Good practice Imported

IMO's Women in Maritime Programme: Four Decades On, Female Seafarers Still Just 1% of the Workforce

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Evidence: Observational / pre–post Top 76% 41/100 · Ask Evidence Copilot about this practice

Running since 1988, the IMO's Women in Maritime programme funds regional shipping associations and gender-mainstreaming policy, yet the 2024 IMO-WISTA survey found women still just ~1% of seafarers and a falling 19% of the maritime workforce, down from 26% in 2021.

19 %

Women's share of maritime workforce positions (2024)

26 %

Women's share of positions, prior survey (2021)

~1 %

Women's share of seafarers at sea (2021)

IMO's Women in Maritime Programme: Four Decades On, Female Seafarers Still Just 1% of the Workforce

Details

Maturity: Established
Promoter: International Maritime Organization (IMO), with the Women's International Shipping & Trading Association (WISTA)
Period: 1988-present
Keywords: maritime, shipping, seafaring, workforce diversity, gender mainstreaming

Context

Since 1988 the International Maritime Organization has run a Women in Maritime programme to widen women's access to maritime training and employment, supporting regional professional networks (WOMESA, WIMAWCA) and gender-mainstreaming guidance for its technical-cooperation work.

Results

The 2024 IMO-WISTA Women in Maritime Survey, covering 176,820 women across the sampled workforce, found women held just under 19% of positions sector-wide — down from 26% in 2021 — and only about 1% of seafarers at sea, close to BIMCO/ICS's 2021 figure of 1.2% (24,059 women) worldwide.

Conclusions

Despite 35+ years of institutional commitment, the programme's own survey shows stalled or reversing progress on women at sea — a caution that framework-level gender mainstreaming and network-building are not, by themselves, sufficient to shift a deeply male-dominated occupation.

Implementation

Indicative cost: Low (< €50k)
Time to results: Long (> 3 years)
Staffing & skills: IMO technical-cooperation gender-mainstreaming staff, regional network coordinators (WOMESA, WIMAWCA)

Conditions for success

regional professional networks for women seafarers

Common failure modes

framework-level mainstreaming without targeted structural interventions has not shifted the occupational gender balance

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Data sources

Where this practice's information was retrieved from, and when.

C-NAPSE web research — accessed 2026-07-11
International Maritime Organization (IMO), with the Women's International Shipping & Trading Association (WISTA) — accessed 2026-07-11
IMO-WISTA Women in Maritime Survey 2024 — accessed 2026-07-11
SAFETY4SEA coverage of falling numbers — accessed 2026-07-11
IMO-WISTA Women in Maritime Survey 2021 — accessed 2026-07-11

Attachments

Source image

Quality score: 41/100

How is this calculated?

Evidence: Observational / pre–post

Top 76% in this catalogue (808 scored practices)

Scores cluster high, so position within the catalogue is often more telling than the number alone.

Evaluation

Evaluated by C-NAPSE

Score profile — the dimensions behind the score — how it's computed

Transferability / replicability2/3

The framework has already been replicated into multiple regional associations (WOMESA, WIMAWCA and others), showing structural transferability, even though outcomes have not transferred equally well.

Impact on gender equality0/1

The programme's own 2024 survey shows women's share of the broader maritime workforce falling from 26% (2021) to 19%, and seafarers stuck at about 1% - no positive impact is demonstrated.

Effectiveness0/1

After 35+ years, the core target group (women at sea) remains at roughly 1%, essentially unchanged from the 1.2% reported in 2021 by BIMCO/ICS - the programme has not achieved its central aim.

Efficiency0/1

No cost data is available, and the lack of measurable progress on the primary indicator suggests low return on decades of investment.

Evaluated outcomes1/1

A genuine, recurring, methodologically consistent survey (IMO-WISTA, conducted in 2021 and 2024) exists and is publicly reported, which is itself a form of evaluation rigor rare in this field.

Sustainability1/1

The institutional programme has been sustained continuously since 1988 and the survey itself continues to be funded and published.

Achievement / evidence0/1

No milestone or target has been met; the sector's own data shows regression on the headline workforce-share indicator.

Gender-mainstreaming embedding1/1

Gender considerations are formally embedded in IMO's technical-cooperation policy and mandate, even though this has not yet translated into workforce outcomes.

Curator validation0/1

Not yet reviewed by a C-NAPSE curator.

Cite this

Evidoria. IMO's Women in Maritime Programme: Four Decades On, Female Seafarers Still Just 1% of the Workforce. Persistent ID: 8976cc75-8fb9-4163-b655-a9497d7c1bf1.

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