ABSTRACT
A healthy ocean is critical for a sustainable planet, and is inextricably bound with climate change – its causes, solutions, and indications. The delivery of sustainable ocean governance is heavily dependent on the best available scientific evidence. It is well established that effective governance and science depends on transparency and inclusiveness and yet the bodies that conduct ocean science and deliver the science-based ocean governance frameworks have long been male-dominated and masculinist. Most of these bodies are only now making commitments to gender equality: more than ten years after the UNFCCC began to do so, and much later than other international non-governmental bodies, such as the IUCN. The United Nations Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development, which began in 2021, incorporates a commitment to gender equality. The research presented in this chapter is grounded in work undertaken by the Empowering Women project based at the World Maritime University. It first considers progress towards gender equality in ocean governance, using examples from selected intergovernmental organisations and non-governmental organisations which participated in developing a gender action plan for international governance organisations in the ocean sector. It then reflects on two research projects: participatory action research with the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES) and research in Kenyan universities providing ocean-related education. These provide nuanced insights into the barriers and challenges women face in the ocean sector. Analysis of these projects leads us to consider what is needed to achieve gender equality, and whether more systemic structural change is required through a feminist approach to the Ocean Decade.
