Comfort and guidance for female passengers: The origins of women's employment on British, Journal for Maritime Research 6:1 145-164

This paper highlights the importance of the development of passenger shipping in
formalizing women’s employment at sea (although it had developed earlier in the
Navy on similar lines),6 and also suggests that the separation of sexes on emigrant
ships was the factor that institutionalized women’s employment at sea.7 For even if
the employment of women was resisted by shipping companies, especially in the
steerage class, demands by the public and legislators forced the shipowners to employ
them on emigrant vessels.