Turkish Women Seafarers and A Quastionnaire Study on Employment Situation

Throughout history, women have struggled to gain a place and establish their presence in social life. Mostly, they have continued their life in the position of carrying out family responsibilities. When women want to get involved in the business world, they are facing some problems arising from dogmatic thinking and prejudices, especially among the professions with "male-dominated" judiciary. Maritime profession, one of the oldest professions in the world, was also regarded as a single-gender area until the 20th century. However, in recent years, economical and political changes in the world, equal opportunity in education and incentive works of the International Maritime Organization have led women to work as seafarers. Although female seafarers constitute 2% of the world seafarers, this ratio is higher in developed countries than that of undeveloped or developing countries (URL-1). There is very little information regarding women seafarers in general, including the actual population size. Most of studies focus on passenger ships or cruise ships, not cargo ships (Sohyun, 2010). It is difficult to find relevant studies regarding women seafarers in the world, including in Turkey. In Turkey, women have played an active role and gained an apparent identity in the maritime sector since the 2000s. According to 2015 data, Turkey is ranks the 14th in the world maritime trade with more than 27,6 million deadweight tonnage and manages 1530 vessels (UNCTAD, 2015). In Turkey, many studies related to the employment of seafarers are carried out as in the whole world. However, studies on the employment of women seafarers should be paid more attention. In this study, a questionnaire was carried out with the personnel department managers in Turkish shipping companies. Employment, career, educational status of female seafarers and the general difficulties they face were revealed.