Resumen de WOW – Women on the Waves. P&O’s pioneering women seafarers: Past, present and future online exhibition: www.poheritage.com/the-collection/exhibitions/wow-women-on-the-waves, 8 March 2020, continuing indefinitely
This review essay appraises the first online exhibition in the world on gendered maritime labour. The 23-panel exhibition addresses the subject from a UK perspective and deals specifically with P&O’s women seafarers from the company’s earliest times to today. Initially the essay outlines the contents of each panel and its accompanying ‘treasure chests’, making wider points about P&O’s position compared to other UK shipping operators. Then it tackles four key questions. How typical of women’s progress in the maritime world is this representation of P&O women? How productively and fairly does this exhibition represent the subject: a marginalised group’s progression from the periphery to the mainstream? How does this exhibition about a particular marginalised group illuminate the company’s growing understanding of the need to embrace diversity? Fourth, what is not there that should there? The essay concludes that the exhibition is, remarkably, of global value.
