Life as a Female Officer: The Challenges Nobody Ashore Sees

The Numbers Behind the Headlines

IMO's Women in Maritime survey, conducted across member state maritime administrations, has repeatedly found that women make up only a small fraction of the world's seafarers — commonly cited figures put it at around 1-2% of the global seagoing workforce, with wide variation between countries and sectors. Cruise shipping has historically had a higher proportion of women in its workforce than cargo shipping, though most of those roles have been in hospitality rather than navigation or engineering departments.

Among officers specifically — the people holding Certificates of Competency, standing watches, and working toward command — the proportion is smaller still. That scarcity shapes daily life in ways that don't always show up in diversity statistics or recruitment campaigns, which understandably focus on opportunity and progress rather than the texture of day-to-day experience.

What Changes When You're the Only One

1. Being the “First” on a Vessel, Repeatedly

Many female officers report being the first woman a particular crew has worked with in an officer role — sometimes more than once, on different vessels, years apart. Each time, there's an informal adjustment period: crew working out how to address her, whether existing habits and language need to change, whether she'll be treated the same as a male officer of equivalent rank. Most female officers describe this settling-in process as manageable but real — an extra layer of work that male colleagues joining the same vessel simply don't experience.

2. Authority Has to Be Established, Not Assumed

A male officer arriving with the right stripes on his shoulder boards is generally assumed to have the authority that rank confers. Female officers more often report having to demonstrate competence visibly and early before that same assumption kicks in — particularly with crew from cultural backgrounds where women in authority roles are less common ashore. This isn't universal, and many crews adjust quickly, but the “proving period” that male officers rarely think about is something many women describe as a recurring feature of joining a new ship.

3. Practical Things That Were Designed Around a Male Crew

PPE, foul weather gear, and even cabin/wash facilities on some vessels — particularly older tonnage — were designed at a time when an all-male crew was the unquestioned default. Properly fitting PPE matters for safety, not just comfort, and female officers have historically had to make do with sizing designed for a different body, or source their own. This is improving as more operators update PPE policies, but it remains an example of how infrastructure lags behind workforce change.

4. Visibility Cuts Both Ways

Being one of very few women on a vessel, or in a fleet, means standing out — which can mean genuine recognition and opportunity (companies actively wanting to showcase progress, mentorship offers, visibility for promotion). It can also mean being watched more closely, having mistakes noticed and discussed more than they might be for a male colleague doing the same job, and feeling that one person's performance gets read as representative of “how women do at sea” in a way no individual should have to carry.

5. The Question of “Is It Worth Raising?”

Most female officers report that the overwhelming majority of their colleagues and crews are professional and welcoming. But when something does go wrong — an inappropriate comment, an assumption about competence, exclusion from informal social dynamics that matter for team cohesion — there's often a calculation about whether raising it is worth the potential fallout, particularly mid-contract on a vessel you can't simply leave. Reporting channels that work, and a track record of companies acting on reports without making the reporter's life harder, matter enormously here.

What's Genuinely Changing

None of this is static. WISTA International and similar organisations have built substantial networks connecting women across the maritime industry, providing mentorship and visibility that didn't exist a generation ago. The 2025 update to the Maritime Labour Convention introduced provisions specifically addressing facilities and protections for female seafarers. IMO's Women in Maritime programme has shifted from raising awareness to setting targets, and individual operators increasingly track and report on gender diversity in their seagoing workforce as part of ESG commitments that charterers and investors are starting to ask about.

What Helps

For women currently at sea or considering a seagoing career, the experiences shared by those already in officer roles consistently point to a few things that make the biggest difference: working for companies with a demonstrable (not just stated) record on diversity, having a mentor — ideally someone who's navigated the same path — and building a professional network that extends beyond any single vessel or company, so support and perspective are available regardless of who you're currently sailing with. Building that network early in a career is one of the most consistently cited pieces of advice from women already in command roles.