According to a recent statement, Svitzer showed its commitment to focus and work towards reaching gender equality within the shipping industry by signing the Kvindercharter. This initiative, which was hosted by Danish Shipping, saw a total of 14 industry players signing the Charter to support the increase of female professionals employed within the shipping industry.
Namely, the document compels the signees to devise a strategy to increase the proportion of women in their companies, ensuring that women and men have equal opportunities to pursue a career in shipping.
Stine Thorup, Head of Global HR at Svitzer
This is just one of the many efforts we are determined to carry out to promote growth and innovation. It’s simply about talent. It represents our commitment to connect sea and shore with the right capabilities the market can offer us.
Currently, Svitzer counts a female CEO; 30% of women leaders and 40% women in the extended leadership team.
Last year alone, Svitzer showed significant commitment toward cultural change by training their first all-female crew, onboard of Svitzer Monte Cristi, providing harbour towage services in Santo Domingo. Svitzer noted that its responsibility for equality goes together with the commitment to inclusion.
Henriette Hallberg Thygesen, Svitzer’s CEO highlighted that
We have come a long way, but there is still a lot to be done. Diversity and inclusion are key levers to strengthen business results in the markets where we operate – and a necessary action for access to future and wider talent pools.
The company notes that having a diverse team is essential to breaking cultural biases between sea and shore, and to providing an international, combined experience. It is added that supporting equality in the workplace or investing in local talent are just some of the ways in which Svitzer is working towards achieving a skilled workforce.
What is more, as ILO has previously informed, the participation of more women in leadership roles is a major field of the global fight to equality. Besides, there are still indicators ringing the bell for the global community to shed its efforts for enabling more women in core business positions.
Currently, only 27% of the women employed hold managerial positions– while the share of female managers has hardly changed in two decades. According to ILO estimates, there are far fewer women than men in management globally, and progress in this area since the turn of the century has been virtually non-existent.
