By Vladislava Iordanova, Ambassador of Belgium to the Philippines, and Sonia Malaluan, Administrator of Maritime Industry Authority (Marina)
Global maritime transport continues to grow, creating jobs at sea and ashore from ports and logistics to shipbuilding, safety, and maritime governance.
This expansion offers unprecedented opportunities to attract new talent and rethink how the sector evolves — yet the maritime industry still draws on only a fraction of the talent available to it, particularly women.
According to the 2024 Women in Maritime Survey jointly conducted by the International Maritime Organization (IMO) and the Women’s International Shipping & Trading Association (WISTA), women account for just under 19% of the maritime workforce surveyed worldwide.
More strikingly, women represent only 8.71% or 76,040 of the Philippine certificated seafaring workforce.
As this article appears around May 18, the International Day for Women in Maritime, it serves as a timely reminder that advancing gender equality in maritime is not only a goal endorsed by the IMO, but a collective effort — one that brings together governments, regulators, industry leaders, educational institutions, and society as a whole to broaden participation and unlock the sector’s full potential.
Belgium and the Philippines share a clear, forward-looking conviction: Embracing diversity, equity, and inclusion is essential to unlocking talent, strengthening resilience, and shaping a competitive and innovative maritime future.
A shared challenge, a shared opportunity
In Belgium, women remain underrepresented across maritime professions, despite the sector’s global reach and capacity for innovation.
This gap is increasingly recognized not as a constraint, but as an opportunity to renew and strengthen the sector.
To address it, the Belgian Flemish authorities launched Project Olivia, a targeted awareness and outreach campaign designed to broaden the talent pipeline.
By showcasing real female role models from across the maritime value chain and challenging long-standing stereotypes, Project Olivia has helped make maritime careers more visible, relatable and accessible to young women.
Since its launch, the initiative has contributed to increased interest in maritime studies among female students, greater visibility of women in sectoral events and media, and closer engagement between schools, training institutions, and industry actors.
The Philippines, as the leading seafaring nation, faces similar challenges.
While the country deploys hundreds of thousands of seafarers globally, women account for only around 2 to 3 percent of sea-based deployments, mostly in non-technical roles.
Enrolment figures in maritime education show the same imbalance, with women making up only a small fraction of marine engineering and navigation students.
Against this backdrop, the She to Sea campaign led by Women in Maritime Philippines (WIMAPHIL) in close collaboration with MARINA and the IMO has emerged as a flagship initiative.
It promotes women’s access to maritime education, technical professions, leadership roles, and policymaking, while addressing workplace culture, safety, and skills development.
The campaign emphasizes that empowering women is not merely a matter of representation but a pivotal investment in the future of the industry itself.
At the global level, the IMO advances gender balance within a broader diversity, equity, equality, inclusion (DEEI) framework, recognizing that a modern maritime sector must reflect the societies it serves.
Why women in maritime matter – now more than ever
The maritime industry is undergoing profound transformation.
Decarbonization, digitalization, and stricter environmental and safety standards demand new skills, perspectives, and leadership models.
Women are increasingly contributing to areas such as port sustainability, environmental management, maritime education, research, and governance, fields that are central to the sector’s future.
Visibility matters: when young women see themselves represented at sea, in ports and in leadership roles, maritime careers become imaginable and attainable.
Together, initiatives like Project Olivia in Belgium and She to Sea in the Philippines show that targeted action can change perceptions and open doors.
Building bridges across seas
As Belgium and the Philippines celebrate 80 years of diplomatic relations, maritime cooperation stands as a strong symbol of shared values.
Acting both nationally and within the European Union, Belgium sees clear potential to deepen exchanges with the Philippines through joint seminars, mentoring networks, and exchanges of best practices among maritime schools, regulators, ports, and industry.
Promoting women in maritime is not symbolic; it is a strategic move that will make the horizon of opportunity continue to expand. And as more women rise to lead in maritime, the entire industry moves forward with greater strength, balance, and purpose.
By working together governments, industry, academia and civil society we can ensure that maritime careers are open to all, because the future of maritime is ultimately about people.
On this International Day for Women in Maritime, we honor the women who have paved the way and inspired future generations to pursue careers once thought beyond their reach.
More importantly, we reaffirm our commitment to ensuring that young women can look toward the maritime industry with confidence, ambition, and hope.