WISTA UAE builds early momentum

As the Women’s International Shipping and Trading Association (WISTA International) celebrates its 50th anniversary, the group’s UAE Branch is marking its own early successes in developing and supporting a network of women in the UAE shipping sector.

“We received our formal approval to set up the branch at the 2022 WISTA AGM in Geneva, and we have grown quite substantially since then. We’re around 70 members now, including corporate and individual members, which is great,” Rania Tadros, President of WISTA UAE, told Seatrade.

“We try to cover a number of angles, but there’s a strong social component. We have monthly meet-ups in the UAE, from informal dinners, our Christmas party, our Ramadan get-together, through to more formal events like our breast cancer awareness day, which was sponsored by Mercuria, and an event on the pathways for women in bunker trading, sponsored by Monjasa,” said Tadros.

The group’s schedule of local and international events includes participation in panel discussions across the emirates. WISTA UAE has also hosted more of its own conferences, said Tadros, including a landmark event with the Mission to Seafarers and DP World on the theme “Addressing wellbeing for female seafarers,” which was attended by HRH The Princess Royal in her capacity as President of the Mission to Seafarers.

“Our members attended and we had a great panel on female seafarers, how we can prioritise their welfare, and the invaluable contributions they make to world trade. Those themes are important to fostering greater female participation in the industry,” said Tadros.

This event also marked a significant milestone for WISTA UAE as it signed Memorandums of Understanding with both the Mission to Seafarers and the Nautical Institute to further support individuals throughout the maritime industry.

Another stand-out event for Tadros was a discussion and networking event hosted by Wilhelmsen Ship Services. “We decided to make it a very positive theme, looking at how far we’ve come on gender equality improvement in the MEA region. Instead of talking about how little representation there is, we talked about how women in the right positions can utilise them to support others, and the challenges that can bring.

“There was a real positivity. I hadn’t realised how doing little things along the way can make so much difference to people; we had some very positive storytelling about role models, how women themselves didn’t have industry role models, but neither did men. Men also need those role models to be able to think of women in positions that have historically been traditionally male-dominated.

WISTA UAE is a partner of UAE Maritime Week 2025 and its flagship event, Seatrade Maritime Logistics Middle East.

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This article is part of the Seatrade Maritime Middle East Report 2024