New President of Caribbean Maritime Women Embraces Her Role

Newly elected President of the Women in Maritime Association Caribbean (WiMAC), Dr. Evette Smith Johnson, believes in creating a safe environment for women in the maritime industry where they can share, air their concerns and be given room to grow.

This, she tells JIS News, should be done in tandem with the umbrella vision that the International Maritime Organization (IMO) has articulated, which is advocacy for women in the Caribbean maritime spaces to facilitate visibility and endorsement.

Dr. Smith Johnson, who is also Director of Graduate Studies and Research at the Caribbean Maritime University (CMU), notes that promoting women in maritime also involves bringing together a community of similar women to provide guidance along the journey, “so that those who have reached farther can scaffold those who are behind”.

The new President highlights that it was a deliberate move on the part of the outgoing WiMAC Governing Council (GC) to drill down on that vision and more specifically, the operational targets in the Association’s strategic plan, which was laid out in Port of Spain, Trinidad in February 2023.

Dr. Smith Johnson tells JIS News that transitioning from her role as Vice President for Women and Development on the outgoing GC, to President, places her at an advantage, especially having helped to craft the strategic vision.

“Coming in as President means that I fully understand where we need to go and the mission to get as many targets met as possible,” she says.

Dr. Smith Johnson is grateful for the solid foundation from which she has benefited within the Association.

“In terms of succession and continuity, someone built a scaffold for me to climb on and I am now using that scaffold to reach some of the goals. I had to do that in my previous role. Now, as President, I get to not only execute my portfolio but to encourage and supervise the other portfolios in achieving the targets,” the President explains.

Reflecting on her journey in the maritime sector, Dr. Smith Johnson tells JIS News, “I didn’t choose the maritime industry; the maritime industry chose me.”

A trained teacher of English, who studied at Shortwood Teachers’ College, her ambition was to “teach the language of power (English)” to better help persons navigate their societies.

“Somewhere along the road, I got into higher education because of continued professional growth. I saw an opening at (CMU) and I applied and got the job. It has been continual growth in the 15 years that I have been there,” the Manchester High School alumna beams, adding that she has no regrets.

Dr. Smith Johnson says that although she went in as an academic, the scope of her job was widened to include areas like quality management systems.

“Because shipping is a heavily regulated industry and, I suppose, because I have the gift of teaching, it was easy to send me to learn so that I could come back to teach,” she notes.

“After learning the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) systems, and shaping some things [at CMU], we kept stacking the credentials and every time we stacked, there was a new door [that opened].

“After 15 years you kind of know the crevices of the space within which you work and so it is very easy for me to talk about maritime education and training,” she highlights.

Dr. Smith Johnson tells JIS News that when WiMAC was being chartered in 2015, she was invited as one of a small group of colleagues to write the Articles of Association.

“I got in at that point and just kept the linkages,” she says, noting that Deputy Director General of the Maritime Authority of Jamaica (MAJ), Claudia Grant, would often invite her to participate in small projects to help WiMAC.

“It was a lot of volunteer work and then, after a while, the system rewards those who work in it, so I was elected to serve as Vice President of Women and Development, a role I took very seriously,” she notes.

“I suppose the results spoke for themselves, because here we are, far from the beginning 15 years ago, but this is something that I have a real passion for,” she tells JIS News.

“I got opportunities to go to China to see shipping in the Xingdao province, went to The Bahamas to participate in a maritime conference and also had opportunities to see [shipping] in Trinidad, Suriname, Antigua as well as in London where the IMO Headquarters is situated,” she points out.

Dr. Smith Johnson believes her role as a lecturer in the maritime industry is a key one, especially as it relates to developing women in the sector.

“As a maritime education and training institution, we [at CMU] realise that the sheer volume of what is done in shipping will continue to demand the human element, and so CMU needs to keep training,” she points out.

As it relates to areas of focus during her presidency, Dr. Smith Johnson cites the establishment of national liaisons in every Caribbean country as WiMAC seeks to expand its reach.

“We will reach into the countries to encourage national chapters. So, one can be incubated in each territory, including mainland Caribbean countries such as Suriname, Guyana and Belize,” she notes.

For countries with maritime education and training institutions, she says effort will be made to ensure that the young women going into the industry are part of a student chapter.

“We not only incubate them but we get godmothers for them, people who are ahead of them, to ensure that when they step off into industry, they have a firm footing and they can reach back and bring other people into a space of accomplishing their own goals as maritime women.” the President notes.

She points out that the role of women in maritime remains what it has been since they entered the industry, which is “to see to its viability”.

“It is to provide a complementary workforce that will ensure that shipping remains viable and the countries in which the business of shipping is conducted have economic, social and even political viability,” she notes.

She referred to statistics showing that in 1943, more women were involved in shipbuilding than men, who were off fighting in the world war.

“The aim of those women, who were in the shipyards was ensuring that the vessels were not just constructed, but loaded with what was needed, thereby seeing to the building of, and the safety and security of their nation. This is what the maritime business is about and what the role of women still is,” Dr. Smith Johnson highlights.

“The role of women in the business of maritime is to build – build people, build countries, build nations, build an industry where people can earn and experience the qualities of life,” she adds.