WOMEN IN SHIPPING

Women in shipping

Women in shipping

Welcomed with respect and recognition: Women are entering male dominated business sectors, and shipping is no exception. The professional challenges are not greater for women than for men. The Shipping industry only has a handful of female ship surveyors and would like to have many more. The fact that women are in general regarded as being better at communicating than men is an advantage. Some people even claim that the entry of women into the male-dominated shipping environment has made the working environment more diverse and inspiring.

DNV Forum has followed four female surveyors at work in Rotterdam, Stockholm and Dalian. They are welcomed with respect and full recognition of their professional qualities.

”It's important for shipping industry to have role models that show there are no boundaries preventing women from doing the job as well as men,” says Gunnar Rostad, Human Resources Director in DNV Maritime.

All these women are examples of skilled female employees who have succeeded in their fields. “It has always been our belief that shipping industry is an interesting workplace for women, not least due to its international aspect, with the opportunity to work at shipyards or from station. Experience from production and service fields is often a prerequisite for achieving a career in shipping. This applies just as much for men as for women,” he concludes.

The past decades their has been a dramatic increase of women participating in the labour force from countries all over the world including Canada. In 1950, one Canadian worker in five was a woman. By 1980 this percentage had doubled, and women are expected to make up more than 44 percent of the labour force by the end of this century.

The increase in female participation started occurring during the 1970's. This increase also caused the largest baby boom that the Canadian female labour force had ever witnessed. In North America it is common for women to have part-time or summer jobs, and the participation rate of teenage girls is high. It is also mostly high throughout the world in places as United Kingdom because of the fewer women going to school. But in places like France, Italy, and Japan the female participation rate is very low. In most of the countries the labour force is most participated in the age groups between 20 and 24. The labour force of mature women is very high in Sweden, because of the encouraged day care facilities which also provides the females with legislation that provides them with excellentbenefits. In Japan there is a drop in female economic activity, the reason why is it affects their marriage and the care of their only child.

An observation of labour force participation rates in Canada show that female rates rose a lot between 1971 and 1981, while the male rate rose unnoticeably. The increase in the female participation rate was found in all age groups except in older women. For women aged 15 to 19 the rate was as almost as high as the ...