March 8th marks International Women’s Day and the theme for 2025 is ‘Accelerating Action’. The Fair Seas team have been tirelessly working to accelerate action for the ocean in Ireland. Today for #IWD2025, two of the core team members share their journeys into the field of marine advocacy and policy. Emma and Grace also share their personal experiences of accelerating action as women in industries that can often be less diverse spaces and at the highest levels of EU politics.

Emma Armshaw is the Marine & Coastal Policy Officer at The Sustainable Water Network (SWAN)

I work in an organisation with a majority female team and feel fortunate in the environmental sector to see many tenacious women leading organisations and departments. Such examples help ensure young women feel supported as their careers develop and feel heard in the workplace.

The ocean is for everyone, regardless of gender, and caring for our marine environment needs all of us. However, the wider marine sector, particularly amongst fishers and the energy industry, is much more male-dominated. I have walked into marine events and been disheartened to see 100% male panels.

Having recently moved from the political sector to marine biology, it was a welcome change to be surrounded by women both when studying and in a conservation-focussed workplace, especially when looking at the Dáil which now has the lowest percentage of women of any parliament in western Europe and the 96th lowest in the world.

Grace Carr is the Marine Policy and Advocacy Officer at the The Irish Wildlife Trust

My background is in Marine Biology. I did a Master’s of Research with the Marine Biological Association in Plymouth and I got the chance to work in a lab with some really brilliant women researchers who I learnt a lot from. I then worked on an Atlantic Bluefin Tuna tagging project called TunaCHART which involved going out on fishing boats all around the country to tag and record bluefin tuna in Irish waters.

I was always the only woman on these boats and was always made to feel welcome and comfortable. I really enjoyed this job and I enjoyed speaking with Irish fishermen who have spent their lives at sea. Being able to learn from their experiences and find out their opinions was extremely valuable and I am still in contact with several of them to this day.

I have been working in marine advocacy since the end of 2022 and this has been a huge learning curve. There are many women working in this field and it’s always really enjoyable to work with and most importantly learn from the women who have been doing this for a long time. I think it’s important to build a thick skin for this line of work and that’s necessary regardless of your gender.

I’ve been lucky enough to get the chance to work on EU level policies through our collaboration with EU NGOs and so I have met with many MEPs over in Brussels. This has mostly been a positive experience, however, I have had one or two experiences where older male politicians have tried to speak down and intimidate me. Who knows whether this would have been the case if I were male, but like I said it’s important to build a thick skin. I am really passionate about effectively protecting the oceans and I believe in what we are advocating for, so luckily I feel like I can hold my own against certain intimidation tactics.

Working in environmental advocacy surrounded by many different groups with a huge presence of inspiring, passionate and intelligent women is a huge privilege. There is a great deal of support offered, as well as knowledge sharing and opportunities to learn, grow and become better advocates for the environments and species we care so much about.

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