Changing Economic Problems for Women in the Nile Perch Fishing Communities on Lake Victoria

Authors

  • Modesta Médard Tanzania Fisheries Research Institute
  • Douglas C. Wilson Rutgers University

Abstract

Large-scale changes in the ecology of Lake Victoria have had a number of implications for the women in riparian households. It has proven difficult for them to take advantage of the economic opportunities that have arisen while their access to the lake fisheries has been diminished. This article reviews these changes at the levels of the lake, the community and the household. Fish-related economic activities are particularly important for women who are heads of households. These activities also afford married women greater independence than other activities. Women are responding to changes in access to the lake by working together at a community level.

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

Author Biographies

Modesta Médard, Tanzania Fisheries Research Institute

Modesta Medard holds a B.Sc. from the University of Dar es Salaam in Economics. She is currently the research officer in charge of socio-economic research on Lake Victoria at the Tanzania Fisheries Research Institute in Mwanza, Tanzania. In addition to issues that affect women as both fish traders and residents of fishing communities, her research interests include the economics of the Lake Victoria fisheries and the socio-economics of fisheries management.

Douglas C. Wilson, Rutgers University

Douglas Wilson is currently a postdoctoral research fellow at the Ecopolicy Institute at Rutgers University. Dr. Wilson's interests are human ecology, fisheries management, social networks, critical social theory and international development. Dr. Wilson is currently involved in studying patterns of citizen participation in marine habitat protection and conflicts between commercial and recreational fishers in New Jersey. He received his Ph.D. in Sociology from Michigan State University in 1996.

Downloads

Published

2022-06-03

How to Cite

Médard, M., & Wilson, D. C. (2022). Changing Economic Problems for Women in the Nile Perch Fishing Communities on Lake Victoria. Anthropologica, 38(2), 149–172. Retrieved from https://cas-sca.journals.uvic.ca/index.php/anthropologica/article/view/2039

Issue

Vol. 38 No. 2 (1996): Women in the Fisheries

Section

Thematic Section:

License

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.

Authors contributing to Anthropologica agree to release their articles under the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 4.0 Unported license. This licence allows anyone to share their work (copy, distribute, transmit) and to adapt it for non-commercial purposes provided that appropriate attribution is given, and that in the event of reuse or distribution, the terms of this license are made clear.

Authors retain copyright of their work and grant the journal right of first publication.

Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.