International Day for Women in Maritime 2022

Today marks the inaugural "IMO International Day for Women in Maritime" where as an industry, we come together to celebrate all women working in maritime whether at sea or ashore.

This years theme is 'Training-Visibility-Recognition: Supporting a barrier-free working environment'.

At the Honourable Company, we are proud of have members from all walks of life and we champion all.We asked three of our memberswhat the International Day for Women in Maritime meant to them.

Meet Heather Enness

As a woman in maritime, I get asked to write articles or be a speaker at events quite often, and I will always be happy to doso,it’s no secret that I am an advocate for women (and mummies) at sea, and careers at sea in general, I do like to point out though that I work just as hard as my colleagues and celebrate the little wins with all, despite gender.I often read of comments such as ‘why do women get their special days’ and ‘why should women be singled out when they’re after equality’, well, the truth is, that women are very good at empowering other women, women unite together to lift each other up, and I would imagine that this is one of the main reasons that this International day has come about.I, personally am one for inclusion, and don’t necessarily need a special day to celebrate people, but what I would say is that I am proud to be part of the era where Women get celebrated within a very male dominated industry, not just on the International Day for Women in Maritime, or other International days, but on a day to day basis.

Meet Rosie Staples

My first job was working on a fishing boat when I was 14 and I enjoyed it so much that 14 years later I find myself a Merchant Navy deck officer and a Royal Navy Reserves officer. I still find the same joy in the small pleasures of working at sea as I did in 2006 - and genuinely cannot see another career for me.In the Royal Navy I have never felt I have been treated differently to my male counterparts, in the Merchant Navy I cannot say the same.However I do believe that there is a misconception that working in this industry is harder for women than for men. I don’t think that’s fair, I believe that all jobs at sea are hard and the hurdles I, and other women face today are significantly less than those that the women who came before us faced. We still need to strive for absolute equality but, I believe, the way we will do this is by continuing to work at the same level as our male colleagues, raising awareness of inequality when we see it and continually educating those who do not strive for progress towards equality.As women at sea we need to continue be the best ambassadors we can be, so that the next women walk onto a level playing field.

Meet Sarah Macleod

I am proud to be a woman working at sea, it is such a varied and rewarding career.I feel lucky to be part of this industry and send out kudos to all of the other female seafarers working around the globe.