S4E163: Sanjam Sahi Gupta: Building Maritime SheEO and Fighting for Gender Equality in Shipping
She runs a family shipping business, founded the world's largest gender equality conference in maritime history, has advised heads of government on ocean action, and now sits on India's apex shipping policy body. All in an industry never designed to include her.
In this episode of The AboutHer Show, I sit down with Sanjam Sahi Gupta — Director of Sitara Shipping, Founder of Maritime SheEO, and gender expert at the IMO and UN ESCAP.
She talks about the women who showed her what was possible, walking into rooms where she did not belong and staying anyway, building WISTA India from the ground up, launching Maritime SheEO across 77 countries, advising the Norwegian Prime Minister, the stories of women seafarers that keep her going, and why gender equality and decarbonisation are the same conversation.
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Chapters:
(0:00) Introduction
A woman who is rewriting the rules of one of the world's oldest industries
(2:40) From Family Business to Global Movement
How a shipping director found her calling in the fight for gender equality
(4:30) The Girl Who Watched and Wondered
The childhood moment that first showed her what was possible
(5:42) Walking Into a Man's World
What it really felt like to enter maritime as a woman, and what she refused to accept
(9:40) Building WISTA India
How she created a network from scratch and expanded it across Asia Pacific
(13:36) Founding Maritime SheEO
The story behind the world's largest gender equality conference in maritime history
(16:06) A Seat at the World's Table
The Norwegian PM's invitation & what she brought to that room
(17:47) Opening Doors for 90 Women
The IMO-funded Leadership Accelerator & the one thing holding women back
(21:26) The Women at Sea
The stories of discrimination that stay with her and fuel everything she does
(25:25) Equality Meets Sustainability
Why the people in the room when we decide shipping's future matter as much as the decisions themselves
(29:29) The National Shipping Board
Her new appointment & the single change she is determined to drive
(31:15) The Cost and the Reward
What it takes to hold a life this expansive together, personally & professionally
(34:16) To the Next Generation
Her message to every young woman standing at the edge of an industry that wasn't built for her
(36:40) The Reveal
Quick-fire, unfiltered, & surprising
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