Women at the helm: International Women’s Day (IWD)

International Women’s Day is celebrated every year and it commemorates the movement for women’s rights. It is a worldwide event that celebrates women’s achievements, from political to social and cultural to economic, while calling for gender equality.

This movement dates back to the early 1900s and is now recognised each year on 8th March. It is not affiliated with any one group, but is designed to motivate and unite friends, colleagues and whole communities to think, act and be gender inclusive.

I wanted to write a short article about International Women’s day because it is an important time to come together to acknowledge the achievements already made, as well as to highlight the work still to be done to create a better world for equality. I wanted to link this to a subject I know and love — the maritime industry!

When reading into the successes of women in the maritime industry, I came across the Women’s International Shipping & Trading Association (WISTA). They are an association dating back to 1974, when a handful of female brokers involved in the tanker market from Germany, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom, met for a Christmas lunch at the ‘Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese’ pub in London.

WISTA is a networking organisation for women at management level in the maritime industry. They have created an organisation to facilitate the exchange of contacts, information and experiences among its members. WISTA also promotes and helps to educate its members on the maritime industry.

Upon contacting WISTA, Lena Gothberg, the Communication and Support Officer (CSO), told me that ‘WISTA has a lot of ideas on how to make a difference in the maritime domain, but we also have to acknowledge the fact that we are representing women from different parts of the world, different cultures and different lines of work. As an umbrella organization, we have adopted four core values that all our members can relate to. The members of WISTA are known to be professional, committed, dynamic and open-minded’.

Markel International is also pressing for progress on this subject. A quote in a recent communication from Markel’s HR Director, Joanna Browning, stated:

‘While we are pleased that we have some senior women leading our business, we know we need to do more. We have a representation issue from manager level and above, and we are looking at many ways we can change this balance over time. Let’s be clear though, this can’t be fixed overnight and although it’s a common theme across our market, we aim to be leaders in seeking to address it.

We already have ideas and programmes under way to help with this — manager recruitment training, talent review and succession planning, family leave and caring policies, a mentoring scheme, a women’s network and a next generation network’.

With organisations such as WISTA and companies like Markel International being pro-active in educating individuals on the issues surrounding gender equality, bringing people together in a united effort and pushing for change, I hope this International Women’s Day really can encourage everyone to get involved and think about the role they can play, regardless of gender.

I will be attending Markel’s #PressforProgress event on the 8th March which will be used as a platform to press for progress and driving an inclusive future of work.

For more information visit the WISTA website.

Tom Batterbury, Underwriter — Markel International, Marine Insurance