There is growing appreciation of the role of aquaculture in diversifying livelihoods of the poor. However, prevailing cultural norms and values, and social relations often influence its development outcomes, which we explore in this study. Socio-cultural dynamics affect the capacity of resource-poor and marginalized groups for the adoption and retention of aquaculture technologies. Gender norms and gender division of labour in a given community not only influence whether men or women participate in aquaculture but also shape their differential access to resources and position in decision-making, with knock-on effect for aquaculture productivity. Ethnic and cultural norms of collectivism, particularly in traditional fishing communities, support aquaculture efforts, but these are often overlooked by many development endeavours. Improved productivity does not necessarily translate into enhanced income, food and nutrition security. In many areas, benefits for women are lower despite their more active participation in aquaculture operations, post-harvest processing and marketing compared to men. Local power relations may limit access to land and water resources as well as inputs and services by the poor, restricting more equitable distribution of income from aquaculture. Nutritional outcome from aquaculture largely depends on preferences and acceptability of fish as a food and local customs regarding its preparation, preservation, cooking and distribution. Aquaculture interventions that take resource base and socio-cultural contexts into account are crucial for realizing increased income, food and nutrition benefits sustainably.
The ability of development interventions to catalyse and support innovation for—and by— women and men is undermined by lack of specific understanding about how gender norms interact with gender relations and what this means for innovation. This is also the case for Bangladesh despite substantive research and development investments in the past decade that have placed emphasis on gender norms, particularly those inhibiting women and girl’s education, women and girl’s health, and women’s economic empowerment. This paper analyses how men and women in South West Bangladesh perceive gender norms to affect their ability to innovate, adopt, and benefit from new technologies in aquaculture, fisheries and agricultural systems. Our qualitative findings from six villages in 2014 confirm that the engagement of women and men smallholders with agricultural innovation and its opportunities is gender-differentiated. We explore further: how gender norms shape these differences; which gender norms are most significant in the given context, when and for whom; and, finally, when and how are some women and men able to innovate in the context of these norms. In doing so, we highlight how gender norms interact with gender relations and wider structural inequalities to constrain and/or enable innovation for different women and men. We conclude that technical organizations seeking to promote innovation need to go beyond itemizing gender ‘gaps’ to engage more closely with underlying gender norms and the way they influence various women’s, and men’s, motivations, spheres of innovation, and valuations of outcomes.
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