This volume aims to “defamiliarise” the economic and social maritime history of Europe and North America by revealing women’s roles and multifaceted contributions in the male-dominated maritime economic arena during industrial capitalist modernity. By questioning the “separated spheres” paradigm, the chapters in this volume highlight the intricate and “illogical” relation between women as economic actors and (maritime) capitalism and modernity. Far from being a clear-cut and linear trajectory, this relationship is rather outlined as a layered dialectical relationship that simultaneously considers the interaction of forms of oppression and liberation.

Contributors are: Paola Avallone, Helen Berry, Justine Cousin, Ariana Domínguez García, John Odin Jensen, Kathy S. Mason, Erica Mezzoli, Antònia Morey, Luisa Maria Muñoz Abeledo, Tomas Nilson, Oskar Opassi, Raffaella Salvemini, Daniel J. Albero Santacreu, Andreu Seguí, and Jo Stanley.