Women in Yachting with Gulf Craft’s Abeer Alshaali
\n \tEmirati shipbuilding giant Gulf Craft recently announced the appointment of a new CEO, Talal Abdin Nasralla. Acting CEO Abeer Alshaali will assume the role of Deputy Managing Director. During her tenure as the first female in the position, Abeer Alshaali led Gulf Craft calmly through the most turbulent year in collective memory – even managing to maintain production and launch the yard\u2019s largest ever superyacht, the Majesty 175. We spoke with Abeer this International Women\u2019s Day, hoping to learn more about the challenges of being a woman in a male-dominated industry and position, in a region typically viewed as underdeveloped in the area of women\u2019s rights.
\n A little over a year ago when Abeer was appointed interim CEO of Gulf Craft, the headlines made no secret of her gender – female – and the importance of it with respect to her position – Acting CEO. The regional context of this spectacularly progressive appointment taking place in the Middle East of all places was an invisible footnote at the bottom of each story.\u00a0
\n\u2018I think there was a lot of spotlight, I think there was also some confusion at the time,\u2019 Abeer laughs. \u2018There was one headline saying that I was the first female employee at Gulf Craft, which is categorically incorrect.\u2019\u00a0
\nThe last impression we wanted to give Abeer was that after a remarkable year at the helm of Gulf Craft – in which two Majesty 100s were delivered, and one flagship launched – her gender was the most important thing of note.\u00a0
\nIn fact, it makes total sense that Abeer would grow into this position. The daughter of one of Gulf Craft\u2019s Co-Founders Mohammed Alshaali, Abeer tells us she virtually grew up at the yard since she was a toddler. \u2018I\u2019ve always been fascinated by the magic of boat building,\u2019 she says earnestly. \u2018There\u2019s engineering, there\u2019s science, but it\u2019s also a little bit of magic. And I think that\u2019s something that drew me in, the mystique of it.\u2019\u00a0
\nA year on from her appointment, Abeer\u2019s seat at the table is in no question. Under her tenure, Gulf Craft showed remarkable ingenuity in this unprecedented time, adopting a number of agile techniques to keep production high and risk low throughout the pandemic.
\n\u2018We\u2019re lucky in that all of our workers live in company-owned accommodation, so we could do things like nominate one person at a time to go get groceries, minimising risk and limiting movement,\u2019 Abeer adds. \u2018As soon as the vaccine was introduced we started rolling it out – we\u2019re at about 93% vaccination rate in the company now.\u2019\u00a0
\nAs for being a woman in yachting? Abeer is on the whole very complimentary of the yachting industry. She tells us she does not see the same misogynistic systemic attitudes in our industry that are noticeable in others.\u00a0
\n\u2018I could probably count on one hand the number of times I felt targeted let\u2019s say, or somebody didn\u2019t want to talk to me\u2026 It\u2019s not really something I have to take account of,\u2019 she says. \u2018But I think across industries it\u2019s very different. Twenty years ago when I worked in a bank – it was bad. Honestly. And from what I hear from my colleagues that are still in the finance sector? It hasn\u2019t changed much.\u2019
\nIt\u2019s not long before the topic moves on to the Middle East, and our perceptions of it with regards to women\u2019s rights. As a former student of History, Abeer is keen that the issue be examined within its proper context.\u00a0
\n\u2018I understand there is this image of the Middle East being less progressive, but I think there\u2019s also a little bit of Western baggage there.\u2019 She uses the example of the UAE, where historically men would go out to sea for months at a time and women would run everything on shore, from the economic system to the household. \u2018You cannot live in a harsh environment and completely ignore half the population; it doesn\u2019t work that way.\u2019
\n\u2018So there is a Western narrative that needs to be looked at, and what that means for women in the West, but I don\u2019t think it\u2019s the same narrative for women in the East. We have a very different culture and a different narrative.\u2019
\nAbeer is not saying misogyny doesn\u2019t exist. She tells us one anecdote of a maritime academy she visited, where Abeer witnessed a professor actively discouraging his female students to try out for roles as crew and captains in favour of port side positions. \u2018I felt that was really unfortunate for those girls, to be demoralised before they\u2019ve even begun,\u2019 she says. \u2018Interestingly this guy was not an Arab man, it was a British guy if I recall.\u2019
\nAll this to say of course misogyny does exist on an individual level, and likely will continue to for some time. When it comes to the system though, Abeer insists that we begin to rephrase the dialogue.\u00a0
\n\u2018I think we\u2019re asking the wrong questions,\u2019 she tells us. \u2018So – are we doing the most that we need to be doing in the system to create support? Are school hours and work hours aligned so that mothers can both have a career and support their children? If you de-stigmatise the idea of women taking time off to attend a parent teacher conference, for example, then you solve half your problems. But the system needs to allow for that.\u2019\u00a0
\nAbeer\u2019s advice for a woman considering a role in yachting? Work hard. Get the right educational background, and earn your stripes. Would this be any different if she were advising a man? \u2018Probably not, no.\u2019
\nOur conversation with Abeer is a reminder of the role of nuance and relativism in the conversation around women\u2019s rights this International Women\u2019s Day. The importance of celebrating how far we have come, and what remains to be done in the road ahead.\u00a0
\nWhether she knows it or not, Abeer is a role model. But not just for women in yachting. Abeer is driven, passionate, with a clear vision of who she is and why she is here. She gives careful consideration to her words, and she led Gulf Craft through one of the most turbulent periods for the world to great success.
\nAbeer is a woman in yachting, yes. But she is also a leader – the kind we can all look up to, regardless of our gender. In her new role as Deputy Managing Director, Abeer will continue to be an instrumental person for change within Gulf Craft and beyond.<\/p>\n
\t Abeer Alshaali, Deputy Managing Director Gulf Craft <\/p>\n
\t Majesty 155 <\/p>\n
\t Majesty 175 Launch <\/p>\n
\t Majesty 175 Sea Trials <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Women in Yachting with Gulf Craft’s Abeer Alshaali Emirati shipbuilding giant Gulf Craft recently announced the appointment of a new CEO, Talal Abdin Nasralla. Acting CEO Abeer Alshaali will assume the role of Deputy Managing Director. During her tenure as … <\/p>\n