Let Numbers Speak: Job Opportunities and International Exchange Programs for Female Maritime Cadets

Abstract

For 6 years, the Massachusetts Maritime Academy (MMA) of the USAhas been conducting a student exchange program with Shanghai Maritime Univer-sity (SMU) of China. Every spring term, about 20 cadets are selected from eachinstitution and sent to the other campus to study for one semester. MMA, like manyother traditional maritime schools, is a male-dominated institute, with the genderdistribution being 12 % female cadets and 88 % male cadets. However, the cadetsparticipating in the MMA exchange program have shown quite a different genderratio with the female’s participation rate, displaying a surge in the past 2 years.Furthermore, the female cadets tend to stand out in the job market upon graduation,especially in comparison to their male peers. This paper presents an analysis ofwhat accounts for the success of selected female cadets, how they outperform in theinternational exchange programs, and their subsequent achievements in the jobmarket by applying case-study methodology, school-wide surveys and the datacollected over the course of 6 years. The findings indicate that the outstandingqualities of female cadets, such as language proficiency, cultural adaptability,flexibility, intuitive vision, and genuine curiosity and perseverance, are displayedand encouraged, allowing the women to reach their full potential. The school-widecultural awareness and job market success, motivate more MMA female cadets toparticipate in the MMA-SMU exchange program.