Absent Mother Sailors: How Possible Is It to Do the Impossible?

Abstract

This paper examines how women seafarers on merchant cargo ships balance work and family life, particularly when they become a mother. Thirty-six women seafarers, including ten mothers, were interviewed. Their biggest concern was marriage and family, and they tend to face the issue of agency---individuals' capacity of making their own choices freely and acting independently. In other words, when marriage and family issues come into their lives, can women feel free to choose whether they continue seafaring or quit? In the sample, only five mothers either stayed at sea or returned to ship after the children were grown up. Those mothers who remained working at sea tended to encounter new challenges relating to their sense of motherhood, as well as their children's emotional relationship with the mothers. The study addresses the impact of mother's absence from home, both on mothers and their children. The paper concludes that it is not totally impossible for women seafarers to continue working at sea after having children, however, women's agency may be constantly challenged by their domestic gender roles, when they try to balance work and family life.