The Global Maritime Forum has released a report which shares the results from a study conducted by the All Aboard Alliance in the Diversity@Sea initiative, identifying the 15 ‘key pain points’ for women at sea following an analysis of interviews with 115 women seafarers serving onboard.
As explained, the report aims to create better transparency and help spread awareness of the major challenges experienced by women at sea and that many will join us on our mission to identify adequate and sustainable solutions for each of the 15 critical pain points.
A career at sea must be more inclusive to become attractive to women seafarers and everyone interested in pursuing a career at sea.
…the Global Maritime Forum said.
The 15 key pain points fall into four different categories:
- The difficulty of succeeding professionally at sea for women (i.e., being perceived as less competent than male coworkers, not having equal access to training or tasks onboard, and having to outperform male peers to get respected or promoted).
- Social relations onboard can be especially challenging for women at sea (i.e., feeling isolated or unsupported because of their gender, the concern of gossip or rumours, or power abuse or sexual harassment and sexual misconduct onboard).
- Systemic employment challenges at sea (i.e., service contracts at sea being too long, lack of family planning options such as maternity leave or sea-shore rotation programmes, resulting in many women having to choose between a career at sea OR starting a family, in turn pushing women seafarers to find employment elsewhere, and finally, many companies still not willing to recruit women seafarers).
- Physical conditions onboard (i.e., lack of access to female sanitary products onboard or lack of access to adequately fitted Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) such as boiler suites, fire gloves etc., or lack of access to designated women’s changing rooms, bathrooms, etc. onboard).
To explore the challenges and give voice to women seafarers, a total of 115 interviews were conducted, asking women seafarers from different ranks, geographies, and parts of the maritime industry the following questions:
- How long have you been working as a seafarer?
- Have you worked on vessels with other women seafarers?
- What is your preferred ratio/number of women seafarers onboard a vessel?
- What have been the obstacles you have experienced in your life at sea?
- What has made life at sea a positive experience for you?
- What else can be done to better prepare vessels and crews for more women seafarers onboard? (e.g., culture, leadership, and contracts etc.)
- What could have changed to make you stay at sea?
From analysing the women seafarers’ ideas and recommendations for the industry, the Global Maritime Forum identified 15 pain points or challenges, which can be grouped into four categories.
15 key pain points/ challenges
Category 1: Difficult for women to succeed professionally at sea
#1 A culture onboard where women get treated as ‘less’ competent than their male colleagues
#2 Women having to outperform male peers to be perceived as competent
#3 Women having unequal access to on-the-job training onboard
#4 Getting assigned different tasks than male colleagues
Category 2: Challenging social relations onboard
#5 A culture in which (avoiding) rumors and gossip is a concern
#6 Women feeling isolated, unsupported and/or alone onboard
#7 Power abuse by officers
#8 Sexual abuse and sexual harassment
Category 3: Employment challenges at sea
#9 Contracts at sea are too long
#10 Lack of family planning option, included maternity leave and sea-shore rotation programs
#11 Companies not wanting to recruit women
#12 Women seafarers go elsewhere
Category 4: Physical conditions onboard
#13 Access to female sanitary products onboard
#14 Access to appropriate PPE equipment, e.g. boilersuit size, fire suits and boot sizes
#15 Access to designated woman changing rooms, bathrooms, laundry area, etc.
EXPLORE MORE BY READING THE REPORT HERE
