Gender inequality: an outlook from a seaport sector

ABSTRACT

The International Maritime Organisation continues to support the participation of women in the maritime industry to empower gender equality. However, the gender imbalances have become an issue in the seaport sector since it is predominantly occupied by males. This could be contributed by many reasons such as male domination, lack of awareness on the industry and less support from the community. From a global perspective, man is dominating maritime industry than a woman who just made 2 per cent of the total workforce. Therefore, the aim of this paper is to explore the specific characteristics that women need to have to involve and perform in the seaport sector and to explore the obstacles that make it difficult for women to venture into the seaport sector. The self-administered survey was executed, and the collected data were analysed using Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA). The outcome based on EFA indicates that patience, professionalism and courage are three main characteristics that woman need to perform in the seaport sector. Finally, this paper also revealed that cliché-ridden environment and physical competence are two main challenges faced by this group of workforces to venture into the seaport sector.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).