sustainability Article Assessing and Advancing Gender Equity in Lake Malawi’s Small-Scale Fisheries Sector Elin Torell 1, * , Chikondi Manyungwa-Pasani 2 , Danielle Bilecki 1 , Innocent Gumulira 3 and Gordon Yiwombe 4   Citation: Torell, E.; Manyungwa-Pasani, C.; Bilecki, D.; Gumulira, I.; Yiwombe, G. Assessing and Advancing Gender Equity in Lake Malawi’s Small-Scale Fisheries Sector. Sustainability 2021, 13, 13001. https://doi.org/10.3390/su132313001 Academic Editors: Robyn Alders and Nicoline de Haan Received: 22 July 2021 Accepted: 17 November 2021 Published: 24 November 2021 Publisher’s Note: MDPI stays neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affil- iations. Copyright: © 2021 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/by/ 4.0/). 1 Coastal Resources Center, University of Rhode Island, 220 South Ferry Road, Narragansett, RI 02882, USA; dmbilecki@gmail.com 2 Department of Fisheries, Lilongwe P.O. Box 593, Malawi; cpasani@gmail.com 3 Monkey-Bay Fisheries Research Station, Monkey Bay, Mangochi P.O Box 27, Malawi; gumulirainnocent@gmail.com 4 Salima Agriculture Development Division, Private Bag 1, Salima, Malawi; gordonyiwombe@yahoo.com * Correspondence: elintorell@uri.edu Abstract: Women play important, but often invisible, roles in Lake Malawi’s small-scale fisheries sector. This paper augments previous research by exploring the productive and reproductive roles that men and women have in fishing communities and how this shapes women’s access and control over fisheries resources. Contributing to advancing the understanding of how to strengthen women’s roles in the fisheries sector, this paper reports on a qualitative assessment conducted in seven Malawian lakeshore districts. Data collected via focus group discussions, which included gendered resource mapping exercises, revealed belief systems and gender norms that shape men’s and women’s access to and control over lacustrine resources. While both men and women have access to lake and land resources, their roles differ. Men dominate fishing resources whereas women dominate resources that are tied to household management. While all value chain nodes are open to men, women tend to be concentrated in lower-value processing and trading activities. Social norms and values shape people’s access and control over communal resources. It is noteworthy that women who earn an income from the fisheries value chain have more access to savings and credit and have more equal household bargaining power. Keywords: gender equity; rural livelihoods; empowerment; fisheries; Malawi 1. Introduction The fisheries sector, directly and indirectly, provides a livelihood for 260 million people worldwide—78% of whom live in developing countries [1]. Furthermore, studies report that women comprise 47% of the fisheries workforce in the global south [2]. However, women’s and men’s roles, access, and control within fish ecosystems and value chains are less well understood [3,4]. A growing concern about social equity and justice in fisheries has increased the interest in and commitment to addressing gender inequities in the fisheries sector [5,6]. This requires looking beyond the superficial view that in the fisheries sector men fish while women engage in post-harvest-related activities [7–14]. The dichotomous view of gender roles in fisheries has resulted in men being regarded as the primary stakeholders in fisheries management and policy development [8–10,13]. The exclusion of women in fisheries governance marginalizes women and their interests, adding to existing harmful gender norms and inequalities [15,16]. Lake Malawi is the most species-rich lake on earth with more than 800 fish species, most of which are endemic [17]. In 2017, fisheries from Lake Malawi and three smaller lakes: Malombe, Chilwa, and Chiuta contributed to more than seven percent of the national gross domestic product (GDP) [18]. The lakes also supply over 70% of Malawi’s animal protein and 40% of the total protein supply [17,18]. The fisheries sector is a significant source of job creation, directly employing about 60,000 fishers, gear owners, and crew, out Sustainability 2021, 13, 13001. https://doi.org/10.3390/su132313001 https://www.mdpi.com/journal/sustainability