Shipping still not facing up to diversity issues

Less than one in five Splash readers think shipping is doing enough to address diversity issues within the shipping industry.

81% of voters in the current MarPoll, Splash’s quarterly survey, reckon shipping is not making a concerted effort to address its diversity issues.

Preliminary results from a Diversity Study Group survey reported by Splash in May highlighted gender disparity at management level and a need for progress on pay gap and workplace culture across maritime.

The results from the Diversity Study Group, organised by Halcyon Recruitment, show a stark disparity in gender balance. Strikingly, 95% of respondents working in senior management roles are male.

The results also show a lack of ethnic diversity at C-suite, director and head of department level, with respondents identifying as white comprising by far the largest proportion of these roles.

The current Splash survey – which also covers the post-Covid markets and the crew change crisis – has already drawn hundreds of comments.

“Shipping uses the wrong definitions of diversity. It thinks that gender, age, ethnicity, race, sexual orientation are the only diversity issues. It never asks if we have enough diversity of thinking,” one reader commented. 

Another voter suggested: “It’s a problem, but it may be one that nobody wants to dig too deeply into as the results may not follow as people would expect. The Halcyon report was a good start, but the questions and analysis need a lot of work to provide a true picture into diversity within the industry.”

To vote takes as little as two minutes to complete and there is no registration. Results will be carried in the next issue of Maritime CEO magazine. 

To vote, click here.