If you’re a woman working in the cruise ship industry, then you’re more than likely to be the only woman, or one of very few women, working within your organization.
Right now, women make up 18 to 20 percent of the cruise ship workforce, with the first woman cruise ship captain not being appointed until 2007. Breaking the glass ceiling in this industry is Belinda Bennett, who is the world’s first Black woman cruise ship captain.
“Being a woman, you have to work extra hard to prove yourself – even more than a man,” she explains. “Some men might not like that, but that’s the way it is. I’m driven. I wanted to be captain, and so, I am.”
According to Forbes, Bennett has worked for the cruise line Windstar Cruises for 14 years. She came to the cruise ship line in 2005 and worked her way up from second officer, to chief officer to now captain, which is a position she was appointed to in 2016. Currently, she is captain of the MSY Wind Star and is in charge of sailing the ship through the Caribbean in the winter and Europe in the summer.
So the question is… when we cruising? Read more about Captain Bennett here.
