A Health-Saving Shipboard Environment for Female Seafarers: from Pilot Initiatives to Corporate Standards and Evidence-Based Assessment

Introduction. The global maritime industry is undergoing a structural shift: the proportion of women in mixed crews is increasing while the requirements for occupational health, safety, and well-being of the ship’s crew are becoming more complex. Unlike onshore production, the ship is a limited, regimented, and technologically saturated environment, combining long-term autonomy, shift work, high physical, psychological, and emotional stress, multinational teams, and a rigid hierarchy of decision-making. In these circumstances, the task of creating a health-saving environment for female seafarers goes beyond the simple adaptation of occupational health and safety standards: we are talking about rethinking the design of everyday life, supplies, personal protection, medical and psychosocial support, and institutional arrangements for preventing discrimination. Purpose. To develop the framework of a science-based organizational and methodological model for creating a health-saving shipboard environment for female seafarers. Materials and methods. Comparative institutional research was conducted based on a multi-level case analysis. The work combined the desk research of regulatory and corporate documents, the structured content analysis of public reporting by shipping companies and industry coalitions, and the comparison of practices through a single analytical matrix “problem area – intervention – mechanism of impact – outcomes.” The analysis covered the period from 2019 to 2025, when the topic of DEI (diversity, equity & inclusion) and the crew’s well-being have been at the top of global agenda. Results. The basic requirements for accommodation and hygiene are set out in the Maritime Labour Convention. They serve as the minimum that companies complement with corporate standards and procedures in successful cases. Preventing bullying and harassment onboard is at the core of corporate security management systems: the industry guidelines of the International Chamber of Shipping (ICS) and the International Federation of Transport Workers (ITF) recommend clear communication channels, privacy protection, and commander training. The experience of the largest shipping companies shows that sustainable changes onboard are only possible when local inclusion and health-saving initiatives turn into an industry standard supported by coalition mechanisms.

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