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Women Empowerment in Maritime Industry – Present status, challenges & improvement.

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Content

  1. Introduction
  2. Present share of women in maritime industry
  3. Increase in women share from past till today
  4. Why we need more women in this industry
  5. Challenges faced by women as a Seafarer
  6. Importance of 18th May – Internation Women day in Maritime Industry & Initiatives by IMO
  7. Global support for Women Empowerment
  8. Examples set by Women in maritime industry
  9. Conclusion
  1. Introduction

Maritime industry has historically been dominated by men and till last few decades women have faced barriers to enter and grow with this industry. This blog explores the current status of women their challenges, global support for gender equality and new opportunities for them.

2. Present share of women in maritime industry

If we look specifically at Maritime Industry (pictorial representation mentioned above) – the presence of Women for overall maritime job role is approx. 20%, which includes both on-shore and off-shore roles – while for seafarer its less than 2% and even this 2 % includes maximum of those women employees who are working as cruise crew workforce. Still women are given mostly some support role or a junior role and their dedication to this industry is not considered. Gender equality seemed to be an unrealistic goal till last decade.

Maritime industry has been dominated by male historically but since last decade we can see changes in women status in this industry also globally many agencies are working to increase the share of women in this sector for which we will discuss further in this blog.

     As per ILO (International Labour Organization) the Maritime Industry is divided into 4 sub-sectors .

  1. Shipping
  2. Inland Waterways
  3. Fishing
  4. Ports

3. Increase in Women share in last few years

If we compare from 2015 there has been a significant increase in the women work force share in Maritime industry.

If we specifically see the number of seafarer – the Level was as about 16.5 K in 2015 and as per BIMCO/ICS Seafarer workforce report of 2021 the number is has increased to approx. 24 K. This is an increase of approx. 45% from 2015 to 2021 which is significant.

Another maritime survey will be done in 2024 by IMO and WISTA.

4.Why we need more women in this industry

Because it’s good for all us. By stopping women, we are stopping 50% of global workforce and this directly effects the global economic growth. There are many women who want and can be a potential dedicated employee for this sector but are still awaiting their chance to get in.

Also, the countries with better Gender balance in workforce have shown better economic growth.

If we look at the industry need – the is shortage is officers on deep sea and retention of employees has been a concern in the sector for both off shore and on shore jobs.

As per reports from BIMCO and International Chamber of Shipping there can be a potential shortage of ship officers in 2026. After the pandemic the seafarer job is not that lucrative as per different reports of shipping consultancies. To keep the industry running smooth, it is mandatory that necessary steps are taken now to meet future demand and supply of employees – one of the important need of the hour is to bring gender equality which is by itself one the best solution.

5.Challenges faced by women as a Sea farer

  1. The first and foremost challenge is to be accepted by the team/crew and the world that she can be a sea farer. The perception, gender stereotype and biasness need to be changed.
  2. Lack of safety.
  3. Lack of basic amenities for women – for sanitary, healthcare and accommodation. Most of ship crew work under the majority rule, for examples for the job in which men are in majority, most of the setup is made for the use of men.
  4. The required technical training is being given mostly in developed countries, while the women in developing and under developed countries are more deprived and having less job options.
  5. Limited growth opportunities in this career for women.
  6. Absence of a robust mechanism for anti-harassment policy.
  7. Maternity rights for women as a seafarer. If a woman wishes to take maternity leave, their rights will differ depending on the flag under which they are sailing. The compensatory payment and other allowances will depend on the country of flag which might be convenience or not but cannot be changed. They have the right that pregnancy test cannot be done before giving employment as per ILO (International Labour Organisation) Convention 183.

6.Importance of 18th May – International Women day in Maritime Industry.

Every year 18th May is celebrated as International Day of Women in Maritime Industry. It was started in 2022 by IMO (International Maritime Organization) to create a gender balance in the industry. This is also aligned with United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 5 on gender equality.

It is celebrated at IMO head office London and is chaired by IMO Secretary General. 

Below are themes for 18th May since 2022

  1. 2022 – “Training-Visibility-Recognition: Supporting a barrier-free working environment”.
  2. 2023 – “Mobilizing networks for gender equality”.
  3. 2024 – “Safe Horizons: Women Shaping the Future of Maritime Safety“.

This is one of the many initiatives taken by IMO which has led to global encouragement for creating a pathway for women empowerment in Maritime Industry. IMO has been working for more than last three decades to create a gender balance.

Other Initiatives taken by IMO

  1. Initiating WIMA – Women in Maritime Associations Program.
  2. Initiating SMART-C Women project – Sustainable Maritime Transport Cooperation. This agreement provides enhancement on gender equality in developing countries.
  3. Initiating many motivational discussions like: “breaking the ceiling” where different women who have reached milestone in maritime industry are given a platform to share their experience which motivates others and is setting up examples which everyone can look upto. This type of activities at international level makes it clear that women are an important missing part of this industry and are either equal or better than men.
  4.  New initiative “TRAINING VISIBILITY RECOGNITION” is to train women for both sea and land based maritime jobs.
  5. IMO started the gender balance program back in 1988.
  6. WISTA International – Women International Shipping and Trade Association was formed in 1974 and since then it been working for women development and has offices in different countries at national WISTA level.
  7. WIMA (Women in Maritime Association) program started by IMO
    • It was started with one institute in 2008 and till now there are total 8 WIMA institutes opened in different countries spreading around the globe. It’s a big initiative for women empowerment for providing high level technical training, guiding, sharing information for job vacancies and tracking the progress from initial stage for improvement purpose.
    • Below are the list of 8 locations for WIMA institute with opening year .

(The above picture of the world map is as presented in the Microsoft power point)

7. Global support for Women Empowerment.

  1. UNO (UNITED NATION ORGANISATION)
    a. Collaborating with different agencies and other nations for creating policy and legal reforms for developing an environment for women empowerment.
    b. Adopting SDG Standard Development Goals in 2015. The SDG 5 is for promoting gender equality.
  2. ILO (INTERNATIONAL LABOUR ORGANISATION)

  There have been several initiatives taken by ILO which are directed towards gender equality in Maritime industry. Few of them are as below

  1. MLC 2006 – Maritime Labour Convention was rolled out in 2006 for comprehensive laws and rights for all seafarer and included gender equality and non-discrimination.
  2. Promoting Gender Equality in collective bargaining agreement – It includes prevention of harassment, equal pay and maternity protection.
  3. Support for Women Network – These network help to women to share experience and mutual support to each other.
  4. Conducting awareness raising campaign for gender equality.

    III. WMU (World Maritime University) & IMLI (International Maritime law Institute) are highly influential for maritime decision maker and are creating an environment and setting examples to break gender barriers and motivating women to join maritime industry.
    IV. The South African International Maritime Institute (SAIMI) established the Sindiswa Nhlumayo merit bursary in 2018 for women for Undergraduate and Postgraduate program in fields related to maritime industry.
    V. Tanker operator Hafnia – Launched its Maritime Cultural Lab in 2022 for four of its vessels with a rule of that the crew will consist of at least 50% women.

The are many more examples which has led to changes that can be seen at ground level – Nowadays its normal to see news for an all women crew in a cargo ship or an all-women employee warehouse set up etc.

There are countries removing restriction for jobs which earlier were only for men.

8. Examples set by Women in maritime industry

  1. Captain Radhika Menon – She received exceptional bravery awards in 2016 for saving life of 7 fishermen in Bay of Bengal during a severe storm when she was master of an Oil tanker – Sampurna Swarjya.
  2. Captain Kate McCue – In 2015, she became the first American women to command a mega cruise ship.
  3. Kimia Jalili – President of Entech designs, Professional engineers & Marine engineers. She started her Journey from Iran doing Naval architect to reaching milestones.
  4. Also it would interesting to know that in 1943 – Out of total employees of West Coast shipbuilders in USA – 65% were women, it was the time when shipbuilding was at boom, then the salary of shipbuilding industry was 40% higher than normal service industry. This was time of world war II when most of the men were at war and shipbuilding was taken care by women, when it was at its peak.
  5. In many organizations for logistics or freight forwarding or shipping or in any other organization in maritime sector women are not only running the companies but making it grow faster. There are number of such names setting examples for more and more women to be motivated and join maritime industry.

9. Conclusion

Women empowerment is important because simply its good for all – including all units and sub units starting from global economy to country wise economy to strengthening of a family by a mother, wife. Sister or daughter – this is the need of humanity.

The journey of women getting their space in maritime industry has been both tough and slow but it is prominent. if it can grow at this pace, then with everyone working together can make it grow much faster. There has been a lot of efforts being put in all around the world in training, policy reforms, cultural change etc. and the results will be seen in coming years.

Time has come for maritime history to be written not only by people with names like Christopher Columbus but also by people with names like Captain Radhika Menon, Captain Kate McCue, ….and so on. Days will come and go but these names will remain to keep on motivating others.

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