Volume 71

Women at Work in the Barbados Fishing Industry: Fortunes of a Female Forklift Driver


Authors
Bertha Simmons;Maria Pena;Mia Clarke
Download PDF Open PDF in Browser

Other Information


Date: November, 2018


Pages: 71-72


Event: Proceedings of the Seventy Annual Gulf and Caribbean Fisheries Institute


City: San Andres Island


Country: Colombia

Abstract

ABSTRACT “I am a leading lady in the Barbados fishing industry”—is how Eutavine Weekes summed up her achievement from a continuing 27-year career in the Barbados fisheries sector. This lady took on a gendered role in the fishing industry in the late 1980s as the only female crane and forklift operator working with the Ministry of Agriculture at the Bridgetown Fisheries Complex; a job she “enjoyed 120%.” While men related well to her, she experienced least acceptance from women who culturally had strong opinions about a woman working in “a man’s field.” As a fish market forklift driver she was responsible for moving diverse heavy loads, loading and offloading fishing boats, moving ice for fish storage and loading fish for export onto trucks for transfer to the airport. Eutavine supplemented her formal income through household work with seafood. She helped support her children through school by scaling, boning and selling flyingfish; making fish seasoning at home; and frying fish and chips for sale on weekend nights. Shift work and a social network of neighbours and friends allowed Eutavine to balance family life, household work and formal work. Now promoted to supervise a fruit and vegetable market, she “would prefer to go back to forklifting any day” since managing people is challenging. She has asked for a transfer back to the fishing industry. Eutavine encourages any young person to learn a skill, particularly forklift operation, and engage in the fishing industry. It is not an occupation of last resort. Sharing stories of women’s fisheries livelihoods is research by the Gender in Fisheries Team (GIFT) to document and mainstream gender in Caribbean fisheries to help implement the international Small-Scale Fisheries Guidelines.

PDF Preview