Unemployment, Rejection, SeaTime

Constitue Setback for Nigeria Female Seafarers- Research

ZAINAB JUNAID 

Women are feminine gender that always shouldered series of responsibilities with greater success. There is no field where they've not shown their worth. Their economic empowerment have always increase productivity, economic diversification and also leads to positive development outcomes of a country.

Their involvement in different trade, seafaring trade especially has been a welcome development with a growing phenomenon but are restricted by many challenges.

Being a conventionally man's world, seafaring is a profession some women feared to take up as a profession. However, the courageous ones are being restricted  by many challenges which includes sexual harrassment, job denials, anxiety, isolation, loneliness, gender inequality. These among others have made some female seafarers to feel at some time in their period that they've made biggest mistake of choosing a career at sea.

These problems have been a global trending issue with Nigeria not left out and it has reduced the participation of women in the industry.

At this year's International Women's Day, the International Maritime Organisation(IMO) confirmed that there is still gender imbalance in Maritime Industry, as women still only represent a tiny fraction of the global seafarer workforce. A number that looks a little bleak.

It estimated that there are 1.2 million seafarers across the world with Women making up 34% of the shore-based workforce in shipowning companies; Women account for 29% of the overall workforce in the general industry; account for 20% of the workforce of national maritime authorities in IMO Member States; Female staff in search and rescue teams in national maritime authorities account for only 10% of the workforce; Women seafarers make up just 2% of the crewing workforce which is predominantly in the cruise industry

However, just 1.28% of Standards of Training, Certification and Watchkeeping for Seafarers (STCW) certified seafarers across the globe are women. A percentage that is daunting.

The president of Female Seafarers Association of Nigeria(FESAN), Mrs Koni Duniya also confimed presence of gender inequality and unemployment problem faced by female seafarers in Nigeria.

Speaking as a facilitator at the Maritime Writes Project organised by Ezinne Azunna in Lagos recently, FESAN President, Mrs Koni Duniya disclosed that there is higher patronage of men than their female counterparts in most female dominated work. 

In her paper titled "Pushing for Equity& Justice: The Story of Female Seafarers in Nigeria", Mrs Koni noted that Female participation in Nigeria has not being encouraging.

A situation where most vessel owners tell you that their vessel specification does not encourage female participation in seafaring, which means that they don’t have ships that allows one cabin to one woman. In this situation, Isolation set in for the female involved because they will want to have four to five seafarers onboard using one cabin and the female involved will not want to stay in the midst of the male seafarers".

To her, "Unemployment issue is the problem we are currently facing in Nigeria. We have enough female seafarers who have Certificate of Competency, but most of them are jobless. But, if many female seafarers are thriving and are gainfully employed, the profession will become attractive to young female students who aspire to work on ships.

Further Research also revealed that most Nigerian female seafarers are faced with the issue of Sea Time(all the time spent working on a ship at sea that is actively sailing for cargo transportation and is not the complete amount of time a Seafarer spends at sea which also at the port). The SeaTime is a document provided by the department head (chief engineer and ship captain) to the seafarer, endorsing that the seafarer has sailed on the ship for a particular period of time. Close to 50 Nigerian female seafarers falls victim of this and this called for urgent intervention of the appropriate Authorities in the sector to deploy efficient redressal mechanism.

Strong and efficient redressal mechanism is highly required to resolve the issues of women seafarers. Efforts should be taken to eliminate the social stigma attached to women seafarers in Nigeria.

It has been a ray of hope seeing feminine gender aspiring for a career in the maritime sector, and government intervention is needed, knowing fully well that investing in women is the most effective way to lift communities, companies, and countries. Nations with more gender equality have better economic growth.

Just as International Maritime Organisation (IMO) supports gender equality and the empowerment of women through gender specific fellowships by facilitating access to high-level technical training for women in the maritime sector in developing countries; creating the environment in which women are identified and selected for career development opportunities in maritime administrations, ports and maritime training institutes; facilitating the establishment of professional women in maritime associations, particularly in developing countries, relevant authorities in Nigeria's maritime sector need as a matter of urgency to put into consideration Nigerian Female Seafarers who have Certificate of Competency and are strongly qualified.