biodiversity
– Managed household economies tied to seasonal cycles
– Built solidarity, mutual aid and informal credit systems
– Defended coasts, mangroves, rivers and wetlands when corporate and state forces advanced
Their contribution is not residual — it is foundational to sustainable fisheries and coastal stewardship.
The Challenges They Face
Yet, as the Blue Economy, industrial aquaculture, deep-sea mining and coastal infrastructure projects expand, the spaces where women work and lead are shrinking. Marine and inland commons are being privatised; coastal lands are acquired for tourism, ports and energy projects; and “climate solutions” often reproduce old inequalities.
Women face layered discrimination — as workers in informal economies, as caretakers without social protection, and as voices excluded from decision-making. Climate disasters hit them hardest: they are among the first to lose homes, livelihoods and markets, and among the last to receive compensation or rehabilitation.
As WFFP notes, a feminist perspective in fisheries is not simply about visibility. It challenges the extractive logic of industrial growth and demands a shift toward community control, ecological care, and gender justice.
Demands from the Women of the Waters
At the heart of the IFWD is a clear and comprehensive charter of demands, articulated through the WFFP Women’s Assembly and endorsed globally:
- Equal representation and leadership of fisher women in all government bodies, cooperatives, and community institutions.
- Recognition of women as full rights-holders in all fisheries laws, policies, and official statistics.
- Protection of inland, coastal and marine rights — ensuring secure access to waters, coasts and resources.
- No forced land or coastal acquisition in the name of development or conservation.
- Inclusion in all post-disaster and climate compensation mechanisms, recognising women’s work and losses.
- Comprehensive social protection, including accident insurance, maternity benefits, and health care.
- Fair markets, first-sale rights and access to credit, eliminating middle-men exploitation.
- Gender-justice education and awareness programmes, engaging both women and men.
- A total ban on destructive aquaculture, deep-sea mining, and coastal militarisation.
- Recognition of traditional knowledge and community-based conservation, led by women.
- Community control over coasts, forests and seas, reaffirming collective ownership of the commons.
The Global Campaign
To carry these principles into action, WFFP is launching a five-week global campaign from 5 November to 10 December 2025, connecting three key dates:
– 5 November – International Fisher Women’s Day (IFWD)
– 21 November – World Fisher Peoples’ Day
– 10 December – International Human Rights Day
Each week will highlight a shared theme — from Gender Rights & Freedom from Violence to Fisher Rights as Human Rights — building unity across continents and linking the struggles of coastal and inland women to broader fights for food sovereignty, climate justice, and human rights.
Why IFWD Matters
The International Fisher Women’s Day is not only a celebration. It is a political declaration: that the future of fisheries, food systems, and aquatic biodiversity depends on recognising women as equal stewards of the planet’s waters.
For the International Planning Committee for Food Sovereignty (IPC–FAO) and allied networks, this day is an invitation to deepen partnerships with fisher women’s movements, strengthen gender-equitable policies, and ensure that global frameworks — from the FAO’s SSF Guidelines to the SDGs — reflect the realities of those who live and labour along the world’s waters.
Because when the tides rise, it is the women of the waves who hold the line — with resilience, solidarity, and the will to transform.
By Aashima Subberwal and Jesu Rethinam
On behalf of the Women’s Assembly Coordination Team,
World Forum of Fisher Peoples (WFFP)