The study was conducted to determine the factors associated with the extent of women's participation in fishery and aquaculture in Nueva Vizcaya. Specifically, the objectives of the study were: to describe the socio-demographic profile of women engaged in fishery and aquaculture; to determine the problems encountered by the respondents in relation to their participation in fishery and aquaculture; to determine the extent of participation of the respondents in fishery and aquaculture in terms of their role, activities engaged in and decision-making; to ascertain the relationship between the respondents' socio-demographic profile and extent of participation in fishery and aquaculture; and to find out the relationship between the problems encountered by the respondents and their extent of participation in fishery and aquaculture.

The study was conducted in five municipalities of the province namely: Bambang, Solano, Quezon, Bagabag, and Diadi. The respondents of the study consisted of 120 women-31 in fishery and 89 in aquaculture.

The descriptive statistics which include frequency counts, percentages and means were used to describe the socio-demographic profile of the respondents, problems encountered, roles, activities performed by the respondents, and decision-making in relation to fishery and aquaculture. Correlation techniques were employed to ascertain the relationships between the independent and dependent variables

The study found out that majority of the respondents were Ilocanos and Roman Catholics. On average, the respondents are 42-43 years old with a household size of 5 members. All the respondents had at least some elementary education. The highest educational attainment of the fishery respondents is secondary education while some aquaculture respondents obtained graduate degrees Majority of the husbands are engaged in agrifarming and have an average income of about P48,000 for the fishery respondents, P140,000 for the aquaculture respondents or generally about P94,000 for the whole group of respondents.

The most common problems encountered by the respondents in fishery were the job was difficult for them and mending nets interface with their household chores Among the aquaculture respondents, their main problem was lack/insufficient knowledge in fish culture

Overall, the respondents had moderate participation in their roles, activities and decision-making related to fishery. On the other hand, the extent of participation of the respondents in aquaculture was generally moderate in their roles but low in their involvement in the activities and decision-making

On the relationship between socio-demographic profile of the respondents and extent of participation in fishery, age, household size, and husband occupation were significantly correlated with some indicators of the respondents' roles. Only age was found to be significantly related to the women's overall participation in their role and activities with more participation among younger respondents. In decision-making. household size influenced the respondents' overall participation with greater involvement among respondents with less family members.

Educational attainment, family income, household size, husband occupation., and ethnicity were found to be significantly related to the extent of participation of respondents in some indicators of their roles in aquaculture with more participation among respondents with higher educational attainment, family income, and household size, among women whose husbands are non-farmers, and among non-Ilocano women Family income positively correlated with the women's overall participation in their role Educational attainment and family income were found to be negatively related to the respondents' overall participation in aquaculture activities. In decision-making the overall participation of the respondents was influenced by their educational attainment, family income, ethnicity and religious affiliations. Age and household size did not affect the women's participation in any of the indicators in aquaculture activities and decision-making related to the industry.

The problems encountered by the respondents in fishery were significantly related to their extent of participation on the role concerning food/snack preparation, involvement in fishery activities such as cleaning/washing/drying fishing gear, sorting caught fish, preserving/processing fish and their overall participation, and decisions on where and when to sell fish. In aquaculture, the respondents were not affected by the problems they encountered in performing the roles, activities, and decision-making.

Thesis (Master of Science in Rural Development)

Includes appendices and bibliographical references