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Women seafarers are few, sexually harassed and rarely promoted - UN agency

Women seafarers are few, sexually harassed and rarely promoted - UN agency

Women seafarers, found mainly on cruise ships, are a small but growing percentage of employees on waterborne transportation fleets, but they are discriminated against, sexually harassed and their special hygienic needs are generally ignored, the United Nations labour agency said in a report today.

"Many employers and trade unions appear not to have made specific provisions relating to the employment and conditions of work for women. For example, company responses to staff becoming pregnant range from immediate dismissal to offers of alternative shore-side employment," the International Labour Organization (ILO) said in Women Seafarers: Global Employment Policies and Practices.

The percentage of women employed at sea on 87,000 ships ranged from negligible in some countries to more than 10 per cent in Scandinavia, the report said. Of these women, 7 per cent were officers, compared to 42 per cent of male seafarers.

The study highlighted a need for policies to deal with sexual harassment, pregnancy, maternity and reproductive and general health.

It said, however, that there was cause for optimism. "By 2001 the total number of female students at the World Maritime University had risen to 21 per cent of the total university population, compared to 8 per cent in 1995," it said.

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