242
K. Frangoudes et al.
Introduction
1
This chapter introduces a gender lens to the governability perspective, illustrated by
the case of on foot women shell fi sh gatherers ( mariscadoras) in Galicia (Spain).
The role of women in fi sheries, especially in resource management and governability,
is not suf fi ciently documented, as few social scientists have studied this topic. The
case of the mariscadoras in Galicia is an opportunity to examine female participation in shell fi shing and the process by which women’s organizations are established
for resource governance.
A few comments on the concept of gender will help distinguish the difference
between ‛women’, a sexual connotation, and gender, a social construct. Simone
de Beauvoir’s statement that a woman is not born but made
2 characterizes the fi eld
of feminist research that evolved in the 1970s. The fi rst anthropologist to theorize
about gender as a social construct was Gayle Rubin ( 1975 ) . In, “The Traf fi c in
Women: Notes on the Political Economy of Sex,” Rubin ( 1975 ) explained that
males and females are biologically similar and that there is less difference between
humans than in any other species. The difference is, therefore, not biological but
cultural.
For feminists, using the word ‛woman’ in development programs re fl ected a
desire to integrate women’s issues into the larger discourse about development
without taking into account the existing inequalities in power. As a concept, gender
has made it easier to denounce occasions when the obvious sexual difference
between women and men becomes discrimination against women. The concept of
gender helps us understand that we must differentiate the fact of being born as one
sex from that of having a markedly different destiny. Ushering the gender concept
into the discussion had important advantages: it permitted academics to speak
about the socially constructed relations between males and females and about the
issue of power. Gender is considered a social construct that refers to the inequality
between women and men, the difference in sex being the most important feature.
Bennett et al. observe, “The perception of the roles, duties and obligations of male
and female has been reinforced through centuries by institutions: the household,
the market, the community and the state amongst other things” ( 2004 , 7).
The gender perspective makes it easier to understand that male and female identities may be transformed if they are neither natural or innate, but instead cultural
or social. This capacity to transform gender identities has analytical potential.
Yet despite this potential, few fi shery researchers have fully developed such an
1 The research summarized in this chapter is related to the project Governability analysis applied
to the creation process of Marine Protected Areas (GOBAMP, CSO2009-09802), supported by the
Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness.
2 In the French original: “On ne naît pas femme: on le devient” (de Beauvoir 1990 [1949], 13).
K. Frangoudes et al.
Introduction
1
This chapter introduces a gender lens to the governability perspective, illustrated by
the case of on foot women shell fi sh gatherers ( mariscadoras) in Galicia (Spain).
The role of women in fi sheries, especially in resource management and governability,
is not suf fi ciently documented, as few social scientists have studied this topic. The
case of the mariscadoras in Galicia is an opportunity to examine female participation in shell fi shing and the process by which women’s organizations are established
for resource governance.
A few comments on the concept of gender will help distinguish the difference
between ‛women’, a sexual connotation, and gender, a social construct. Simone
de Beauvoir’s statement that a woman is not born but made
2 characterizes the fi eld
of feminist research that evolved in the 1970s. The fi rst anthropologist to theorize
about gender as a social construct was Gayle Rubin ( 1975 ) . In, “The Traf fi c in
Women: Notes on the Political Economy of Sex,” Rubin ( 1975 ) explained that
males and females are biologically similar and that there is less difference between
humans than in any other species. The difference is, therefore, not biological but
cultural.
For feminists, using the word ‛woman’ in development programs re fl ected a
desire to integrate women’s issues into the larger discourse about development
without taking into account the existing inequalities in power. As a concept, gender
has made it easier to denounce occasions when the obvious sexual difference
between women and men becomes discrimination against women. The concept of
gender helps us understand that we must differentiate the fact of being born as one
sex from that of having a markedly different destiny. Ushering the gender concept
into the discussion had important advantages: it permitted academics to speak
about the socially constructed relations between males and females and about the
issue of power. Gender is considered a social construct that refers to the inequality
between women and men, the difference in sex being the most important feature.
Bennett et al. observe, “The perception of the roles, duties and obligations of male
and female has been reinforced through centuries by institutions: the household,
the market, the community and the state amongst other things” ( 2004 , 7).
The gender perspective makes it easier to understand that male and female identities may be transformed if they are neither natural or innate, but instead cultural
or social. This capacity to transform gender identities has analytical potential.
Yet despite this potential, few fi shery researchers have fully developed such an
1 The research summarized in this chapter is related to the project Governability analysis applied
to the creation process of Marine Protected Areas (GOBAMP, CSO2009-09802), supported by the
Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness.
2 In the French original: “On ne naît pas femme: on le devient” (de Beauvoir 1990 [1949], 13).