Further improving maritime gender diversity will take action as well as attitude, writes WISTA International President Elpi Petraki, in a final call for submissions to the Women in Maritime survey.

Our industry is making steady progress on gender diversity – with more women working in various roles across multiple sectors today than ever before.

However, it is vital that we do not kid ourselves. Achieving change has taken unflinching commitment and the drive to break down barriers, not to mention decades of hard work.

Furthermore, much remains to be done. Complacency now could betray the work that has gone before and undermine our mission for equity and inclusion to be starting points for those joining the maritime workforce.

Three years ago, the IMO and WISTA International launched the first ever Women in Maritime survey to create a baseline for gender inclusion. The result was a benchmark to measure progress, identify successes and gaps in strategy, while also offering the maritime industry a mirror to look itself in the eye on the issue.

In 2024, we repeated the survey process, to map advances by IMO member states and the private sector, evaluate where progress has been real and where it has been lacking, and pinpoint obstacles to change.

Women in shipping have been pivotal in driving this initiative, whose purpose is not to shame or criticise but to inspire action, inform policies, and focus areas for additional attention, resources and encouragement.

We look forward to publishing the results of the survey in May 2025 as part of our International Day of Women in Maritime celebrations.

We are truly grateful for submissions to date, but we know that gathering information – particularly for large companies – can be challenging.

And because so many of you have reached out to ask for an extended deadline for survey submissions, we also know that we have your support.

As a result, we have decided to extend the deadline for survey submissions until January 31^st, 2025.

In doing so, we urge you to make time to make your submission. Your completed survey will help not only to develop understanding of our industry but also to advocate more effectively on behalf of women in shipping all over the world.

We need your submissions to help illuminate how and why opportunities remain unequal, when access to training is limited and why bias in leadership positions persists, so that these issues are impossible to ignore.

Our survey is designed to be completed by companies, non-governmental or intergovernmental organizations and private maritime training institutes/academies – by HR or its authorised proxy.

Filling it in shows a commitment to the UN Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 5 for gender equality. It will also help empower policymaking that addresses systemic issues and creates a more equitable industry.

If this is what we all want, experience also shows us that making the maritime sector more inclusive takes more than good intentions: we need action. Now, we ask for yours.

The IMO-WISTA Women in Maritime Survey (which can be accessed here) should only take about 30 minutes to complete. The IMO and WISTA International websites offer access to FAQs to facilitate information gathering ahead of filling it out.