Women portray indefinite roles – at home and in the community, regardless of their social and economic status. Apart from men, women behold boundless opportunities in dealing with numerous work-related activities as they play some of the most valiant jobs known today. Equality they may say, but does it encompasses the general observation of men and women in society in terms of labour and employment? According to Dr. Sachs lecture on the Age of Sustainable Development, one of the patterns of economic development that influences the growth of a country resides on the attitude towards women.

In 1975, United Nations proclaimed the ‘Decade of Women’, which opened countless occasions for international organizations to gamble on women in aquaculture industry. This epoch created strategic women empowerment that alleviated poverty in several Asian countries. The vulnerability of aquaculture industry therefore catered a lot of women to get involved in the business contributing largely to its development. Their involvement in aquaculture exposed inaccurate techniques on rearing fish, harvesting and processing fish and fishery products from traditional fishing method, which led to the development of new protocols and procedural designs. Thus, many Asian women are now more aware of the possibilities of aquaculture in the global market, not only as an alternative source of income but as the main source of revenue. Women contributions to Asian countries’ are nowadays even-handed in displaying women workforce in aquaculture mostly in production. A number of local community livelihood projects are presently formed in these regions to seize up women’s socio-economic status through several employment schemes. Work varies from different types and levels such as managerial, supervisory or skilled workers that are directly involved in aquaculture. Though some traditional fisher folk women particularly housewives, still limits their selves by modestly assisting their husbands daily fishing activities. They however managed to keep the village small fishing industry well balanced. A resilient clue that women had improved their knowledge in aquaculture system. As man and woman work hand-in-hand, they create effective measures to a successful fish and fishery production (Figure 1). Moreover, women aquaculture skills lead to a safer way of sustainable development thereby reduces poverty that makes good pecuniary sense in rural and sub-urban areas.

Figure 1: A Vietnamese woman repairing deep nets for open-sea cages in Malaysia.