In This Guide You'll Learn
- Why an Egyptian Chief Stewardess spent seven years working towards her first promotion and what her agency interview in Antibes revealed about bias in yachting recruitment
- What to do if a captain ties your visa, discharge book or reference to a personal demand
- Why staying quiet felt like the safest choice for years and what actually changed when she stopped
- What daily psychological safety checks look like on a working superyacht
- How to recognise which introverted crew members are ready for a Head of Department role and why they get overlooked
Yes, for many crew it still does. Ghada Soliman is now Chief Stewardess on a 74 metre, but it took her seven years to reach her first Chief Stewardess role. An agency in Antibes told her outright that no Arab had ever held a senior position in yachting. She spent the next seven years proving that judgement wrong. Soliman joined Karine Rayson on The Wellbeing Project to talk about what those years cost her, an early-career incident with a captain that could have ended her career before it started, and how she leads differently now that she holds the rank she was once told she would never reach.
What Did an Agency Interview in Antibes Tell Ghada Soliman About Her Chances?
Soliman’s first job in the industry was not on board a yacht at all. She was a junior architecture engineer straight out of university, drafting plans on a fishing vessel being converted into a private yacht at a shipyard. Meeting the captain and engineers on that refit is what first made yachting look interesting to her.
She then moved onto an operational luxury yacht with a full crew, based in Egypt. Two years later, she decided to travel to Europe to learn more about the industry and sat down for a face-to-face interview with a crew agent in Antibes, the standard first step for anyone trying to break into yachting in Europe.
The agent told her not to dream so big. English was not her first language; she was Egyptian and no Arab had ever held a senior position in yachting. Soliman remembers being told the agent had simply never seen it happen.
“I’ve been told, don’t dream so big in yachting, don’t think you will grow to a senior position, because you’re Egyptian, because English is not your first language, and there is no Arab in a senior position.” (Ghada Soliman, Chief Stewardess)“
She left that interview believing the industry had already decided who she was allowed to become. For seven years, she carried that belief as fact rather than as one recruiter’s bias.
95% of yacht crew have witnessed discrimination during recruitment and 75% report experiencing it personally (Yacht Crew Recruitment & Training survey, January 2025)
How Did a Captain Use Ghada Soliman's Visa Against Her?
Early in her career, before she understood how the industry worked, Soliman needed a captain to renew her visa and sign her discharge book, standard documentation every crew member depends on to keep working. That captain made it conditional.
He told her that keeping him happy was the only way to get the paperwork she needed. When she understood what he meant and refused, he told her exactly what refusing would cost her.
“If you say anything to anyone, or if you say no and you leave, you will never find a job again in yachting.” (Ghada Soliman, Chief Stewardess)
Soliman said no. She went to the Chief Engineer and told him what had happened. He helped her write a resignation letter and stood as a witness when she resigned, so there could be no dispute later about why she had left or what had been said to her.
She left that boat believing her career in yachting might already be over, at an age when most crew are only just starting to build one. If you recognise this pattern, The Crew Coach’s page on yacht crew bullying and harassment explains what counts as an abuse of power at sea and where to go for support.
Why Did Staying Quiet Feel Like the Safest Option?
The agency interview and the incident with the captain taught Soliman the same lesson twice. Speaking up looked like it would cost her everything.
That belief did not stay contained to one boat or one captain. It shaped how she showed up for years afterwards. Colleagues who lost patience with her developing English read her hesitation as incompetence and turned comments about her accent into jokes she was told she was too sensitive to understand.
“I’d better shut up, think positive, do my job, stay small and don’t speak.” (Ghada Soliman, Chief Stewardess)
Early in her career, Soliman kept moving between boats every few months whenever a role felt unsafe, without ever naming what was actually happening to her.
What Changed When Ghada Soliman Started Speaking Up?
Soliman’s first Chief Stewardess role didn’t come because a captain decided to give her a chance. It appeared after she decided to stop staying small.
She started saying what she actually thought, in meetings and in daily interactions, instead of staying quiet to keep the peace. People noticed and her competence had been there the whole seven years. What was new was that she finally let people see it.
“I’d better shut up, think positive, do my job, stay small and don’t speak.” (Ghada Soliman, Chief Stewardess)
Seven years of hard work had already qualified her for the role. Speaking up is what made the industry able to notice.
How Does She Lead a Mixed Nationality Crew Differently Now?
Soliman’s early leadership style copied what she had been shown. She describes it as needing to appear certain at all times and treating other people’s suggestions as a threat to her authority rather than useful information.
Around 2020, she stepped away from yachting for a few months to work out what was not working. She started reading about leadership properly for the first time and came back with a different model, one built around listening rather than control, the same shift The Crew Coach’s Foundational Leadership Course is designed to teach earlier in a crew member’s career, before years of trial and error are needed to get there.
Her current interior department includes Australian, New Zealand, South African, American and British crew, plus one Turkish and one Filipino crew member. She checks in with each of them individually, every day, asking how they are and whether anything is getting in their way.
“I always go and I try to create a psychologically safe space for my team. I check on each of them during the day. How do you feel today? Are you struggling with something I can help you with?” (Ghada Soliman, Chief Stewardess)
This daily practice is a working example of what psychological safety looks like in practice on board, a habit repeated every day rather than a policy on a wall.
Reasons to have a Crew Development Workshop:
How Do You Spot a Head of Department Ready Crew Member?
Soliman was overlooked for years using a specific piece of faulty logic, that how confidently someone speaks is a reliable measure of how capable they are. For her it showed up as accent and nationality read as incompetence. For introverted crew, the same faulty logic shows up differently.
Introverted crew members typically process a situation internally before they speak and rarely volunteer their own wins in a meeting. That can look like uncertainty to a Captain or Head of Department who is scanning the room for confidence, when what is actually happening is a different working style, not a lower level of competence. Left unchecked, whoever talks first gets remembered as leadership material and whoever needed a moment to think gets passed over, regardless of who actually did the better work that week.
She looks past the loudest or most confident crew member first. She watches the people who ask real questions and treat feedback as something to use rather than something to survive.
“I would look out for someone who asks more questions and accepts feedback as data to develop themselves. It’s the responsibility of the Captain and the Head of Department to make sure everyone is heard and given a chance, not just the confident ones.” (Ghada Soliman, Chief Stewardess)
This is exactly the gap The Crew Coach’s Advanced Leadership Course is built to close, giving introverted, capable crew a structured path towards Head of Department roles instead of leaving it to whoever speaks up first in a meeting.
Has Discrimination in Yachting Actually Improved?
After 16 years in the industry, Soliman’s answer is a cautious yes. She has watched manipulation, abuse of power and open nationality bias decline, even if they have not disappeared.
“I think now manipulation and abuse is less, definitely. I think discrimination is less too. People care, it’s more human now, and we care about crew wellbeing and their mental health.” (Ghada Soliman, Chief Stewardess)
Watch the Full Interview
Ghada Soliman joined Karine on The Wellbeing Project for a full conversation on nationality bias, abuse of power and building psychological safety on board. Watch below or listen on Yachting International Radio.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can a captain make my visa or discharge book conditional on a personal favour?
No. A captain’s role in renewing a seafarer’s employment agreement or signing a discharge book is an administrative duty. It is never a personal favour to be traded. If you are in this situation, ISWAN’s YachtCrewHelp helpline takes calls in multiple languages and can talk you through your options confidentially.
Is it against the law for a captain to threaten my career if I refuse or report him?
Yes. Threatening to blacklist a crew member for refusing an improper demand or for reporting misconduct is a form of retaliation and flag states investigate this under their MLC 2006 obligations to seafarers. Nautilus International can also advise members on formal reporting channels.
How common is nationality based discrimination in yacht crew recruitment?
More common than the industry likes to admit. A January 2025 survey by Yacht Crew Recruitment & Training found that 95% of crew have witnessed discrimination during recruitment and 75% have experienced it personally.
What does psychological safety actually look like on a working superyacht?
It looks like daily, individual check-ins rather than a single all hands meeting. Soliman’s version is a short conversation with each crew member about how they are doing and whether anything is in their way, repeated every day rather than reviewed once a year.
How do I know if an introverted crew member is ready for promotion?
Introverted crew tend to think a situation through before speaking and rarely promote their own wins, so their competence is easy to miss on a boat that rewards whoever talks first. Look at how they handle feedback and how much they have genuinely learned on the job rather than how confidently they speak in a meeting. This is exactly what The Crew Coach’s Advanced Leadership Course is built to identify early, before a capable introvert is mistaken for someone who is not ready.
If This Story Feels Familiar
If you have been in a similar position, whether that is a captain holding your paperwork over you or years of being told you do not belong, you do not have to work through it alone.
Book a counselling session with The Crew Coach, a confidential space built specifically for yacht crew.
