Over the past weeks, our human sustainability team has focused on two groups of seafarers whose stories often go untold.

Our project manager for human sustainability, Harpa Hrönn Stefánsdóttir, spoke at the ‘I EXIST TOO’ event in Malta, a unique gathering focused on visibility, inclusion, and solidarity for LGBTQ+ seafarers. There, Harpa shared insights from our Diversifying Maritime Leadership project. This work has brought together the voices of over 110 maritime professionals, from junior officers to captains and C-suite leaders. While the project wasn’t focused exclusively on LGBTQ+ inclusion, it quickly became clear how few LGBTQ+ voices were visible or felt safe enough to be fully open.

“Being away from your personal network for months at a time and not feeling safe to be who you are is mentally exhausting,” Harpa said. “The maritime industry must do better to ensure everyone feels a sense of safety and belonging, regardless of identity.”

Another group that struggles with visibility are women who either become pregnant while working at sea or feel forced to choose between starting a family and the profession they love.

Our human sustainability project coordinator, Hana Nguyenova, is currently working on an initiative called Pregnancy@Sea to highlight the unique and deeply painful dilemma that women face when they must balance the desire for family life with a seafaring career.

”Throughout the project, I’ve spoken to women who felt they had to abandon a part of themselves to become mothers,” Hana said. “I’ve heard from seafarers who carefully timed pregnancies between contracts, going without income during that time just to hold onto their careers. Others described hiding their pregnancies out of fear of being disembarked, losing their job, or being treated differently. One woman told me that the moment she confirmed her pregnancy, she knew her time at sea was over.”