To mark International Women’s Day 2022, our CEO, Theresa Crossley, was asked to contribute to a special Safety4Sea opinion column.

“What are the three top priorities to achieve the UN SDG#5* and empower women in the maritime community?”

*UN Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) #5 aims to “achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls”

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Theresa Crossley, Chief Executive Officer, International Maritime Rescue Federation (IMRF)

In 2019, IMRF launched its #WomenInSAR initiative to support women in the maritime Search and Rescue (SAR) sector.

There is no hard data for this sector, but we know anecdotally that women are hugely under-represented in both volunteer and paid positions.

At the end of last year, following an extensive survey, we published Guidance to help SAR organisations address this important issue.

Our top three recommendations are:

• Focus on the culture and values of your organisation. Adopt a top-down approach to embed a culture that is open and welcoming to women.
• Ensure recruitment campaigns use female role models, specifically target women and advertisements are placed where women will see them.
• Establish in-post support schemes for women, such as mentoring schemes.

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To read the whole article and to be inspired by other leading women in maritime industry, visit the Safety4Sea website.

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