News from the BPA

Growing Women in Ports Network Unites Around Shared Experiences

This month the UK’s Women in Ports Group, the industry network for female port professionals and ‘allies’, met to discuss both the experiences of individuals and organisations across the country as well as hearing about the journeys made by women in the UK ports sector.

The growing network heard how the Peel Ports Group is driving culture change across its organisation through its ‘Everyone is Welcome’ and then Margaret Llewellyn of the Seaports consultancy and previously senior shipping executive gave an overview of her journey in the maritime sector. The Group is now looking at how to develop the network further and will explore opportunities for peer to peer mentoring and support.

The Group is managed jointly by the UK ports associations; Port Skills and Safety, the UK Major Ports Group and the British Ports Association, under the umbrella of the Maritime UK ‘Women in Maritime Initiative’.

Commenting on Group’s aims, the network’s Chair Debbie Cavaldoro, who is also the Chief Executive of Port Skills and Safety, said:

“It’s great to see this network really establishing itself and providing women with a safe space to talk about their individual journeys and inspiring others to realise their potential. This latest meeting really demonstrated ‘see it to be it’ and showed that women can be successful right at the top of the ports sector.

The Peel Ports network also demonstrated that ports are committed to driving equality and support women working in ports. We are now looking for more women to come forward to share their work journey to inspire others.”

Feeding into the overarching work of the ‘Women in Maritime’ programme and the work undertaken by WISTA UK (Women International Shipping & Trading Association) and to complement those programmes, the Group seeks to develop and affect change in the ports industry. The Group also has a LinkedIn network (Women in Ports Group) and will be looking at how it holds physical meetings alongside Women in Maritime gatherings. There are 125,000 people employed at UK ports whilst the number of female employees is certainly growing the number of women in all sector remains a minority and this group aims to provide a safe space for women and allies to discuss issues facing the industry. The next meeting will be early in the new year when’s other case studies and personal journeys personal career journeys will be shared.