In 1963, Che’ Yoh and Rosemary Firth discuss qualities and uses of pandanus leaves, Malaysia. Photo: https://www.facebook.com/RosemaryFirth/
At the 2016 biennial conference of the International Institute for Fisheries Economics and Trade (IIFET), to be held in Aberdeen 12-15 July, a Special Session on gender will be held. Entitled Gender Research as a New Frontier in Fisheries and Aquaculture Economics: In the Footsteps of Rosemary Firth, the session aims to engage IIFET members in discussion on how economics research can be applied to address questions on gender in aquaculture and fisheries, with an early emphasis on the challenges of gathering relevant data.
The Special Session has attracted a strong set of presentations (please see the draft programme) and is also being supported by grants from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Fisheries (USA) and the World Bank.
Who was Rosemary Firth? Rosemary Firth (1912-2001) was a British social anthropologist who specialised in the field of domestic economy. She wrote the 1941 (1966) volume Housekeeping among Malay Peasants, tracking in detail the household economics of traditional fishing communities in east coast Malaysia, a companion volume to that by her husband, Raymond Firth, Malay Fishermen: Their Peasant Economy. The 1966 volume of her book gave an account of changes she observed in the 23 years between study visits, and prescient views on the impacts of modernisation on traditional fishing communities.
GENDER IN AQUACULTURE AND FISHERIES 