Worldwide, women's contributions in the fisheries sector are significant and include fish harvesting, processing, and marketing, among others. However, women often face discrimination and are not recognized in the sector by their male counterparts, managers, and policymakers. This thesis aims to examine the motives for the establishment of women organizations in Indonesia, the Indonesian Fisherwomen's Sisterhood Group (Persaudaraan Perempuan Nelayan Indonesia/PPNI), and to investigate how the lives of women belonging to the organization have changed. This study is based on a qualitative case study using both primary and secondary sources. The primary data consists of interviews conducted via Zoom and phone interviews. This study adopts a Feminist Political Ecology (FPE) framework to examine barriers that women experience that led to the collective action to establish a women-specific fishery organization. Issues related to economic and environmental changes, lacking access to decision-making processes and resources, and lacking recognition were pivotal for women in the sector to organize themselves. This study found that being part of the organization can become a strategy for women in fisheries to overcome barriers in the sector. This study also shows that PPNI allows women in the sector to renegotiate their roles and rights within their households, communities and in the sector. Thus, since the establishment of PPNI, the organization has made efforts to foster gender equality, mainly to support changing women’s lives through women's empowerment.
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