Fishing for status: Impact of development on goa's fisherwomen

An ignored but significant group in the local economy, female vendors of the traditional Kharvi fishing community in Goa, India have, in many ways, benefited from recent fisheries development. Their success in the markets has reinforced more egalitarian gender relations within fishing households, as well as affecting their class mobility and caste status in Goan society. Rather than being “victims” of technological development that has focused on fishermen, many Goan Catholic fisherwomen, in contrast to their Hindu counterparts, have made an economically successful transition from “barefoot, headload peddlers” in the villages to market entrepreneurs, working in small cooperative groups. The more complementary and egalitarian gender relations of fishing groups represent a reversal of the dominant patriarchal norms of Indian society. Ironically, the effects of economic success, education for the younger generation, and the withdrawal of Kharvi daughters from marketing activities may alter their economic and domestic independence and undermine more egalitarian gender relations in the future.