- Maritime Exhibition Tours Portsmouth Historic Dockyard Until August 2025.
- Amplifying Women’s Leadership in the Male-Dominated Maritime Sector.
- SHE_SEES Expands to Greece, Netherlands, and India in 2025.
Launched in 2023 throughout the UK and Ireland, the SHE_SEES program employs archival documents and oral histories to bring to the fore the narratives of women working in the maritime sector. The project is presented in public form by way of the SHE_SEES exhibition, mixing imagery, art, and narrative, reports LR.
Exhibition Tour and Residency at Portsmouth Historic Dockyard
SHE_SEES premiered at the International Maritime Organization (IMO) as part of London International Shipping Week 2023 and is now touring. It will stay at Portsmouth Historic Dockyard until August 2025.
Reframing the Maritime Industry’s Narrative
The program showcases women’s leadership and achievements in a historically male-dominated sector. Based on IMO statistics, women constitute 29% of the total maritime workforce but just 2% of seafarers in the crewing workforce. By sharing women’s stories, SHE_SEES hopes to encourage more women to pursue careers in the maritime industry.
International Expansion of SHE_SEES Stories
Beginning in 2025, SHE_SEES will branch out to record the experiences of women in the maritime sector in nine nations. Greece, the Netherlands, and India will be the first three nations to be highlighted.
Empowering Women through Participatory Photography
The modern aspect of SHE_SEES is spearheaded by portrait photographer Emilie Sandy by creating the participatory photography component SHE_SEES HER VOICE. The project invites women to tell their stories, inspiring them to define their narratives using professional photographers.
Momentum and Global Recognition
Louise Sanger, Head of Research, Interpretation, and Engagement at the Lloyd’s Register Foundation Heritage Centre, shared: “We are delighted by the momentum that the Rewriting Women into Maritime History initiative and SHE_SEES have gathered to date – bringing to light forgotten stories from the past, showcasing the female maritime leaders of the present, and inspiring the next generation to consider a career in the sector.”
She continued: “As we launch the new, international phase of the programme, we are excited to build on and amplify this success, recognising women’s achievements in maritime on a global scale. We hope that women working in the sector around the world will take this opportunity to come forwards and tell their stories.”
Historical Contributions of Women in Maritime
Maritime historian Dr Jo Stanley, an expert in gender and diversity, explained:
“Women have been contributing to maritime life for centuries. Seagoing doctors and pirates, laundresses and captain’s deputies, navigation teachers and cartographers. They’ve been overlooked. But from the 1970s, they really took off. And they’re making progress fast. This project encouragingly connects past, present and future.”
New Movie Reveals Women’s Contribution to Shipbuilding
As part of the international growth, the Lloyd’s Register Foundation is celebrating 11 February – the International Day of Women and Girls in Science – with the launch of a new film. Co-produced with Historic England, the film discovers the story of women in UK shipbuilding.
The film demonstrates the power of discovering women’s roles in maritime engineering to encourage a future generation to join the fields of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM).
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Source: LR
