Liz spent 9 years serving Her Majesty in the Senior Service and loved every minute of it. Her role was a Medic, taking care of the physical and mental health of all those she served onboard with. The role could be onshore or at sea and involved different kinds of support from clinical to operational, to the Royal Marines and employment boards. One of her favourite drafts was keeping ships medically fit for sea. This means ensuring that the crew were medically and psychologically fit, the kit was up to date and properly maintained, and the crew had all of the training necessary to patch people up if needed. 

The Navy took her all over the world, but the stand out locations included Gibraltar, and those who have served on a warship who pull into Gibraltar will understand the reasons why! She found her time in West Africa fascinating and loved Singapore and Malaysia. Liz also loves a challenge and enjoyed representing her units in sporting competitions; running in particular has always been a big part of her life.

Though Liz told us that many of her favourite memories are not for polite ears, one of the best was to sit on a stern bollard in the evening with the props turning through the inky black sea. It gave her the chance to look back at the day's work and feel very very privileged to have been allowed to look after those people who chose to serve in the military. It might sound cheesy but there it is! 

While Liz still works on ships at sea, she credits those formative years as a young Royal Navy medic as truly amazing and misses that frontline clinical role of seeing patients, responding to emergencies and physically being on a ship at sea. .

Red Square Medical has been officially up and running since November 2016, but Liz had been working as an independent consultant for about a year before. The start of Red Square Medical all happened by accident really. Liz had been lecturing at Warsash Maritime Academy and was asked to go onboard to assist with an audit of the ships emergency response plans - both as a desktop exercise and in action. Jobs like that seemed to keep popping up, and because Liz enjoys the operational side of things, and working with teams onboard, it seemed like a good idea to put some real effort into growing a business doing something she loves.

And Red Square Medical has constantly evolved since then. Early on, the training side was the bread and butter of the business. But, the idea has always been to provide an end to end service that allows a shipping company to come along and ask, “we’d love a review of our SOPs and kit, and a gap analysis of existing training. Oh, and if you can assist with operations and clinical support, that would be amazing!”

Essentially, companies can dip in and out of our services, or subscribe to receive the full package. As such, we have a really diverse team of experts available and can always make sure we task the right person and can offer the most valuable service to our clients. 

When we asked Liz where she sees herself and Red Square Medical in 5 years time, she asked if it was OK to say “sipping cocktails while looking out to sea!” and we’d probably all love that!

But seriously, Liz wants to see Red Square Medical really settle into its stride. Her aim is for it to be a company that people choose to work for because it provides excellent support and opportunities for its employees and contractors. A company that people choose to engage with because it can provide their ships with a service born from years of our own hard work at sea, on a variety of vessels from sail boats to luxury cruise ships and everything in between. 

In terms of being female in a male dominated industry, Liz is extremely task focused and actively seeks out and makes the most of opportunities. In the Navy, she found an environment where opportunities were there for the taking, regardless of gender, and since moving into the commercial and cruise sector, feels there she hasn’t experienced any barriers due to gender. On the whole it’s been a very positive experience. 

Liz told us she has had the privilege of working with some truly inspiring people through her career and seeing them in action. Each great person has helped her to develop her own career by setting an example of how it should be done; showing rather than just telling. 

In contrast, she has also worked with some absolute idiots and acknowledges that they can have a hugely negative impact. Learning this as a young woman setting out on an exciting new adventure, she was fortunate to have access to an amazing support structure that helped to navigate around the idiots and gradually build a toolkit of resilience and coping techniques for the future. 

Liz also explained that sadly, harassment has been commonplace in some roles. Having a good grounding and resilience helped her to deal with it in a way that also showed less experienced women that it’s OK to speak up and it’s definitely not OK for it to happen. She hopes to be a positive role model for other women in the maritime industry in the same way that there are many women that she looks up to and admires as good role models.

Balance. Liz believes that balance is the key attribute that women bring to the table and while only 1.2% of the global maritime workforce are women currently, opportunities are being created. 

Liz was only taught about ‘girl’ and ‘boy’ jobs at school; it’s a career that girls still don’t often hear about or explore during their education, and there really isn’t much information available about career progression. It’s also really important for female role models to educate the next generations about jobs available at sea. She’s pleased to see the progress being made in the equality arena, but access to information about jobs at sea is still limited. However, there are some incredible female seafarers within her network who are actively promoting careers in the Merchant Navy and she believes it’s a great opportunity for those looking for a different way of life. 

Shipping companies could also address this by reaching out to secondary schools at careers fairs, and target schools further inland, not just the main port towns and cities. They need to get modern with social media because today's generation are more engaged with the visual. Liz believes video content is key and much of what’s currently out there isn’t appealing to today’s teenager because it’s not relatable. 

We also broached the question that women are alway asked in interviews, but for some reason men aren’t… ‘how do you balance work and family life?’  But it’s an important consideration for most women in any industry and may be part of the reason for inequality, particularly in more senior posts.

Liz told us that in all honesty, she doesn’t think she balances it very well. She has an amazing family and very resilient children, but being a parent who works away comes with a huge rucksack of guilt. It leaves her feeling as if she is always letting someone down somewhere and, like a lot of women, the first thing to be forgotten is herself so self-care goes out of the window. 

Social media has a lot to answer for and she’s conscious that reading posts gives an impression of other women who have it ‘so together’, leaving others genuinely wondering how they do it. But, fundamentally, Liz loves her work and without it wouldn’t be the person she wants to be, so it’s not a complaint; more of an observation. 

In terms of advice for future generations, Liz believes research is key. Look into the opportunities available and speak to people already in the job. Think very carefully about the type of company you’d like to work for and investigate their career opportunities. Don’t put up with any rubbish and stand up for yourself and your colleagues, regardless of gender. Be the change that you want to see and seize every exciting challenge that comes your way.  

While all jobs come with good and bad, whether you’re ashore or at sea, working on ships means you can’t get away from the bad. But, reach out, you’re not alone and support is available. 

Liz has been in the industry for 23 years now and her biggest love is that of being at sea, the challenge of providing medical care in remote situations with limited resources, plus the people she works with, which is a great testimonial in its own right. Jobs in the maritime industry come with the chance to have a blast and see the world. Explore whenever you can get ashore. You can learn amongst the best and work with some truly exceptional people. 

Happy IMO Women in Maritime Day!