THE maritime industry has traditionally been dominated by men, particularly in leadership positions. But that is gradually changing as more women enter the sector and take on roles once considered almost exclusively male.
Doris Magsaysay Ho is among those who have helped challenge that tradition.
This year, she becomes the first woman to receive the Ramon V. del Rosario Award for Nation Building, a recognition that brings attention not only to her career but also to the changing role of women in Philippine business and the maritime industry.
As head of the Magsaysay Group, Magsaysay Ho helped expand a company rooted in domestic shipping into a diversified enterprise involved in maritime services, logistics, human resources, hospitality and travel. The group also became a major provider of Filipino maritime professionals to international employers.
Much of her work has focused on the people behind these businesses, such as Filipino seafarers.
This is significant because the maritime business is ultimately dependent on people. Ships, ports and technology may keep global trade moving, but trained professionals are needed to operate them safely and efficiently.
Magsaysay Ho has repeatedly emphasized the importance of developing Filipino talent rather than treating workers simply as manpower for deployment overseas. Under her leadership, the Magsaysay Group invested in training and welfare programs for seafarers to build long-term careers and compete internationally.
This approach reflects a broader idea about the role of business in society.
As a business graduate, I was taught that commerce cannot be measured solely by profit. Companies create jobs and wealth, but they can also improve people’s lives by investing in employees, developing skills and creating opportunities that would otherwise not exist.
Magsaysay Ho’s career provides an interesting example of that principle. The growth of the Magsaysay Group created business opportunities, but it also opened career paths for Filipino maritime professionals in an increasingly global industry.
Her career carries another significance.
Women remain underrepresented in maritime professions, particularly aboard ships and in senior positions. Changing this requires more than simply encouraging women to enter the industry. They need training, opportunities for advancement and workplaces where they can build careers on equal terms.
Having women in senior leadership positions helps challenge the assumption that maritime work — and especially maritime leadership — is inherently a man’s domain.
Magsaysay Ho has advocated greater gender diversity and workplace equity in the industry. Her own position in a traditionally male-dominated business gives that advocacy added weight.
The goal should not be to suggest that women must lead differently from men, or that their presence alone transforms an industry. What matters is that women have the same opportunity to enter, compete and advance based on their abilities.
For young women considering careers in maritime, visible examples matter. Seeing women as executives, officers, captains, engineers, and other maritime professionals makes these careers easier to imagine as realistic possibilities rather than exceptions.
This may ultimately be one of the more lasting aspects of Magsaysay Ho’s contribution. Her career reflects how an established Filipino company can expand internationally while investing in its workforce, and how leadership in a traditionally male industry need not be defined by gender.
Nation-building is a broad term and one that can easily become a slogan. At its most practical, however, it means creating institutions and opportunities that allow people to build better lives.
That is a more useful way to view Magsaysay Ho’s recognition: not simply as an award for one business leader, but as an occasion to consider what responsible business leadership can contribute to Filipino workers — and how industries once dominated by men can gradually make room for everyone capable of leading them.
Hyacinth Acoba is a research and editorial assistant at the Philippine Academy of Management and works part-time at the Phinma-De La Salle University Center for Business and Society.