Gender norms and relations: Implications for agency in coastal livelihoods

Abstract

Despite advances within development and feminist studies, many livelihood initiatives proceed gender-blind. This application of GENNOVATE attempted to challenge that trend in the Pacific. We investigated how gender norms and relations influence agency (i.e., the availability of choice and capacity to exercise choice) in Solomon Islands. We find that men are able to pursue a broader range of livelihood activities than women who were constrained by individual perceptions of risk and socially prescribed physical mobility restraints. However, our findings challenge the broad proposition that livelihood diversification leads to improvements for agency as women’s more immediate freedoms were limited by intensified time and labour demands. We suggest that better accounting for these gendered differences not only improves livelihood outcomes, but also presents opportunity to catalyse the re-negotiation of gender norms and relations; thereby promoting greater individual agency.