Changing times, changing tides: Women's engagement in the Northern Territory seafood sector

Despite decades of participation, the attraction and retention of women in the Australian seafood industry workforce remains an ongoing concern. Industry has called for investigation into issues to develop options for the sustainable engagement and involvement of women, whose participation and perspectives have been under-researched in Australia. This PhD will investigate the participation, contribution, workforce attraction and retention of women in commercial seafood industries in the Northern Territory. Beginning with a historical analysis of women’s participation in the NT commercial seafood sector, the study will follow to a review and analysis of the present level of gender inclusion and equality, and the regulation and management of the sector. The study aims to 1) document the participation of women; 2) identify gender-related barriers and structural changes occurring in the sector, and their influence on women’s participation; and 3) assess the policy and governance regime in the seafood sector to identify factors that may contribute to the attraction and retention of women. The conceptual framework underpinning the study will be an adaptation of the Social Provisioning Model (Power, 2004), which provides a comprehensive spectrum of entry points for feminist inquiry and analysis. These include a consideration of unpaid domestic and care work; the ideas of agency and wellbeing; the importance of social ethics and the centrality of social and gender inclusion and diversity. The study will inquire into the terms of engagement of women in both blue- and white-collar work in the industry, guided by the understanding that inclusivity, and gender equality and equity are vital not only for women workers themselves but also for the long-term health and sustainability of the sector. A mixed methods approach will be used, combining qualitative methods (focus groups discussions and semi-structured interviews) and quantitative methods (online survey). Research participants would include seafood domain experts as well as workers and employees throughout, and at all levels of, the fisheries and aquaculture sectors in the Northern Territory. Recommendations for industry and policy will emerge from this research at a time when wild catch fisheries and aquaculture sectors are going through structural changes, to assist these sectors become more gender inclusive, robust, and viable.

The PhD project is supervised by Prof Natasha Stacey (Primary Supervisor) and Dr Kate Golebiowska (Co-Supervisor) and partner advisors Daniel Capps, Northern Territory Seafood Council (NTSC), Dr. Heidi Mumme, Women in Seafood Australasia (WISA), Ms. Sally Roberts, Fisheries Research and Development Corporation (FRDC) and Dr. Samantha Nowland, Darwin Aquaculture Centre, NT Fisheries (DAC).

The PhD study is also supported by an Australian Government National Industry Linked PhD Program Grant Number 35343 with funding and in-kind support from Charles Darwin University Research Training Program (RTP) Scholarship and industry partners: the Fisheries Research and Development Corporation (FRDC), the Northern Territory Seafood Council (NTSC) and Women in Seafood Australasia (WISA).