Shipping’s gender diversity issues now being looked at by the banks
Shipping’s poor gender equality ratios are now being looked at by ship financiers.
New York-listed handysize gas operator Navigator Holdings has entered into a $200m secured term loan facility with banks including Nordea, ABN AMRO, and BNP Paribas in a contract that includes a sustainability-linked margin adjustment with two key performance indicators (KPIs). One KPI is linked to fleet environmental criteria and the second is linked to percentage targets for women in leadership roles at Navigator each year, with an initial target of 22% by the end of 2023, increasing year by year to a final target of 35% of women in leadership roles by 2028.
Mads Peter Zacho, CEO of Navigator, said: “We are committed to improving gender diversity across the business in a sector that has traditionally been male dominated. As far as we are aware, this facility agreement linked to gender diversity is one of the first of its kind in the sector, and we are enthusiastic about achieving our targets supporting wider change in the industry.”
The 2022 annual review from the Diversity Study Group showed shipping’s ongoing troubles to have a more balanced workforce. Just 17.9% of shipping’s c-suite are women the survey showed.
Gender equality formed much of the discussion at yesterday’s Maritime CEO Forum held in Singapore with reports on the event set to be carried all week.
C’mon now…to be truly equal, women will need to also work in the yards, operate heavy equipment and perform all the difficult, hot laborious engine work too. Just executive careers doesn’t count for anything…that is equal at all. Men dominate that industry because it’s exactly what women, generally do not choose to go into.
Be careful what you wish for, you may get it. Or you might get something very different than you thought.
https://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2023/04/bud-light-executive-behind-dylan-mulvaney-campaign-takes-leave-of-absence.php
It would appear many corporations are desperately trying to “do the right thing” for some reason that likely, even they cannot properly articulate. By and large, most mariners out there are happy to accommodate females mariners (or other roles) at sea and ashore. It’s not just a numbers game. Its the culture altogether.
Sea going jobs at all levels are challenging to fill these days. Even with a substantially improved compensation packages. It’s about the hard work, the isolation, the lack of access to the internet to stay connected to family and friends and the overall generally poor treatment of seafarers on their ships/tugs. We are looked at as if we’re criminals that might bring on a plague onshore. If we are even allowed to go ashore, we have to pay for the privilege to get in a bus/van to go from the gangway to the front gate of a terminal … and then pay to do so. Both ways. Some terminals charge more for a shuttle van than a Uber ride into town. Some ‘fees’ to take a shuttle to the gate are more than a seaman makes in one day earnings.
Meanwhile, some in the industry are figuring out how to get rid of humans altogether and use robots and computers to operate ships.
Why would any “human” want to invest their own training and education into an industry that is trying to get rid of you?!?! This mindset infects ALL people … “of any gender”.
Further, you want fewer humans onboard to do ever increasing amounts of work. Then fatigue sets in and accidents happen. With that, everyone ashore and in the office blames the “human factor” and pats themselves on the back for their effort to get rid of humans, the very cause of the office headaches. Does anyone yet see how this issue perpetuates itself???
The industry doesn’t have a challenge hiring people of “any gender”. It’s having a hard time hiring anybody!