Understanding gender intersectionality for more robust ocean science

The UN Decade of Ocean Science (UNDOS) aims to: “Generate knowledge, support innovation, and develop solutions for equitable and sustainable development of the ocean economy under changing environmental, social and climate conditions.” Changing conditions affect certain groups more than others, depending on exposure, sensitivity and adaptive capacity. Gendered differentiation has been studied in small scale coastal fisheries. However, this approach is often limited to male-female gender dichotomies. In contrast, the present analysis takes a more expansive approach centered around the concept of intersectionality, to demonstrate more nuanced differences in terms of individuals’ access to resources for adaptation. We build on multiple Earth System Governance contextual conditions and research lenses to demonstrate that an intersectional approach allows greater understanding of gendered adaptation options impacted by various other factors. This must include investigations beyond the traditional gender binary, which we have sought to achieve in this study by using broader local and individualistic context to observe different communities. We compare gender intersectionality in case studies from India and Tanzania. The evidence demonstrates that intersectional factors vary, impacting adaptiveness to changing Anthropocene conditions, depending upon cross-cutting context-specific systems of hierarchy and discrimination. However, despite variation, we demonstrate there are common factors to be investigated across all locations when identifying possible intersectional impacts of ocean policy interventions, particularly wealth, marriage and family roles, and social networks.