Abstract
In the Philippines, seafaring has been associated with men since the sixteenth century. However, in the 1990s, Filipino women started to enter this male-dominated world. But it has not been smooth sailing. Based on interviews with Filipino women seafarers, this article shows how they have experienced various forms of sexual harassment from their male colleagues and senior officers. Women seafarers who have been victims of sexual harassment have been unable to file complaints against their aggressor/s because of technical difficulties in pursuing a case, especially when the incidents happen on board international ships and the perpetrators are foreign nationals. This article discusses how a group of Filipino women seafarers have decided to organise to fight sexual harassment. With the setting up of a women’s committee of the male-dominated seafarers’ union, women ‘shefarers’ have started talking about verbal and physical sexual harassment in order to raise awareness of the problem.
Highlights
On 8 March 2019, a crowd of around 200 seafarers, journalists, and maritime students attended an International Women’s Day event for the Association of Marine Officers and Seafarers’ Union of the Philippines (AMOSUP), the biggest seafarers’ union in the Philippines, with around 130,000 members
The IDS Bulletin is published by Institute of Development Studies, Library Road, Brighton BN1 9RE, UK This article is part of IDS Bulletin Vol 51 No 2 September 2020 ‘Collective Action for Accountability on Sexual Harassment: Global Perspectives’; the Introduction is recommended reading
The experience of Captain Jasmine shows the vulnerability of Filipino female seafarers to sexual harassment
Summary
On 8 March 2019, a crowd of around 200 seafarers, journalists, and maritime students attended an International Women’s Day event for the Association of Marine Officers and Seafarers’ Union of the Philippines (AMOSUP), the biggest seafarers’ union in the Philippines, with around 130,000 members. At the International Women’s Day event, Captain Jasmine encouraged her fellow ‘shefarers’, or female seafarers, to open up and seek advice if they experience sexual harassment and bullying.
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