Captain Kate McCue has been mistaken for a captain’s wife – or a cruise director’s wife – countless times in the past seven years. No one has ever guessed correctly that she’s the one running the ship.
Even a fellow captain mistook McCue for a captain’s spouse when he went to take charge of a ship, while many cruise passengers and members of the public have assumed the same.
Captain Kate McCue has been repeatedly mistaken for a captain’s wife. (Instagram)
McCue has shared several videos on social media of instances where men and women have been shocked when he corrected them about their role.
“Are you serious?” a woman answered hearing McCue steering the ship.
“But you’re so beautiful,” the female passenger continued, her mouth hanging open.
“Seven years after being captain, I still get similar reactions when I tell someone what I do for a living,” McCue told nine.com.au.
It’s not entirely shocking that people wouldn’t expect a woman to command a ship considering that less than two percent of the 1.2 million seafarers worldwide are women, as the Report of the BIMCO/ICS 2021 marine workforce.
McCue herself has only met one other female captain in her 26-year career at sea.
McCue became the first American woman to captain a major cruise ship in 2015 when she became the commander of Celebrity Cruises’ Celebrity Summit.
He said the public’s reaction when he took that title was “mind-blowing”.
“If you had asked me if I thought the world would even notice this achievement, I would have said ‘no,’ because I thought no one else would care,” he said.
Captain Kate McCue seeks to normalize the idea of women working on the bridge. (new)
McCue says that gender is not a barrier to the sea
McCue said she hadn’t even thought about the fact that there weren’t many female leaders in her industry for the first 11 years of her career, until Swedish captain Karin Stahre-Janson became the first female captain of cruise around the world in 2007.
McCue had wanted to be a cruise ship captain since her parents took her on a cruise when she was 12 years old.
Fortunately, she says she hasn’t had to face any of the stereotypical challenges or battles one might expect from being one of the few women in a male-dominated industry and rising to the position of captain.
“That’s because I’ve been lucky enough to work for a company that values diversity and inclusion,” he said.
“Our crew comes from 60 to 75 different nationalities. Everyone is a minority of some kind, be it race, religion, sexual orientation, gender, etc.
“Thus, I found that differences were not a problem to overcome.
“Being a woman on board was not what defined me and that’s why I recommend people to surround themselves with diversity wherever they can.”
Her employer, Celebrity Cruises, is working hard to increase female representation at sea, with 32% of its bridge officers by 2022 being women.
The company has a president and CEO, Lisa Lutoff-Perlo, who appointed McCue as captain, and who also hired the first Ecuadorian captain, Captain Nathaly Alban, and the first African woman to work on a bridge of cruises, Nicholine Tifuh Azirh. .
Captain Kate McCue is the master of Celebrity Beyond, (supplied)
McCue wants other women to be as sassy as she is to rise through the ranks in her industry, knowing that they don’t have to be defined by their gender.
She works to normalize the idea of women as captains through social media platforms Instagram and TikTok.
“My motto is, ‘If you can see it, you can be it,’ because representation is important,” she said.
“Social media is a wonderful tool to get people interested in the endless opportunities out there at sea and it’s important that they can see someone like them in roles they may never have imagined possible.”
McCue believes anyone interested in the maritime industry should pursue the line of work.
“I would encourage anyone who wanted to make a life at sea to get involved wholeheartedly.
“You don’t have to follow in anyone else’s footsteps. Forge your own path.”
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