The six female skippers who participated in this edition of the Vendée Globe – including the youngest skipper of all time, male or female – are opening doors for women in the fields of sports and the ocean, while raising awareness across all generations about oceanographic issues and the preservation of ecosystems.
Mariamalia Rodríguez Chaves, an environmental lawyer from Costa Rica, is currently a postdoctoral researcher at the Global Ocean Institute, focusing on a group of intergovernmental organizations related to the ocean and their gender equality approaches. In the video below, she explains how human health and well-being depend on a healthy ocean, which provides food and livelihoods to around 40% of the world’s population.
Dr. Chaves also discusses the inclusion, for the first time, of a gender chapter in the third Global Ocean Assessment, which will be published later this year. According to Dr. Chaves, the chapter highlights that gender disparities persist in ocean sectors, with traditional roles often limiting women’s participation in fisheries, aquaculture, and marine sciences, thereby perpetuating inequalities in access to resources, leadership opportunities, and economic outcomes.
This topic, along with many others, is covered in the Global Ocean Assessments, the only integrated global assessments of the state of the oceans. Established by the United Nations General Assembly and prepared by hundreds of scientists worldwide, the assessments provide regular reviews of the environmental, economic, and social aspects of the world’s oceans. Two assessments have already been carried out over a period of about a decade, and the third assessment will be published later this year.
You can become better informed, make wiser decisions, and help improve the ocean for future generations by consulting the Global Ocean Assessments. Learn more about the current state of the world’s oceans and the complex relationship between humans and the ocean.
