Ferry company Stena Line has announced an ambitious plan to double its female management and become “the most diverse shipping company in the world” by the end of the year. The announcement coincides with International Women’s Day 2021.
In the past five years, the company has already increased by 42% the number of female mangers it employs. Under its ambitious target, women will account of 30% of all managers at the company by 2022.
The 30% target is for all levels of the company from the ferries themselves, to ports, management teams, and even at board level.
Margareta Jensen Dickson, Group Head of People, Stena Line says:
”We need to ensure that we can attract, recruit and keep the best talents by actively recruiting from all genders for all positions. Gender equality gives us more competence to choose from in a world where companies are competing for talent. Research shows that when companies are more equal, they are also more creative and innovative, as well as making more money”
Currently just 2% of the 1.2 million seafarers globally are women. Stena Line has pledged to lead the way with its diversity drive. The long-term aim is for Stena Line to achieve total gender equality.
Stena Line’s diversity ambitions are guided by the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals 5 – Achieve Gender Equality and Empower all Women and Girls– and specifically, to achieve Target 5.5:
“Ensure women’s full and effective participation and equal opportunities for leadership at all levels of decision-making in political, economic and public life”.
To reach these targets, Stena Line has implemented several actions, including:
- Succession planning: implemented to ensure that all genders are represented in the succession planning of managers at all levels of the company.
- Challenge recruitment traditions: brought in new routines to change the recruitment traditions in all positions, especially where there is gender imbalance.
- Global Female Leaders’ Network: A new network for all female leaders within the Stena Sphere is to be launched in 2021. The purpose is to make more female role models visible, create more connections within the Stena Sphere, as well as attract, motivate and develop young female leaders within the global Stena network.
- Global employer branding campaign: On International Women’s day, 8 March 2021, Stena Line will launch a global ‘employer branding’ campaign on social media, aimed at women in shipping and transport. The campaign will run for the rest of the year and will highlight female role models and leaders from different parts of the company.
Here are some of Stena Line’s key women working in maritime across the UK and Ireland:
- Lynette Bryson, Chief Officer (Irish Sea)
- Katie Baxter, Third Officer (Irish Sea)
- Lesley Fletcher, Port Duty Manager (Scotland)
Women in Maritime Campaign: You can see all the female leaders featured in the campaign here: https://www.stenaline.com/career/women-in-maritime/
