Despite the opportunities that abound in the profession, sexual harassment and lack of passion have been identified as major reasons there are very few women in the seafaring profession.
The stakeholders who gathered in Lagos yesterday at a conference tagged "Sustainable Opportunities for Seafarers in Nigeria" organised by the Women's International Trading Association (WISTA) Nigeria and chaired by Capt Emmanuel Iheanacho, Chairman of Integrated Oil and Gas Limited.
While presenting the keynote paper, Mr. Amos Kuje, an Assistant Director at the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) said that very few women in seafaring are there because of passion. He also said the women are most times not given seatime experience.
Kuje stressed the need for awareness and information especially at secondary school level on the need for women to embrace seafaring as a profession.
According to him, women in seafaring are a minority in the shipping industry, particularly at sea, he said that 2% of the global seafaring workforce are women.
While presenting a report, 'The Gender and Multi Cultural Crew Project Report' a gender based report on female seafarers conducted round seven countries including United Kingdom, China and Nigeria, Kuje said "Among the women I interviewed, only one of then mentioned her passion for the job, even though she also reeled out a number of challenges, others see it as a competition that they want to go in, some wants to go and make friends, some see it as opportunity to travel and meet people of divers culture"
"In China, the cultural differences were that of communication and signs, in Nigeria the issue of harassment came up severally, in the United Kingdom it was a case of male dominance and bullying" he said.
"Awareness has been a major challenge, especially to younger people at school age, this is a vital stage to bring in more women into the sector, this was emphasized in all of the countries where the research was conducted.
Lack of public awareness of the shipping industry"
In her welcome address, President of WISTA Nigeria, Mrs Mary Hamman announced that WISTA has been given additional seat on the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) in a consultative capacity.
She said the appointment came in July 2018.
The high point of the event was the unveiling of the WISTA 2018 magazine with the Managing Director of Nigeria Ports Authority on the cover.
Hamman said monies realised from the yearly conference by the association is always expended to empower local players in the fishig sector as well as boat operators through acquiring fishing nets and boats.
Chairman of the occasion, Capt Emmanuel Iheanacho said there was no discrimination against the women folk in seafaring, he said the opportunity are the same provided the female is prepared to face the rigours of going to sea.
Iheanacho congratulated WISTA for it's appointment into the IMO, even as he charged the association to rather strive to belong to the World Trade Organisation (WTO) where most trade policies are formulated.
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