On International Women’s Day, Saturday 8 March 2025, two maritime charities announced initiatives to support female sailors and gender equality. The statements from The Magenta Project and The Sailors’ Society mark a step forward in recognising and addressing gender discrimination in the maritime industry.

The global charity Sailors’ Society launched a ‘female helpline’ to support female seafarers, while the Magenta Project announced a new plan to gather more data on women in sailing to continue its drive for greater diversity in the sport.

‘One of our big focuses for 2025 is to gather more data so that we can set clear metrics for progress,’ said Victoria Low, CEO of the Magenta Project. ‘We need to understand the full picture if we’re going to tackle the key issues and strive for greater diversity and representation in every aspect of our sport.’

The Sailors’ Society helpline phone number is +1 938 222 8181. The charity also offers an instant chat service with a chaplain on its website or by filling in a form for them to call you back. The charity says, ‘Your call may be answered by a male in the first instance, who would direct your call to a female.’

Sailors’ Society CEO Sara Baade explained the reasoning behind opening the helpline, ‘Being a seafarer is challenging. But there are unique challenges to being a female seafarer and we know some women may feel more comfortable speaking to another woman.  This helpline, along with our female Peer-to-Peer Support Groups, allows them to lean on other women who understand what they are going through.’

Isolation and enjoyment

The last report on gender equality in sailing by the globally recognised organisation The World Sailing Trust was in 2019. According to The World Sailing Trust, they launched a survey ‘and distributed it across the World Sailing network, including MNAs, national federations, sailing clubs, partners, manufacturers and sailors’.

The report received responses from ‘4529 individuals (73% women, 27% men)’ from over 75 countries. The World Sailing Trust said that this report enabled them ‘to build a global picture of gender equality and where discrimination exists in sailing’ for the first time.

The Women in Sailing Strategic Review survey respondents were from countries worldwide. Photo: World Sailing Trust

The report found that 80% of women and 56% of men believe that gender balance is an issue in sailing. It also stated that 59% of women and 14% of men have experienced gender-based discrimination. The review states, ‘In all countries with over 100 respondents, at least 85% of respondents reported experiencing gender discrimination.’

For women in sailing, the findings noted that isolation limited enjoyment and participation, particularly for those aged between 18-25. These included, ‘examples such as being the only female at the club, on a team or being the only female boat owner.’ ‘The under-18 age group cited having a female red diamond ‘identifier’ in dinghy fleet racing as a negative aspect.’

The Sailors’ Society helpline acknowledges the charity’s willingness to address isolation for women seafarers, saying, ‘sometimes female seafarers need another woman to talk to.’

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A can-do spirit

The World Sailing Trust’s review states that, at a skills-based level, ‘over 23% felt that they were not treated as competent and were shown a lack of respect for their abilities.’

Cole Brauer is a testament to how far women can go when others support their sporting activities. ‘My dad looked at the boys’ metric and threw the girls’ metric out. He said, if the boys can do it, you can too,’ said Brauer in speaking to Editor Helen Fretter.

Despite her dad later disapproving of her choice to become a sailing instructor teaching Optis, Brauer went on to become the first American woman to sail around the world nonstop. She ignored people who said she was too small, at 5 ft 2 in, and too young.

A red flare celebration for Cole Brauer at the Global Solo Challenge finish line on March 7th 2024. Photo: James Tomlinson

Planned progress for gender equality in sailing

Since the 2019 report, policy shifts have occurred. In May last year, the World Sailing Organisation, the global governing body for women in sailing, launched Steering the Course, a plan for ‘a wide range of initiatives and objectives across seven priority areas—Coaches, Instructors and Team Leaders, Race Officials, Participation, Para Inclusive Sailing, Events, Media and Governance.’

As part of the plan, the organisation World Sailing aims to ‘achieve a target of 30% for women registered as coaches and support staff at the World Sailing Championships in 2026/27 (up from 18% at The Hague 2023)’ by 2028.

The World Sailing Trust’s findings on gender discrimination according to the boat type women sail. Photo: World Sailing Trust’s Women in Sailing Strategic Report

On 5 March, in response to the International Women’s Day theme ‘Accelerate Action, ‘ World Sailing announced their Steering the Course festival events will return for a fifth edition. On May 23rd – June 1st 2025 and September 26th – October 5th 2025, events and activities worldwide will take place to introduce sailing to newcomers and show the sport’s opportunities.

The organisation has promised to fund ‘technical Courses for sailing instructors, club race coaches and performance coaches, as well as race official clinics to introduce race management, umpiring, judging and race measurement to countries where there is no formal certification’.

The scope of survey respondents. Photo: World Sailing Trust’s Women in Sailing Strategic Report

Fiona Kidd, World Sailing’s Head of International Development, said, ‘We are encouraging Sailing Clubs, Centres, Member National Authorities (MNAs), Class Associations and volunteers to sign up to host activities as part of the two key festival times. This could be through creating more opportunities for women to train as Race Officials, creating new activities in a program to bring in new women members or just by making a more inclusive club.’

Find out more about Steering the Course here.

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