Irene Rosberg: Measure women’s progression, not shipping headcount

By James Calloway

Shipping’s next workforce metric should track women’s career progression and retention over 10 and 15 years, not merely female headcount, Irene Rosberg said on Nov. 9, 2026.

Rosberg, programme director for The Blue MBA’s Executive MBA in Shipping and Logistics at Copenhagen Business School, said shipping organizations need to measure what happens after women enter a programme, company or industry.

“Women are not a different species, and shipping should stop treating us as though we are,” Rosberg wrote in her Nov. 9 essay, Stop counting women in shipping.

Her criticism targets a familiar hiring metric. Shipping does need more women in poorly represented areas and at sea, where Rosberg described female representation as extremely low, but entry numbers alone cannot show whether access produces authority. The essay provides no Blue MBA enrollment total or sea-force percentage; its case rests on career outcomes instead.

What should shipping count instead?

Rosberg said she is frequently asked how many women participate in The Blue MBA. She understands why: the industry wants evidence that gender balance is improving, and a headcount offers an easy measure. Yet an entry figure says little about what follows.

Her more useful questions concern:

• whether women receive serious operational responsibility;
• whether they progress into commercial positions and take responsibility for budgets, ships, businesses and profit-and-loss accounts (P&Ls);
• whether they prepare for executive roles and remain in the industry 10 or 15 years later;
• whether they enter operations, technology, finance and commercial management;
• whether succession planning includes them; and
• whether they leave, and why.

Those answers would show whether education and hiring produce durable careers and whether employers give women a route to authority.

Why does entry headcount fall short?

Shipping has spent years discussing how to attract women. That work remains important, particularly at sea, but increasing the number entering maritime cannot serve as the final measure of success.

Rosberg rejected two shortcuts: recruiting women to satisfy a quota and promoting them to improve an annual-report photograph. She argued that people should advance because they have the competence, talent, experience and ambition required for the job, and because they receive a fair opportunity to acquire those qualities.

The responsibility runs in both directions. Shipping organizations must provide genuine access to education, development and responsibility. Individuals must also prepare for the positions they want: ambition alone qualifies no one for leadership, and people must invest in knowledge, remain current and accept responsibility when opportunities arise.

Rosberg’s standard was exact: equal opportunity does not mean lower expectations; it means an equal chance to meet high ones.

Can shipping apply the same standard across borders?

Shipping is unusually international, and Rosberg said attitudes toward women in authority differ across cultures. A woman leading a team, commanding a vessel or negotiating commercially may encounter different expectations in different parts of the world.

The industry should acknowledge those differences without using culture to excuse inequality, Rosberg said. International shipping already applies common expectations for safety, competence and professional standards across borders; it should apply equal determination to recognizing leadership on ability rather than gender.

The definition of a maritime leader is also changing as those standards and operating conditions evolve. The practical stakes sit inside carriers and shipping organizations: leaders must handle budgets, ships, businesses, P&Ls and commercial negotiation.

What skills define a maritime leader now?

Many senior positions once followed a familiar route built around substantial seagoing experience. Rosberg considers that experience highly valuable, but says modern leadership also requires commercial judgment, digital literacy and an understanding of AI, cyber risk, decarbonization, regulation and geopolitical uncertainty.

Those additional skills create an opportunity to broaden the leadership pool. The relevant question is not whether a candidate followed the traditional route to the top, Rosberg said, but whether the person has the knowledge, judgment and experience required to lead a modern maritime organization.

For carriers and other shipping organizations, the commercial stakes are direct: those leaders must be able to negotiate, manage budgets and profit-and-loss accounts, and understand operational and regulatory risk.

Can education and mentoring build that pipeline?

Professional development helps people acquire new skills, move between disciplines and remain relevant as the industry changes, Rosberg said. She was careful not to frame that as a women-only issue: men face the same technological, commercial and regulatory transformation, and women do not require a separate definition of competence.

Mentoring can help, while networks provide value, especially where people have lacked access to senior role models. But shipping should not congratulate itself for mentoring women while withholding the assignments, commercial exposure and responsibility from which leaders emerge.

“At some point, somebody has to hand over responsibility,” Rosberg wrote.

What would meaningful progress look like?

Her preferred measures track movement, not arrivals: progression into operations, technology, finance and commercial management; control of budgets; inclusion in succession planning; retention at 10 and 15 years; and departures with reasons attached.

The goal exceeds achieving a percentage, Rosberg said. Shipping should develop, challenge and promote capable people until a woman’s gender becomes one of the least interesting facts about a successful maritime leader.

Over the next 10 to 15 years, shipping’s progress will depend on whether employers replace entry-count celebrations with evidence of lasting careers, commercial authority and executive progression.