A big maritime industry ‘family’: WISTA-UK celebrates its 40th anniversary

Four decades of remarkable progress – and the promise of more years of success – were celebrated at the 40th anniversary gala dinner of WISTA-UK, the founding body of the Women’s International Shipping & Trading Association. Leading personalities from the maritime world congratulated WISTA-UK on its achievements, and the elevated status
of the UK association was underlined by support for the black-tie event from some 140 members and guests. The venue was the restaurant of the International Maritime Organization, where burgundy coloured sashes decorated the dining chairs, calling to mind the ruby anniversary, and on a more sombre note the sacrifice in blood of seafarers in the course of their sometimes risky profession.

 After a superb buffet with a wide choice of dishes was served, WISTA-UK secretary Bridget Hogan (of the Nautical Institute) invited one member each to speak about one of the four decades since a small group of women shipbrokers met for a Christmas lunch in London and decided, tentatively, to formalise a more substantial network.

 That initiative has grown into the international WISTA grouping, which includes more than 1,800 individual members in more than 30 countries. Jean Richards of Quantum Shipping Services recalled the reluctance of the Baltic Exchange, through which much shipping business is done in London, to admit female members; and when it did let women in, “it was again a gesture.” Ms Richards said: “Women had to fight because all the business was done not on the trading floor, but in the bar, and… if you were a woman, you had to go to the cocktail lounge. You could not even do a deal because the bloke did not want to buy you a gin and tonic.” Ms Richards regretted that the exchange was still “not very pro-women.” Maria José Lima, from Oporto in Portugal, said that she became a WISTA-UK member in 1986, after meeting one of the founding members, Margaret Llewellyn.

That meeting was followed by an invitation to attend her first WISTA Conference in Madrid. She gladly accepted the invitation “and still recall that I thought the speakers were awful.” After the Madrid gala dinner, she and a group of other members could not find their way back to their hotel and saw a bus about to make its way back to the terminus.

They stopped the bus, got in and told the driver he had been ‘hijacked’ and asked him to take them to the hotel. It occurred to them that the police would soon be at the hotel to find out what was going on, but thankfully nothing happened. “On the following day,” said Ms Lima, “I found myself in deep thought: either I had joined a bunch of ‘mad girls’ (as we still like to be called) or my whole experience probably had to do with ancient frictions between Portugal and Spain.