Conclusion
The preceding analysis of fish-related activities and social organisation in Moree has shown that an extended social and economic network gives access to vital inputs into a career in the fishing economy, both for women and men. It is through the interconnectedness of the economic and social roles that women find a path to a career in the fishing economy. Access to a supply of fish, and not least the money to buy it, are obtained through kinship and marriage relations. A socio-economic network of conjugal and matrilineal relations is all-important for the possibilities of success in the fishing economy. The success of women's careers in fish production and social reproduction are inseparable and mutually dependent. Through marriage to a canoe owner a woman can become the wholesaler of his canoe. This is a clear strategy to ensure fish supply for her processing enterprise. To establish a fie is a strategy to ensure labour through the human resources of the matrilineage. At this stage daughters are important in the fish smoking and trade, but from the moment the female entrepreneur buys a canoe it becomes crucial to have a son who can "deal with her fishermen". Social control is a necessity for a canoe owner to manage a canoe company. Thus he or she relies heavily on relatives for the recruitment of labour. Female canoe owners have acquired prestige and respect on the two major female arenas: the fie and and the market hierarchy of women. They have become powerful "matrons" in the fishing communities, and their influence has to some degree been extended to the male arena, such as the canoe owner's association and accounting meetings with the crew in her fie. However, though they have increasingly entered the male sphere of canoe owners, female canoe owners do not seem to compete for positions in the male power hierarchy. Female canoe owners have "crossed over" economically, but not socially. They do not challenge the social construction of gender in Fante culture.
As has been pointed out, to understand how processes of change affect people's work and lives in a local community and production system, we must consider the socio-cultural context in which production takes place. Two major expectations stand out as cultural values that must be fulfilled to become a full, worthy woman in Moree. One is to be economically independent, and the other is to give birth to children. This reflects the important role of women in production and reproduction. The ways gender and kinship relations change according to the different stages of a woman's economic career, do not only provide important elements of explanation concerning the internal dynamics in the canoe fisheries. At the same time they also provide insights which enables us to understand better how the construction, reproduction and manipulation of gender, influence upon and are being influenced by processes of economic and political change in general.
