Shipping Out: The Story of America's Seafaring Women

Sailing has always been viewed as a manly occupation: women on ships have been regarded as nuisances or just plain bad luck (early sailors feared that the sea would somehow “unleash” women, creating the "pirate queens" touted in dime novel fiction). But since America's maritime academies opened their doors to the fairer sex in the 1970s, the situation has been slowly changing. Maria Brooks' documentary Shipping Out interviews women who have become pilots, chief engineers, mates, and cooks on tugboats, tankers, freighters, and container ships. What drew these women to the seafaring life? How do they handle a sometimes hostile work environment, or balance work and family? The film provides glimpses, far from the "Tugboat Annie" stereotype, of women performing tasks on the bridge and in the engine room, while some sequences shot during turbulent seas illustrate how dangerous this work can be. An informative look at working women in a traditionally male-dominated field, this is recommended. Aud: H, C, P. (S. Rees)