Empowerment of women and gender equality recognized globally as a key element to achieve progress in all areas. The study was conducted to know the level of empowerment of women involved in fisheries activities in Manipur and the different factors influencing the empowerment process. One hundred and twenty women fish farmers were the sample of the study. A structured interview schedule was used to collect the information through personal interview. The data was analyzed by using frequency, percentage and Wilcoxon signed Rank Test. Majority of the respondents (70%) were coming under medium empowerment category (score range from 70.5-103.3). The ‘Z’ value (-9.507**) of Wilcoxon signed Rank Test revealed that, there was significant difference in index values of empowerment of rural women before and after taking up fisheries activity. Decision making ability in family, spending ability, Cosmo politeness, social participation, access to assets and resources of farm women are getting improved and increased after participation in fisheries activities and it is highly significant at one per cent level. The variables such as education, area under aquaculture, experience in fisheries, information management behaviour, management orientation and egalitarianism positively and significantly associated with rural women ’ empowerment.

Keyword: Fisheries activities; Women empowerment; Empowerment index; Factors.