Discrimination in Yachting: Ghada “Lili” Soliman and the Career She Was Told Not to Imagine
Discrimination in yachting rarely needs a written rule to alter the course of a career. In an Antibes recruitment office, Ghada “Lili” Soliman recalls being advised not to imagine a senior future because she was Egyptian, English was not her first language, and the interviewer had never seen an Arab in such a position. She had gone there to build on the experience she had already gained aboard yachts. She left wondering whether the industry had room for the person she might become.
Discrimination in Yachting Begins Before a Promotion Is Discussed
Soliman did not enter maritime work through the usual crew route. Having studied architecture and engineering, she first worked on AutoCAD drawings for a fishing vessel being converted into a private yacht. The project brought her into contact with the captain and engineers and introduced her to an industry she had barely known. She later joined an operational luxury yacht, worked in Egypt, and travelled to Europe to widen her prospects.
The interview in Antibes made her ambition feel like a liability. She remembers a British applicant being received differently, while her own nationality and developing English became grounds for questioning how far she could go. The message she took away was blunt: there were no Arabs in senior positions, so she should not expect to be the first. The absence of visible leaders had been turned into a reason to discourage the next one.
She carried that judgment into her work. Soliman says she remained a stewardess for seven years, working hard while believing a senior role was beyond her reach. She is now a Chief Stewardess aboard a 74-metre yacht and the founder of The Inner Harbour. Her promotion demonstrates what that interviewer failed to see; it cannot restore the years in which she doubted her own prospects.
When a Reference Becomes a Threat
The agency interview was not the only early experience that taught Soliman to keep her ambitions small. In another position, she says a captain linked help with visa paperwork and a discharge-book signature to her coming to his cabin. She recalls him warning that refusal or speaking about it would bring a bad reference and end her chances of finding another job in yachting.
Soliman refused. Frightened and unsure how to leave without creating more trouble, she went to the chief engineer, who helped her write a resignation letter and accompanied her as a witness. She left the yacht believing the captain might still be able to ruin her career.
The details matter because a reference, a signature and practical help with paperwork can carry enormous weight for someone at the beginning of a career. In Soliman’s account, the chief engineer’s quiet intervention gave her a way to leave a situation in which she felt trapped. Her ability to say no should never have depended on finding that one person.
The Silence That Can Look Like Safety
Other forms of exclusion were less dramatic and harder to name. Soliman recalls assumptions that people from what colleagues called a “third world country” were less capable or less willing to work. When her English was less fluent, impatience from other crew made conversation difficult. She withdrew, and that withdrawal was then treated as evidence that she did not fit in.
She also describes mean remarks dressed up as jokes. When she objected, the response was that she had misunderstood because of her English. After enough of these exchanges, even deciding whether a comment was harmless became exhausting. She chose, in her words, to “stay small” and concentrate on the work.
Discrimination in yachting can persist through that sequence: an assumption, a reaction to the assumption, and a judgment about the reaction. The crew member who speaks less because she is repeatedly dismissed becomes the person others describe as distant. The label appears to confirm the very treatment that produced it.
Soliman eventually began to express her ideas and concerns calmly. She says colleagues started to ask what she thought, and her first Chief Stewardess role followed. She encourages crew to develop their communication skills and speak up when something is wrong. Her experience also places a responsibility on the people listening. A junior colleague cannot create psychological safety alone, especially when a senior person controls the reference she may need for her next job.
What Belonging Looks Like on a Working Yacht
Today, Soliman leads an interior team that includes British, South African, Turkish and Filipino crew. She holds a morning meeting and checks in with people individually during the day, asking how they feel and whether they need help. She invites ideas as readily as she gives instructions. Others have called her approach too soft. For a crew member accustomed to being overlooked, the invitation to contribute can be the difference between merely completing a task and developing into a leader.
She is candid about the habits she had to unlearn. When she first became Chief Stewardess, she believed a strong leader had to be certain and resist suggestions. Her team grew distant despite her concern for them. She took a break from yachting, studied leadership, and returned more willing to ask a simple question: “What do you think?”
One small exercise captures the shift. Rather than dictate a single method for making a bed, she asked her stews to show one another their techniques and compare what worked best. The task was ordinary; the change in who was allowed to teach was not. Experience could travel across the team instead of only down the hierarchy.
When Soliman considers who might be ready to lead, she looks for curiosity, openness to feedback and a willingness to grow. She asks captains and department heads to notice quieter crew as well as confident ones. Confidence is often built by being given opportunities. Waiting for it to appear before offering those opportunities can leave capable people unseen.
Soliman believes yachting has become more attentive to crew wellbeing during her 16 years in the industry, and that assumptions about Arab and Filipino crew in senior positions have begun to change. Her own career is evidence of possibility, but it also shows how much depends on the decisions made long before a promotion. An agency can assess ability without treating a passport as a forecast. A captain can ensure a refusal does not threaten a crew member’s future. A department head can ask the quieter person for an idea and take the answer seriously. That is how belonging becomes something a crew member can experience, rather than a promise the industry makes about itself.
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