On November 20, 2018, a United Nations trade report said women are entering the shipping and maritime sector in greater numbers, but the industry still has deep gender gaps in pay, promotion and access to leadership.
The United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, in its Review of Maritime Transport (2018), said women are increasingly taking roles in seafaring, operations, chartering, insurance and law. It also noted that more women are enrolling in maritime-related studies, helped by efforts from the International Maritime Organization, the International Labour Organization and the International Transport Workers’ Federation.
Even with that progress, the report said women’s participation in maritime work remains low at an estimated 2 per cent, with clear job segregation still in place. It cited a 2017 Maritime HR Association survey showing that women in shipping were paid on average 45 per cent less than men and held only 7 per cent of management positions.
UNCTAD said closing the gender gap could also help address the sector’s shortage of skilled workers. The report pointed to two main barriers: working conditions and gender stereotyping.
For seafaring jobs, the report said working conditions can include a lack of shipboard amenities and weak support for interruptions linked to childbearing and care responsibilities. It mentioned flexible hours, maternity benefits and childcare facilities as examples of measures that could help. It also said harassment and violence remain recurring concerns in the sector.
The report said these conditions push some women away from maritime careers or force early exits from the industry. It added that more than 76 per cent of women in the workforce are concentrated in administrative, junior and professional roles, with few reaching managerial levels.
Women account for only 0.17 per cent of executive leadership teams, the report said, adding that the biggest hurdle is moving from professional to senior professional ranks. In technical, marine, safety and quality-related functions, women make up 14 per cent of the workforce, a figure the report linked to the small number of women seafarers moving ashore into other roles.
The report also said women are heavily concentrated at junior level, while 90 per cent of all other employees are men. In chartering, women make up 17 per cent of the workforce, with better representation at professional and managerial levels than in technical roles. In commercial functions, women represent 33 per cent of workers and are better represented across all levels than in the other categories.
Countries with the widest salary gaps, the report said, do not have women on executive leadership teams and employ very few at directorial level. Outside junior and administrative posts, men are paid more than women on average.
The UNCTAD report said women’s expected career span at sea is about 10 years and that many think about leaving their jobs in their early 30s. It linked that trend to gender stereotyping, which it said can make workplaces unwelcoming or openly hostile.
Speaking at the Jumuiya Ya Kaunti Za Pwani (JKP) Agri-business and Blue Economy conference in Mombasa, UN gender adviser Qeen Katembo said women must be fully included if the Blue Economy agenda is to succeed.
“Women play an important role in the maritime and the Blue economic sectors. Therefore you must involve them in every aspect in contributing to the tapping of the resources. JKP therefore has an obligation in ensuring that the role of women in achieving the dreams of the Blue Economy are achieved,” she said.
She added: “We cannot talk of sustainable regional economic development if we sideline women.”
Katembo said the UN report makes clear that more women must be enabled to enter shipping and maritime work in order to “tap into the dream of the blue economy agenda”.
Christopher Aura, assistant director for Fresh Water Systems at the Kenya Marine and Fisheries Institute (Kemfri), said the number of women entering maritime sectors has been small but is now rising. He said traditional beliefs had slowed participation, but that was changing.
“Generally it is true that more women are increasing especially in the marine and the value chain. Their number as been low because of traditional beliefs but things are changing now,” he said.
Aura also pointed to clothing expectations in water-related work, saying: “For example if you have to go into water, they have to wear trousers, short and other gadgets that seem unfit for a woman to wear,” Mr Aura said.
