An Examination of the Pivotal Role of Female Seafarers and the Underlying Challanges

Abstract

Female seafarers are a set of women that work inside the vessel or any type of maritime transport under fluctuating weather conditions over a period of time with the sole aim of ensuring a seamless transportation of oil, chemicals, containers,passengers, cargoes and other types of freight from origin to destination. Even though the safety and security of women at sea is not guaranteed, it has not in any way dissuaded these calibre of women from pursuing this career path. This job description is quite rigourous and this study categorises the work of the female seafarer into operational, navigational, health safety, communication and leadership duties. Any interruption in any of these duties will have severe financial implications. The pivotal role of female seafarers is to boost international trade. Hence both female and male seafarers are drivers of international trade. There are several reasons why a woman will embrace this job in spite of the inherent challenges as this study indicates. One of the several reasons that the respondents indicated was to increase the number of female seafarer from 1.2%. The focus of this research is to examine the pivotal role of women at sea to the global economy and the underlying challenges. A structured questionnaire is developed and sent to a set of 50 female seafarer. Hence, this research contributes to the body of knowledge on the role of women at sea, and what can be done to motivate them to continue with this herculean tasks of contributing to the global economy