Maritime Authority to implement gender-responsive policies
The Ghana Maritime Authority (GMA) is to implement gender-responsive policies and programmes to encourage more women to take up job opportunities in the maritime industry.
The Director-General in charge of Finance and Administration of the GMA, Mr Yaw Akosa Antwi, said the policies, targeted at increasing women’s representation in the sector, would ensure equal employment opportunities and pay, as well as secure priority funding for gender research.
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They would also establish mentoring programmes, promote role models and educate schoolchildren on maritime activities and update statistics on women professionals in all sea-related matters, he said.
“As the government’s principal advisor on maritime affairs, the GMA is engaging with stakeholders to outline the implementation of gender-responsive policies and programmes in the industry,” he added.
Occasion
Antwi was speaking at a career counselling seminar as part of activities marking the GMA Week in Accra yesterday.
It was on the theme: “Empowering women in the maritime community”.
The event brought together stakeholders, including second-cycle students, to deliberate on the different job careers in the maritime industry.
The students were also sensitised to various courses they could pursue at the diploma, degree and master’s levels at the Regional Maritime University in Accra.
Breaking barriers
Mr Antwi said women formed only two per cent of the world’s 1.2 million seafarers, and that 94 per cent of the female seafarers worked in the cruise industry.
He blamed the low representation of women in the industry on the conservative mentality of society.
“Historically, the choice of a woman working in the maritime sector was often met with criticism, discouragement and sometimes downright disdain.
“In colleges, they were often seen as somewhat of an oddity,” he said, adding that the lack of proper guidance on the diverse opportunities and ways women could avail themselves of opportunities was also a major factor for their low participation in the industry.
He said he was glad that over the last two decades, women had been breaking the stereotypes and foraying into the maritime world, thereby creating an identity for themselves.
“These are the women who have refused to be bound by societal norms and charted an independent course. Strong and determined, they have fearlessly sailed beyond the horizon and created history,” Mr Antwi added.
Opportunities
The President of the Women’s International Shipping and Trading Association (WISTA), Mrs Jemilat Mahama, outlined the many job opportunities in the maritime sector and mentioned naval architecture, ship banking, marine engineering, oil drilling, ship brokering, ordinary seamanship, ship fitting, shipbuilding engineering and cruise ship designing as some of the specialities women could avail themselves of.
She, therefore, encouraged female students to pursue marine courses.