By Christin Heamagi and Carley Divish, Maritime Archaeology Trust
Institutional Associate Member

The Maritime Archaeology Trust (MAT) with support from Historic England is undertaking a project aiming to better understand the issues of equality of opportunity for women in maritime archaeology and to develop initiatives to actively improve the situation. The MAT, located in Southampton, England, is choosing to focus initially on women and organisations within the United Kingdom, with hopes to provide frameworks of analysis and investigation to the wider field as the project continues. Between 2023 and 2024, MAT conducted a project known as ‘Women and Protected Wrecks: Examining Engagement’. Protected Wrecks in UK waters are remains of ships and boats within the territorial limits of the UK that meet certain standards set by the government. These sites are discovered, licensed, and protected often by local stakeholders with the help of the governing body.

The data gathered from this project showcased unexpected outcomes, revealing persistent disparities across the field. While women make up 56% of professional maritime archaeologists, they are widely underrepresented in academia (35%), membership-based organizations (37%), leadership roles (30%), conference speakers (20%), and authorship of maritime archaeology publications (20%). Furthermore, women only represent 30% of UK divers (Figure 1). These results were sobering to the reality of female representation in the maritime archaeology field in the UK and highlighted a clear discrepancy between opportunity and workforce.

Figure 1 Archaeologists and professional divers Jan Gillespie, Greta Clarke, and Christin Heamagi on the South Coast of England. Credit: Maritime Archaeology Trust.

Building on the results of the Women and Protected Wrecks project, as well as anecdotal experiences from a range of practitioners, the MAT developed the ‘Women in Maritime Archaeology: Developing Actions for an Equitable Future’ project. The project aims to investigate how gender influences equality of opportunity, the creation of knowledge, and the establishment of research, management, and protection priorities within the discipline, with the ultimate goal of identifying actionable strategies to generate address equitable outcomes within the field, at least in the UK.

Early narratives of maritime archaeology are often centered on male ‘founders’, within these accounts women often appear as assistants, partners or supporting figures, despite having played substantial roles in research, analysis and publication. Some women have been recognized as early pioneers, such as Honor Frost, whilst many other women’s contributions have remained less visible (Figure 2).

Figure 2: Julie Satchell, Head of Research at MAT, presenting this project at the International Conference for Underwater Archaeology, 2025. Credit: Maritime Archaeology Trust.

There is a myriad of questions that the project is looking to answer, including (but not limited to) what sub-disciplines of maritime archaeology are studied by women, how diverse organizations are, what points in a career path may require more support and how to develop a more equitable future. Through these questions, we want to assess patterns in the data to understand if and how gender is impacting the development and trajectory of the field (Figure 3).

Figure 3: Archaeologist and professional diver Heather Anderson excavating a Mesolithic underwater site. Credit: Maritime Archaeology Trust.

The project has already hosted two workshops, bringing together women from diverse marine cultural heritage backgrounds (from those in academia, commercial archaeology, and charitable organizations to those who have left the field entirely), that represented various roles and ages ups. These collaborative sessions resulted in a survey that was then circulated more widely across the field, as well as an email list to further encourage connection and engagement.  

Moving forward, we hope to document the full spectrum of experiences of women in maritime archaeology. Whether you are currently working in the field or have moved onto a different career path, we want to hear from you.

Achieving true equity in maritime archaeology requires a multi-faceted approach, from addressing historical biases in research and interpretation to promoting equitable practices in education, fieldwork, research, practice, and professional recognition. Rather than just identifying the issues, we want to develop initiatives to actively improve the discrepancy in opportunity. For example, establishing an ongoing network for women in the field to provide a framework for support and communication.

This project may not fix the entire issue, but like ‘Women in STEM’ initiatives, helping girls pursue roles in science, technology, engineering, and math, it takes concrete data and realistic goals to create tangible outcomes. We hope that this project will be a model within the discipline to offer insights, create a path, and provide relevant data to other specialist areas and future research.

If you would like to learn more or participate in future workshops, please contact us at women@maritimearchaeology.co.uk.

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