Denmark launched a new initiative in boosting women’s presence in the Danish maritime sector and supporting diversity, as Danish Shipping, reported that the first 14 companies will sign a charter that obliges them to actively focus on gender equality, called “Charter for more women in shipping”.
Accordingly, it has been reported that currently there are 20,000 men working in Danish shipping companies, in comparison to about 3,000 women.
Danish Shipping commented that the above numbers present an “uneven distribution that needs to be changed“, therefore they began this initiative.
The new charter obliges the shipping companies among other things to devise a strategy or plan to increase the proportion of women in the company and describe and put forward initiatives to support it. The companies are also required to develop and set targets for the proportion of women in the company and appoint a member of top management to be responsible for the action.
This initiative highlights the importance on gender diversity in the maritime sector, and gives companies the chance to attract more women, as they are “simply missing out on half the talent pool”, commented Anne H. Steffensen, Danish Shipping’s Director General and CEO.
Steffensen added that
The shipping companies themselves choose how they will organise the action. They run very different businesses and their starting points are different. Therefore, we will not try to push them to reach one specific goal.
Moreover, it is stated that Danish Shipping has an additional goal; The company aspires that by 2021 75% of shipping companies, which represent 75% of the employees should have joined the initiative.
Gender equality and women in shipping have been at the forefront the last year, supported by IMO that together with the World Maritime University (WMU), was raising awareness of the importance of gender equality with the “Empowering Women in the Maritime Community” theme.
