I sometimes wonder, if the ocean had a voice, what it would say. In contemporary times, it’s easy to imagine that it would plead in desperation, its message drowned out by those who speak over it.

When I first laid eyes on a coral reef, I wasn’t thinking about gender. I was thinking about the rush of life before me, the clash of colour, movement and connection that beats through the ecosystem that is our planet’s ‘blue heart’. Coral reefs exist as a delicate balance of interdependence – a web of careful symbiosis, mutualistic partnerships and diversity. But as I began my career as a marine scientist, I started to notice something disconcerting: in a field dedicated to preserving biodiversity, the same was not reflected in our own workforce.

By the time I had started my master’s degree, I had seen the systemic barriers that existed for women and the further upward I gazed, the less and less looked like me. And the more time I spent working in remote field environments, the more I saw how far this inequality extended beyond academia, to women in ocean-dependent communities who were excluded from both decision making for the ocean – and access to opportunity.

And so, I decided to do something. For me, finding how to best use my voice came about in the founding of Women in Ocean Science (WOS) seven years ago, a charity and global movement that unites women in marine science, research, conservation and beyond. WOS was born from a simple truth, that gender equity and ecosystem resilience are fundamentally interlinked. And so, our belief is this – if we are to protect our oceans, we must empower, uplift and celebrate the women fighting to conserve them. The lack of gender inclusivity across ocean industries isn’t just a moral failure – it’s something that science actually proves is a disadvantage. We know from research that diverse teams produce stronger, more effective conservation solutions. When women are given equal opportunities to lead research and restoration efforts, marine conservation outcomes improve. Women’s contributions are often overlooked because they are sometimes intangible, in the ability to quietly influence and nurture sustainable practices and marine resource stewardship within their communities.

Women also face systemic barriers across the board. In academia, despite making up 50% of marine science graduates, women remain vastly underrepresented in leadership roles. Our 2019 Sexual Harassment in Marine Science Report found that 78% of women in the field have experienced harassment – perpetuated by power differentials, a “leaky pipeline” of female representation decreasing with seniority and lack of faith in the reporting system. In frontline communities, women are disproportionately affected by climate disasters yet are frequently excluded from the very discussions that determine the fate of their oceans, their livelihoods, and their futures.