Women at sea face gender discrimination
Sophia Onken, partner and clinical psychologist at Mental Health Support Solutions (MHSS), which provides professional mental health support and guidance in the maritime sector, expressed her commitment during the ‘Wellbeing For Women In Shipping’ webinar on 14 May 2021.
The aim of this event was not only to explore the challenges facing female crew members such as sexual harassment, bullying, gender discrimination and the stresses of life abroad a vessel, but also to find solutions and strategies to face these issues.
According to a survey on women seafarers' health and welfare, 18% of the 595 women crewmembers who responded said they had been sexually harassed while on board. Referring to the report ‘Employment of women at sea’, Onken underlines that “while most respondents (63%) believed that females should be given the opportunity to work at sea, only 19.6% agreed that women could be as competent as men.”
While seafaring is seen as a prime cause of stress-related suicide among men, Christian Ayerst, CEO of MHSS, says “some women also experience work-related stress and physical concerns when aboard a ship, which can lead to suicide attempts.”
Encouraging women to join the sector could be “a long way to reversing, or at least reducing, these problems,” Onken concludes. (amh)