Twenty years ago, several studies in Iceland revealed that women‘s access to decision-making on extraction of natural resources related to fishery management was inequal and unfavourable to women. No women were involved in the transformation of the fishery management system by being appointed to committees of officials engaged in such work or implementation. In spite of a long history of marine female experts, their role was not visible or officially decisive. However, the year is now 2023 – the situation may have changed. Administrative changes have also taken place in the meantime. The picture is mixed when assessing gender equality from the point of view of influence on politics and setting the agenda in the maritime sector.

The fisheries sector is an occupational world where males have reigned. Unfortunately, the perception that it is difficult to find decisive women to engage in public committees for the sector also has a long tradition. We may question whether that is actually the case or not or whether it is rather due to ingrained cultural practices. What we know is that very few women have been shareholders within the fisheries sector or quota holders or owners of companies historically. If they were present, it was primarily through pension funds (Sloan et al. 2004, Karlsdóttir, 2004).

At the beginning of the millennium, the female presence in the sector was questioned – as the following two quotes from Iceland showcase:

“While studying I wondered a bit about this. In biology at the university, women are a clear majority of the students. Then it felt a bit upside down when I came here (to the workplace); there are only two of us women out of a staff of 12.“ (Aquaculture researcher (F), Iceland). (Karlsdóttir, 2004).

“While studying I wondered a bit about this. In biology at the university, women are a clear majority of the students. Then it felt a bit upside down when I came here (to the workplace); there are only two of us women out of a staff of 12.“

– Aquaculture researcher (F), Iceland. (Karlsdóttir, 2004)

Table 2. Gender presence in public bodies related to fisheries and aquaculture in Iceland, 2004.
Based on various public sources combined with interviews, 1 August 2004
(Karlsdóttir, 2004).

In Norway, the fishing industry is male-dominated. For example, the national board of Norges Fiskarlag (“The Norwegian Fishermen’s Association”) had no female representative in 2022. The Norwegian Coastal Fishermen’s Association (Norges Kystfiskarlag) and Bivdu, the Sami fishers’ association, each had one woman on their boards (Kilden, 2023). However, in 2023 the Norwegian fishery minister introduced a number of measures to promote increased gender equality in the sector. (Regjeringen, 2023). The minister allocated 2 million NOK for this purpose, including support for networks for female fishers who provide information and look after women’s interests as fishers (Regjeringen, 2023).

In Finland, civil society representation in Local Action groups (LACs) has a gendered perspective, but the gender ratio is largely unknown (Miret Pastor et al., 2020, Freeman & Svels, 2022, Salmi et al., 2022, Salmi & Svels, 2023). Whether the regional or local action groups have real influence or power has been questioned and it has been claimed that they are weak co-management bodies (Hegland, Ouanian & Raakjær, 2012). In Faroe Islands, the director of the fisheries research institute is a woman, while the gender ratio within the ministry of fisheries (and infrastructure) and related institutions is 50/50 (fiskivinnu- og samferdsluradid, 2023). In both Sweden and Finland, maritime policies including gender or gender goals are clearly absent (Svels et al., 2022).

In Iceland, the gender ratio in 2023 within public bodies has become more balanced in terms of maritime governance compared to two decades earlier. Moreover, the main industrial organisation representing fishery company owners is headed by a woman.

It would be interesting to trace gender equality in positions within the institutional hierarchy in each of the Nordic countries in terms of maritime governance and decision-making on natural resource licence allocation. We have, however, had limited opportunity to do so systematically for the other Nordic countries as it requires generating statistics which was not a mandate we were given.

Sources: *Hafogvatn employee list **Fiskistofa employee list ***Matvælastofnun employee list

In some of the Nordic countries, there have been substantial improvements when it comes to gender equality in leadership roles. Norway, Denmark and Iceland all have or have had female fishery ministers and the directors of the most influential stakeholder organisations are women in some cases. Equality has improved in terms of women’s presence in public institutions and organisations, but not many women are in charge when it comes to the industry and the private sector.