‘We are allowed to be ourselves’: Women at Cal Poly Maritime work to open up their industry

Photos and text by Autumn DeGrazia

Julia Enzmann, 24, a cadet at the California State Polytechnic University Maritime Academy in Vallejo, descends to the engine control room during her middle-watch rotation from midnight to 4 a.m. on Training Ship Golden Bear berthed at the Mare Island Dry Docks. According to a 2024 International Maritime Organization survey, women still make up only 1.2% of the global seagoing workforce. The reasons for this underrepresentation are layered. One factor is the long periods that the profession requires its workers to be away from home. Another is that the maritime industry is still an overwhelmingly male-dominated environment. Among female seafarers surveyed, roughly 60% report having encountered gender-based discrimination on board.

Enzmann makes her rounds in the engine control room during her middle-watch rotation on Training Ship Golden Bear. She is a second-year student studying marine transportation at Cal Poly Maritime and participating on watch on the ship. Watch on a ship is for a specific period when a group of crewmembers is on duty to run, steer and guard the vessel. On average, deck and engine cadets must complete 12 four-hour watches per academic year, totaling 48 four-hour watches over a four-year enrollment period.

Enzmann checks logs during her middle-watch rotation. She served as boatswain’s mate petty officer second class in the U.S. Coast Guard for four years prior to enrolling at Cal Poly Maritime to gain independence from her family and ingrain self-discipline. She decided that pursuing a degree in marine transportation could help her advance to higher officer positions on ships and provide more job opportunities outside of the Coast Guard.

Enzmann shines a flashlight on the mural created by her division, 4D, during the two-month summer sea term in 2025, in the greendeck stairway to the bow of Training Ship Golden Bear. New Cal Poly Maritime students are assigned to divisions based on academic majors and participate in morning formations several times a week, as well as stand watches on campus and aboard the ship. It is tradition to create a mural of the division highlighting characteristics of cadets and inside jokes during sea terms. In this mural, Enzmann is depicted wearing a wedding dress and marrying Carson “Rodents” Rous because of the bond they forged while on the ship. Enzmann jokingly said, “If I wasn’t gay, I would be in love with you.” She found love with oceanography cadet Gigi, with whom she spent nights stargazing and developing a relationship on the ship. “Being on a ship and you don’t have all these distractions, and life is very simple,” Enzmann said “You have time to slow down and look at the horizon forever, think about life and have those connections.”

Enzmann sits in the boatswain’s locker on Training Ship Golden Bear. While at Cal Poly Maritime, she has learned to advocate for herself in a demanding, male-dominated environment while maintaining high work standards. Having served in the U.S. Coast Guard, she entered the program with a strong foundation in maritime work and an understanding of certain aspects of marine transportation. This summer, Enzmann completed an internship on an oil tanker for Fairwater transporting diesel, jet fuel and gasoline between Port Arthur, Texas, and Port Everglades, Florida. Although she experienced isolation in this role, she found moments of connection with other women aboard in varying departments. “It was great to at least know that there was another girl on board,” Enzmann says. “You know, if she needed tampons, she could come to me, or I would trade her face masks, and she would give me foot masks. This is beautiful girlhood.” During this internship, she earned Tankerman Person-in-Charge certification and celebrated her one-year anniversary with her girlfriend, Gigi. On weekends of liberty, Gigi journeyed two hours from Naples, Florida, to Fort Lauderdale to be with Enzmann. “I would do watch for four hours,” Enzmann says, “and then I’d spend time with Gigi and we go to the beach, and obviously wanted to catch up on all the time that we don’t have together. I’d have my six or seven hours with her, and then I’d go back to the ship and I’d have four hours of watch, and then I would try to get off and see her again.”

Enzmann returns to the bridge after completing her security rounds during middle watch on Training Ship Golden Bear. Upon returning from her summer internship with Fairwater, she says, she will continue into her third year at Cal Poly Maritime and officiate her brother’s wedding. “But really, I have to get back to the lady, my amazing, lovely, beautiful girlfriend,” said Enzmann. She expects to graduate in 2028 with a Bachelor of Science, a U.S. Coast Guard Third Mate Unlimited License and a global International Convention on Standards of Training, Certification and Watchkeeping for Seafarers certificate.

Cal Poly Maritime Cadet Bridget Brumm uses the Electronic Chart Display and Information System at Cal Poly Maritime to create a voyage plan on Nov. 17, 2023. Brumm graduated from there in spring 2024 with a B.A. in marine transportation. She is an active member of the International Organization of Master, Mates, and Pilots union and works as a third mate on cargo vessels for seven months out of the year. “I think life at sea is completely different from life on land because of how literally far away you are from everything,” said Brumm. “Being isolated on an 800-foot ship in the Pacific, a lot is said that normally wouldn’t be tolerated in a regular office.”

“It’s important to use your voice and stick up for yourself when you are out there working. The crew will say stuff out of line; do not let it slide or let it beat you down.” She said isolation is common because so few women work at sea. “A lot of women quit because of familial commitments and the toll that life at sea takes on relationships. I find working a lot easier whenever there is other feminine energy aboard and not just myself.”

Chloe Kealoha prepares for her shift working on Training Ship Golden Bear. “I do admire this younger generation that knows how to work and also look sassy and beautiful, you know, because I was not comfortable doing that,” ship Capt. Samar Bannister said. “I was comfortable being one of the guys and just working.” Prior to the summer sea term, cadets prepare for departure by boarding the ship, learning to conduct watches and working shifts when final repairs are made. The 2026 Cal Poly Maritime summer sea term entailed a 65-day training voyage that traveled across the Pacific Ocean from Vallejo to San Diego, Tahiti, Fiji, Honolulu and back to Vallejo.

Cal Poly Maritime Cadet Chief Engineer Allison Bailey practices fusing two pieces of metal in the campus welding shop on April 13. She was elected cadet chief engineer last November and is a welding instructional student assistant on campus. As cadet chief engineer, she is an upper-level student leader in the engineering department who helps manage and train lower-class engine cadets during lab sessions and training cruises.

Cadets eat lunch between shifts on Training Ship Golden Bear. The vessel has been retired after its final 65-day summer sea term voyage, ending 30 years of service for Cal Maritime.

Capt. Samar Bannister walks up the gangway to Training Ship Golden Bear. The ship’s first female captain, she started her maritime career in 2000 after graduating from Cal Poly Maritime’s marine transportation program. She began as Golden Bear captain in September 2022. As captain, she emphasizes fostering responsible mariners and the significance of community engagement and cultural immersion while working. She earlier worked as a seafarer within the American Maritime Officers union.

Cookies sit on Bannister’s desk in the master’s cabin on Training Ship Golden Bear. The note attached to the bag says, “Captain Bannister – Thank you for taking care of the 2026 Cadets! — the Ludwig Family.”

The door to the master’s cabin on Training Ship Golden Bear. “It doesn’t matter where you come from; you just have to prove that you can do the job.” says Bannister. “And as a female in the industry, people see you as a red heart in a deck of black spades. So everybody knows you. They know your history. They know who you’re dating. They know where you’re from.”

Bannister checks in with the crew of Training Ship Golden Bear. “We are allowed to be ourselves and still be in the industry,” she says. “And when I started, it was not like that. It was that you chose to be in a male-dominated industry and you chose to be out here. So if you want to be out here, you better conform to what the standard is. I wore men’s deodorant. I wore sports bras. I definitely did not want to stand out. And I had a couple people pull me aside and say, ‘Don’t wear perfume. Don’t wear makeup. Don’t wear lacy underwear because you all are using the same laundry and underwear gets stolen.'”

Bannister speaks with Commandant of Cadets David Taliaferro about incoming cadets and division placements in the master’s cabin on Training Ship Golden Bear. Cal Poly Maritime has an estimated 40 female cadets entering the university, double last year’s number. When assigning cadets to divisions, the university aims to have at least two women among the 28 to 35 students in each division. This year, there will be four women per division. “Women can do it well with respect and dignity and intelligence,” Bannister says, “and if I can normalize that, then it makes the industry a better industry.”