Class society Lloyd’s Register hopes its ongoing work to highlight women’s achievements in shipping can inspire the next generation.
The UK group believes female under-representation is an issue that stretches across all safety-critical sectors, not just maritime.
Last year, the class society launched its joint initiative with the Lloyd’s Register Foundation, Rewriting Women into Maritime History, with the She_Seas exhibition at the International Maritime Organization headquarters in London.
This features the stories of women in a range of occupations, including maritime law and ship surveyors, past and present.
Lloyd’s Register worked with portrait photographer and visual artist Emilie Sandy, and weaver and artist Erna Janine to bring the stories to life.
Claudene Sharp-Patel, global technical director at Lloyd’s Register, told TradeWinds: “I hope that the Rewriting Women into Maritime History project moves the conversation on gender diversity in the sector forward and helps kick-start a drive for more women and people from diverse backgrounds to pursue a career in shipping.
“It is something I am incredibly proud to be a part of and it is critical if we are to find the solutions to one of the biggest issues facing maritime,” she added.
Sharp-Patel argues that encouraging diversity across all disciplines is key if more women are to be welcomed into a career in shipping, engineering, or any other historically male-dominated sector.
“Around the world, women are a minority in STEM [science, technology, engineering, and mathematics]. I have seen this throughout my professional career, particularly in studying engineering. To me, it comes as no surprise that women make up just 35% of higher education STEM students in the UK,” she said.
The engineer added: “By working together, I hope we can learn from the past, change the trajectory of the future and celebrate women currently working in the industry, some of whom I have had — and still have — the pleasure of working with, that are leading the way in the sector today.”
Variety of voices needed
Sharp-Patel’s work on future fuels and decarbonisation requires a variety of voices and experiences to come together for the same goal, with a diverse “out of the box” way of thinking, she explained.
“This supports why the maritime industry needs to welcome people from all different backgrounds to encourage creative thinking and diverse problem solving,” the engineer said.
Research from the IMO found that women currently account for just 29% of the overall industry workforce — a figure that drops to 2% when it comes to female seafarers on vessels.
