Over a year ago, Stena Line set a goal of having one in three managers be women by the end of this year. Now, the company, employing 4,300, is quiet on the development.
Swedish carrier Stena Line wants more women in management, which is why the company has announced a goal of having 30 percent women in such positions in 2022.
Now – over a year after – Stena Line is silent on how the company fares in achieving its goal. For weeks, WPO has attempted to get an update from the carrier, which has not responded.
Ambitions regarding diversity, targeted initiatives and recruitment as well as retention of female employees are – at least on paper – high on the agendas of companies in the Danish shipping industry. And the picture has been similar for Sweden’s Stena Line.
Stena Line launched its new plan with four initiatives last year on March 8, the International Women’s Day, 2021.
Stena Line’s four initiatives to recruit more women
But according to the carrier, the efforts have already been underway for a number of years, with the latest five years having seen the number of female managers raised by 42%.
As to how many women work at the company today, and how many of these are in leadership positions, no answer has been given. In total and spread out across eight geographical business regions, Stena Line currently employs around 4,300 personnel.
Postponing target
When launching its ambition, Stena Line emphasized that the new target would apply to women in all management layers of the company, thereby covering everything from ships to ports to the board of directors.
As WPO has previously reported, the proportion of women in the upper strata of management and on boards of directors is quite small. This applies to both the Norwegian and Danish sectors.
Association Danish Shipping – in which Stena Line is a member – has had to postpone its own goal of having more women in shipping on more than one occasion.
”Long haul”
According to a survey on 20 of the largest Danish shipping companies, conducted by WPO, one in five (20%) in senior management and on boards is a woman.
This picture is confirmed by Danish Shipping, where only one out of the eight board members is female. In the organization’s management, however, three positions are held by women, led by Anne H. Steffensen as chief executive.
In this connection, the organization assessed that it will be a ”long haul,” though indicating that there have been positive developments in the industry.
”It’s no secret that we would like to have more women at shipping companies. Both at sea and in offices on land. That’s why, for a number of years, we have been working to identify and clear the obstacles indicated by women in the industry,” said Danish Shipping Executive Director Anne W. Trolle to WPO.