Respect at sea: IMO's International Day of the Seafarer 2025 aims for 'harassment-free' ships

In 2022, WISTA International, Anglo Eastern, International Seafarers Welfare and Assistance Network (ISWAN) and International Chamber of Shipping (ICS) conducted a public online survey designed to examine how female seafarers perceived discrimination and how it manifested on board vessels.

The survey covered 1,128 women seafarers from 78 countries, with 60% of women reporting encountering gender-based discrimination on board, 66% of respondents agreeing that male employees had turned to harassing and intimidating female co-workers and 25% reporting that in the shipping sector, physical and sexual harassment is common, occurring on board and involving violations of privacy. Notably, 90% of the respondents to the survey worked in the cruise sector.

At its May 2025 celebration of its International Day for Women in Maritime, IMO led panel discussions at the event focused on highlighting the voices of women who work or have worked at sea or for seafaring organisations. The discussions brought up themes of bullying and harassment, mental health challenges and in particular the challenge posed by the Covid-19 pandemic. 

"The issues that affect people or stop them from wanting to continue at sea are the same for men and women," said president of the Australasian Marine Pilots Institute Captain Josephine Clark.

Captain Clark noted the impact of a lack of shore leave – particularly during the Covid pandemic – as well as lack of access to internet connectivity as particular barriers for the shipping sector’s appeal. 

"The treatment of seafarers, generally, is not encouraging people to go to sea – and those issues affect women and men equally," she said.

Indeed, shipping is widely predicted to be on the verge of a ’crewing crisis’, with a 2021 BIMCO report predicting there will be a need for an additional 89,510 officers by 2026 to operate the world’s merchant fleet of ships. And, as marine ecologist and science communicator Alannah Vellacott said in a panel discussion on youth and conservation in the maritime sector, that took in aspects of shipping’s continuing diversity problem, "Half of the conversation is not attended by half of the population". Applied to the shipping sector, the sentiment shows that shipping will need to do more to reach, attract and retain the 49% of the world’s workforce that are women. And, while positive discrimination practices were cited by a few of the presenters, the practice was presented as an exception in shipping.

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