“Masculinities in maritime education and training: an opportunity to advance towards gender equality”

Abstract Despite the rising awareness of gender equality in the maritime industry where men’s representation is extremely high, gender equality is often regarded as a “women’s” issue. Why do men not speak about gender equality? An understanding of men’s perspectives can improve our knowledge of gender equality so that efforts predominantly led by women do not become ineffective or unsuccessful. Promoting gender equality starts even before employment, and in this context, the role of maritime education and training (MET) is particularly important. This paper explores the ways in which masculine values are embedded and reinforced in the MET domain and their implication on the progress for gender equality. Varied masculinities in MET and associated values were examined based on a review of academic literature and legal documents, maritime lecturer interviews and student surveys. The analyses reveal that women’s inclusion in MET is hindered by hegemonic masculine values, and industrial masculinity further produces an economic justification for excluding women from MET. The data also indicate a lack of understanding about technical and social linkages in maritime subjects as well as low gender awareness, that contribute to the hegemonic and complicit masculinities. The paper argues how resistance to change may be linked to men’s power and privilege endorsed by hegemonic, complicit and industrial masculine values while ecological masculinities are observable in the new initiative called “Maritime Just Transition”. The study concludes with insight into transformative masculinity in MET in order to increase gender awareness among teaching staff and students, which in turn attract new talents to the industry.