Barriers to women entering shipping are slowly being eroded but are still very much in place, Celebrity Cruises chief executive Lisa Lutoff-Perlo says.
Passengership owners hire 94% of the women working in all maritime sectors, but only 2% of all 1.2m seafarers worldwide are female, according to the International Maritime Organization.
“It is no secret that women have been under-represented or flat out discouraged from pursuing careers in the maritime industry,” said Lutoff-Perlo, whose company is part of Royal Caribbean Group.
“The reality is that this industry has unique challenges and requirements, so some feel that women are just not suited to this industry. That couldn’t be more inaccurate.”
She said this attitude has faded as women have proved themselves to be as capable as men. But the cruise sector still has far to go to give women an equal footing.
“It always frustrates me that women make up more than 50% of the world’s population, yet continue to be so under-represented in politics, C-Suite positions and in some industries — like ours,” she said.
Lutoff-Perlo, 63, talks from experience, having joined Royal Caribbean International as district sales manager in 1985 after working as a travel advisor for Crimson Travel.
She eventually became associate vice president of national and corporate sales for Celebrity Cruises and Royal Caribbean International before being named Celebrity Cruises’ vice president of onboard revenue in 2005.
Seven years later, she rose to the role of Royal Caribbean International’s senior vice president of marine and hotel operations before being promoted to president and chief executive of Celebrity Cruises in 2014.
Lutoff-Perlo quickly made strides as Royal Caribbean Group’s first female brand chief executive, hiring Kate McCue in her first year as the US’ first female cruiseship captain.
She gained further steam in her leadership role, announcing in 2015 that Celebrity Cruises would be the first cruise line to hold same-sex marriages.
Lutoff-Perlo — who received the Cruise Lines International Association’s Lifetime Achievement Award in 2019 — said her voyage to the top was not always met with applause.
“When I joined operations in 2005, women executives were rare or non-existent and so I did encounter acceptance issues after I took on the role,” she said. “Despite the challenges I encountered, I never let them deter me and I persevered and changed minds — one at a time.”
She still received the cold shoulder for years from many male colleagues despite reaching vice-president status, but kept her sights on moving ahead.
“The men I worked with did not respect my background or experience and did not welcome me,” she told TradeWinds.
“As a matter of fact, my boss at the time had an 8.30am daily meeting with all his leaders, except me. I was excluded.
“I didn’t let it deter me. I carried on, achieved stellar results, and within nine months my boss was no longer there.”
Royal Caribbean has improved its gender balance, most notably by bringing the percentage of women on its ships’ bridges to 27%. But Lutoff-Perlo said the entire cruise sector still needs to hire more women.
“While I am proud of all of the progress we have made in terms of diversity and inclusion, I do believe our journey is one of continuous improvement.
“As the world changes, and our country deals with the systemic social inequities, we are committed to listening, changing and addressing areas where we can improve as a company.”
To that end, she said Royal Caribbean pushed the IMO to recognise Ghana’s Regional Maritime University as an accredited school so that its graduates could work in the cruise industry.
“As a result of that effort, we were able to hire the first West African woman to work on the bridge of a cruiseship: Nicholine Tifuh Azirh, who joined Celebrity in 2017.”
The cruise sector and maritime industry are making headway in removing barriers to women and minorities — albeit one step at a time, Lutoff-Perlo said.
More importantly, passengers are demanding it: “The positive news is that there is a tremendous amount of focus on this right now.
“There has been no better time than now. If you run into roadblocks or rejection, don’t let it deter you. I have spent my life and career turning a ‘no’ into a ‘yes’. I have used ‘no’ as motivation to get what I want and know I deserve.”
