The ocean has a reputation for being a "man’s world," but honestly, that’s a massive oversimplification of how history actually went down. If you look at the records, women and the sea have been intertwined for millennia in ways that go way beyond just sitting on a dock waiting for a husband to come home. We’re talking about female pirates, scientists, deep-sea divers, and entrepreneurs who basically ran the shipping industry from behind the scenes.
Salt air. Cold spray.
The old superstition that women were "bad luck" on ships? That’s mostly a relatively recent Western myth, or at least one that was applied very selectively. While British or French naval codes might have banned women in the 18th century, plenty of other cultures saw it differently. In Japan, the Ama divers have been plunging into the Pacific for thousands of years to gather pearls and shellfish. They did this while the men stayed on the boats. They were the primary breadwinners.
The Myth of the Land-Bound Wife
We’ve all seen the movies where the woman stands on a cliffside wearing a flowing dress, looking longingly at the horizon. It’s a trope. It’s also kinda boring. In reality, the connection between women and the sea was often about survival and cold, hard cash.
In 19th-century New England, whaling was the biggest industry around. When the men left for three-year voyages, the women didn't just knit. They ran the towns. They managed the accounts, the property, and the legal affairs. Some even went along. Take Susan Hathorn, for example. In 1855, she sailed on the J.J. Hathaway. Her diary isn't some poetic reflection on the waves; it's a log of navigation, weather patterns, and the grueling reality of keeping a ship functional. She was essentially a co-navigator.
Pirates, Merchants, and the Law
If you want to talk about power, you have to talk about Cheng I Sao. Forget Blackbeard. This woman commanded the Red Flag Fleet in the early 1800s, controlling upwards of 1,800 ships and maybe 80,000 pirates. She wasn't just a figurehead. She established a strict code of laws—disobeying an order or stealing from the communal fund resulted in immediate beheading.
💡 You might also like: Wire brush for cleaning: What most people get wrong about choosing the right bristles
She eventually negotiated a peace treaty with the Chinese government that let her keep her loot and retire in peace. How many male pirates can say they "won" piracy? Not many.
The Business of Shipping
Women have also been the silent engines of the maritime economy. Throughout the 1700s and 1800s, it wasn't uncommon for widows to inherit shipping businesses. They weren't just figureheads; they were savvy operators.
- Mary Patten: At 19 years old, she took command of the Neptune's Car in 1856 when her husband fell ill. She navigated the ship around Cape Horn—one of the most dangerous routes on Earth—while pregnant.
- The "Huskies" of Newfoundland: Women who processed fish on the shore. Without their labor, the entire North Atlantic cod industry would have collapsed.
- Net-makers: In almost every coastal village in Europe, the physical infrastructure of fishing—the nets—was built and maintained by female hands.
Science and the Deep Blue
When we pivot to the 20th century, the relationship between women and the sea shifts toward discovery. Sylvia Earle is the name most people know, and for good reason. She’s spent more than 7,000 hours underwater. In 1970, she led the Tektite II project, an all-female team of aquanauts living in an underwater habitat.
The media at the time called them "aquababes." Seriously.
Despite the condescending headlines, they did more serious research on coral reefs than almost anyone else at the time. Then there’s Marie Tharp. She didn't even go to sea for the first part of her career because women weren't allowed on research vessels in the 1950s. She stayed in an office, took the raw sonar data the men brought back, and used it to map the ocean floor. She discovered the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. She proved plate tectonics was real. She basically changed how we understand the entire planet without ever stepping foot on a boat for years.
📖 Related: Images of Thanksgiving Holiday: What Most People Get Wrong
Modern Realities and Hidden Barriers
Even now, women only make up about 2% of the global seafaring workforce. That's a tiny number. Most of that 2% is concentrated in the cruise ship industry rather than on cargo ships or tankers. Why? It's not because women are afraid of the water. It’s because the infrastructure—everything from cabin design to safety equipment—was designed for male bodies.
A 2023 report from the International Maritime Organization (IMO) highlighted that many women still face significant hurdles, including a lack of mentorship and, frankly, gear that doesn't fit. Imagine trying to do a high-stakes job in a survival suit that's four sizes too big. It's a safety hazard, not just an inconvenience.
The Rise of Female Captains
Things are changing, albeit slowly. In 2015, Kate McCue became the first American woman to command a "mega" cruise ship, the Celebrity Summit. She’s become a bit of a social media sensation, but the real value is in the visibility. It proves that the deck of a ship isn't a locker room.
The Biological Connection: Ama Divers and Beyond
In South Korea and Japan, the relationship with the sea is almost spiritual. The Haenyeo of Jeju Island are free-divers who harvest sea urchins and abalone. Many of them are in their 70s and 80s. They dive into freezing water without oxygen tanks.
They’ve developed physiological adaptations. Research has shown that some of these divers have higher metabolic rates in winter and a more efficient "diving reflex" than the average person. It’s a matriarchal subculture where the sea is the provider, and women are the guardians. It’s the total opposite of the "bad luck" myth.
👉 See also: Why Everyone Is Still Obsessing Over Maybelline SuperStay Skin Tint
What Most People Get Wrong About Maritime History
We tend to look at history through a lens of "firsts." The first woman to do this, the first woman to do that. But that’s a trap. It suggests these women were anomalies.
In reality, women were always there. They were the "stowaways" who dressed as men to fight in the American Civil War on gunboats. They were the lighthouse keepers—like Ida Lewis, who saved dozens of lives off the coast of Rhode Island. If you look at the records of the U.S. Lighthouse Service, women were officially being appointed as keepers as far back as the 1820s. This wasn't a "man's job" that women occasionally filled; it was a job where performance mattered more than gender because if the light went out, people died.
Why This Matters Right Now
The ocean is in trouble. We know this. Between acidification, overfishing, and plastic pollution, the "great blue" is hurting. Interestingly, studies in fisheries management have shown that when women are involved in the decision-making process for coastal resources, the outcomes are more sustainable.
In many small-scale fishing communities in the Global South, women manage the "intertidal" zones—the areas close to shore. They see the changes first. They notice when the shellfish are getting smaller or when the mangroves are dying. Ignoring their expertise isn't just sexist; it's bad science.
Actionable Insights for the Future
If you’re interested in the intersection of women and the sea, or if you’re a woman looking to get into the maritime world, there are real steps to take. It’s not just about history; it’s about the future economy.
- Support Organizations: Look into groups like WISTA (Women's International Shipping & Trading Association). They provide networking and advocacy for women in the commercial maritime sector.
- Education: Maritime academies are actively seeking to diversify. Schools like Maine Maritime or SUNY Maritime have programs that lead directly to high-paying careers on the water.
- Documentary and Literature: Read The Living Mountain or The Sea Around Us by Rachel Carson. Carson basically started the modern environmental movement with her writing about the ocean.
- Community Science: Join coastal monitoring programs. Many of these are led by female researchers and rely on local volunteers to track rising sea levels and species migration.
The sea doesn't care about your gender. The waves hit everyone the same. The history of women and the sea is really just a history of human grit, economic necessity, and the refusal to stay on the shore when there’s a whole world to be explored. We're finally just starting to admit that they were there the whole time.