Why is Women in Maritime still such a small percentage of the global seafaring workforce?

The issue is structural: limited visibility of maritime careers for girls and young women, inflexible sea-going pathways, and persistent onboard culture challenges including harassment and isolation. Addressing representation requires systemic changes, not awareness campaigns alone.

What does strong leadership look like onboard when safety is the priority?

Strong leadership combines technical competence with behavioural awareness. It creates psychological safety so crew can speak up early, report fatigue, and surface risks before they escalate into incidents.

How does crew culture influence safety outcomes?

Culture determines whether errors are hidden or addressed. Where learning is prioritised over blame, crews raise concerns sooner, and safety systems function as intended rather than as paperwork.

How can maritime companies improve recruitment and retention for Women in Maritime?

Practical steps include visible pathways and role models, clear reporting and accountability mechanisms, leadership training focused on culture, and flexible career structures that allow progression without forcing a choice between sea time and life milestones.

Why does inclusion matter operationally, not just ethically?

Maritime faces recruitment and retention pressure. Broadening participation strengthens the talent pipeline and improves team decision-making by reducing blind spots and raising the standard of communication and accountability.

What is the link between mental health and maritime safety?

Mental health affects attention, judgement, and risk perception. Leaders who normalise support, identify strain early, and build trust reduce the likelihood that stress and fatigue become precursors to incidents.

Women in Maritime: Leadership, Safety, and the Stories That Rarely Get Told

Maritime is an industry shaped by pressure. Few voices understand this more clearly than Julia Gosling, whose work across maritime safety, communications, and leadership has spanned both operational reality and institutional decision-making. Decisions are made in confined spaces, often far from shore, where mistakes carry immediate consequence and leadership is tested not in theory, but in practice. It is an environment that prizes competence, resilience, and experience, yet continues to overlook a significant part of the talent capable of strengthening all three.

For all its global importance, maritime remains largely unseen by those it serves. Even less visible are the women working within it, operating across commercial fleets, yachting, fishing, ports, and regulatory bodies. Their presence is not new, but it has rarely been centred, despite the influence they exert on safety, performance, and crew culture.

Women still account for roughly two percent of the global seafaring workforce, a figure that has remained largely unchanged for decades. In an industry grappling with recruitment shortages, fatigue, and rising scrutiny around welfare, that statistic is no longer peripheral. It is structural.

Julia Gosling’s perspective is shaped by nearly two decades inside the UK Maritime and Coastguard Agency, working across search and rescue, commercial shipping, fishing safety, and national behaviour-change campaigns. That experience informs a clear-eyed view of leadership as a lived responsibility rather than a title.

Leadership Beyond Rank

“Technical competence keeps a vessel moving, but leadership behaviour determines whether people feel safe enough to speak before something goes wrong.”

Maritime leadership has long been defined by hierarchy. Rank, sea time, and authority matter, particularly when conditions deteriorate and clarity is essential. Yet history shows that hierarchy alone does not prevent failure. Incidents rarely stem from a single technical fault. More often, they emerge from silence, fatigue, or a culture where questioning decisions is quietly discouraged.

Effective leaders recognise what is not being said. They notice changes in behaviour, lapses in attention, and disengagement before these become hazards. They understand that safety briefings are meaningless if crew do not believe they can raise concerns without consequence. This awareness does not weaken command. It reinforces it.

In modern maritime operations, leadership is increasingly defined by self-awareness. The strongest leaders are not those who claim to have mastered the role, but those who continue to refine it, seeking training, inviting feedback, and recognising that experience does not make anyone immune to error.

Safety as a Cultural Outcome

“A boat is a structure. People give it a heartbeat.”

Across commercial shipping, fishing fleets, and superyachts alike, the human element remains one of the most consistent contributors to maritime incidents. Procedures exist. Checklists are completed. Equipment is certified. Yet failures continue to occur where culture erodes vigilance.

Safety is not a standalone policy. It is the cumulative result of daily behaviour, of how mistakes are handled, and of whether learning is prioritised over blame. Crews that feel respected and psychologically safe surface issues earlier. Crews that do not, hide them.

As operations grow more complex and margins tighten, the relationship between safety and performance becomes increasingly clear. Productivity and safety are not competing priorities. In practice, they rise and fall together.

Women in Maritime and the Talent Gap

“An industry facing a recruitment crisis cannot afford to overlook half the workforce.”

Despite incremental progress ashore, life at sea remains structurally resistant to change. Maritime careers are rarely presented as viable pathways for girls at school. Progression routes are opaque. Role models are scarce. Rotations and contract structures remain inflexible, particularly for those who may wish to combine seafaring with family life.

More difficult to confront is the reality that many women who do enter maritime roles experience harassment, bullying, or isolation. These are not edge cases. They are recurring themes, particularly in environments where reporting mechanisms feel distant and accountability unclear.

And yet, where women are supported and retained, their impact is tangible. Mixed teams consistently demonstrate stronger communication, higher organisational discipline, and greater collective accountability. These outcomes are not about gendered traits. They are the result of perspective, balance, and challenge to uniform thinking.

Performance Through Balance

“Two plus two only makes five when teams are not built from the same mould.”

High-performing maritime teams are rarely homogenous. Diversity, whether of gender, background, or cognitive approach, introduces productive friction. It challenges assumptions, reduces blind spots, and improves decision-making under pressure.

In guest-facing sectors such as yachting, the effects are immediately visible. Crews that feel valued and psychologically safe deliver higher standards of service, greater consistency, and stronger cohesion. Culture onboard is not an abstract concept. It is experienced directly by those on board.

Redefining the Future of Maritime

“Inclusion is not an ethical add-on. It is an operational necessity.”

As the industry confronts labour shortages, regulatory scrutiny, and rising expectations around welfare, inherited models are no longer sufficient. Leadership, safety, and representation are not separate conversations. They are interconnected systems shaping every voyage and every career spent at sea.

Progress will not come from slogans or token appointments. It will come from structural change, visible leadership, and a willingness to question long-held assumptions about who belongs at sea and who leads there.

Women in maritime are not a niche story. They are central to the resilience, credibility, and future sustainability of the industry itself.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ir-FfeItgms

A candid Captain’s Chat with Julia Gosling, exploring leadership, safety culture, and why women in maritime remain underrepresented across the global seafaring workforce.