Invigorating women’s empowerment in marine fishing to promote transformative cultures and narratives for sustainability in the blue economy: a scoping literature review from the Global South

Marine fishing is a crucial component of the blue economy (BE), an avenue for sustainable livelihoods, and the socioeconomic development of economies, predominantly in the global south. However, marine fishing is increasingly dotted with (un)sustainability issues, including the exclusion of fisherwomen in fisheries value chains, and lucrative fisheries socioeconomic livelihoods opportunities, worsened by socio-cultural biases. This creates unsustainable futures and missed opportunities due to women’s disempowerment. Acknowledging literature gaps in documenting the potential of fisherwomen in marine fishing, we use a case study of Kerala state in India, to showcase emerging best-case women’s empowerment (WE) spaces to promote new cultures of sustainability. We demonstrate this using a scoping literature review of 60 articles on marine fishing in Kerala. Findings highlight the transformative potential of marine fishing to WE in the social, economic, political/institutional governance, and psychological domains. To our knowledge, this is one of the few in-depth review studies in India that succintly provides evidence that can change the traditional narrative (bias/stereotypes) on women’s exclusion in the fisheries sector. This paper demonstrates the possibilities for using marine fishing as a driver for WE in tropical coastal fishing communities. To facilitate the replicability of the transformative narratives and key lessons from Kerala highlighted in the study, we developed a novel pathway called, the “Transforming Cultures for Marine Fisherwomen Empowerment Pathway (TCMFEP) which has seven (7) key steps. Insights from Kerala and the TCMFEP reveal that, with the development of systematic, inclusive empowerment arenas, and robust policies/cultures, sustainability narratives in marine fishing are possible. These can unlock barriers to fisherwomen empowerment, especially in vulnerable tropical fishing countries. As there is increased realization of the co-benefits of tapping women into marine fishing livelihoods spaces and value chains, co-designing of best options for WE should be emphasized. This could further lead to comprehensive ocean sustainability narratives needed for just and sustainable future transitions.