Beyond caring, cleaning, nursing and hosting, there was one other way for women to work at sea. The smiling “stenographer” was a clerical role that P&O proudly advertised in 1955.
Stenographers ranked as junior officers in the Purser’s Department. Unlike the P&O stewardesses of old, they were encouraged to be young (over 21) and they had to be single.
In time, stenographers morphed into Junior Women Assistant Pursers, but the tyranny of the typewriter remained a constant.
