Female Cabin Stewards?

[madat]

I've been on eight cruises in total, mostly with Celebrity and Princess.  I have never seen a female cabin steward.  Not once.  Housekeeping staff in hotels tend to be mostly female but on cruise ships, they seem to be exclusively male.  Why is it so?  Or am I wrong?  These ships are so big, maybe it's just been a coincidence that my stewards have always been males?  Indeed, there seems to be a mix of genders employed across most other roles on a ship.

 

Just curious, and this seems like a good place to ask!

[GeezerCouple]

Thus far, it does seem that there are more male stewards than female, but we've had several female stewards, and we've seen others in the hallways.

 

Also, the Butlers (where they are available) seem to be even more frequently male than female, but even there, some Butlers are females.

 

And there is one full cruise ship Captain who is female.  Google "Captain Kate", and take a look at her little cat, "Bug Naked", who is on the ship with her. 🙂 

[There is a reason for the cat's name! 😉 ]

 

GC

[Zach1213]

4 minutes ago, GeezerCouple said:

And there is one full cruise ship Captain who is female.  Google "Captain Kate", and take a look at her little cat, "Bug Naked", who is on the ship with her. 🙂 

 

 

Damn, I read that way too quickly and thought you were promoting her OnlyFans page. 

[madat]

7 minutes ago, GeezerCouple said:

Thus far, it does seem that there are more male stewards than female, but we've had several female stewards, and we've seen others in the hallways.

That's interesting GC, thank you.  I suspected I may have been walking around with blinkers on.

[Hlitner]

Each cruise line has their own hiring practices.  If you were to cruise on Seabourn you would find that all the cabins are serviced by stewardesses.   

 

Hank

[Essiesmom]

I e had many female cabin stewards.  And there are at least three female cruise ship captains.  The first was more than ten years ago, on Royal.  Second is on Cunard.  CPT Kate is the first American woman to be a cruise ship captain.  I think there may be a female captain or two on the smaller/luxury lines.  EM

[cruisemom42]

On my Celebrity BTB last month I had a male steward for the first cruise and a female steward for the second one -- and I was in the same cabin, lol.

 

I've experienced both over the years but it does seem that there are more female stewards now than maybe 10 years ago.

[whogo]

56 minutes ago, Hlitner said:

Each cruise line has their own hiring practices.  If you were to cruise on Seabourn you would find that all the cabins are serviced by stewardesses.   

 

Hank

Stewardesses were a surprise to us on our Seabourn cruise. I thought the positions were filled by men because the stewards were responsible for toting the guest luggage to and from staterooms and the heavy lifting jobs did not go to women for whatever reason.

[Charles4515]

2 hours ago, madat said:

I've been on eight cruises in total, mostly with Celebrity and Princess.  I have never seen a female cabin steward.  Not once.  Housekeeping staff in hotels tend to be mostly female but on cruise ships, they seem to be exclusively male.  Why is it so?  Or am I wrong?  These ships are so big, maybe it's just been a coincidence that my stewards have always been males?  Indeed, there seems to be a mix of genders employed across most other roles on a ship.

 

Just curious, and this seems like a good place to ask!

I have been on over 60 cruises and while there have been more males than female attendants I have had plenty of female cabin attendants. 

[mammajamma2013]

We've had female stewards on both Princess and Norwegian.

[lenquixote66]

We have had female Stewards on HAL

[CruiserBruce]

The only female steward we had was a very long time ago on RCI. We arrived in our cabin on embarking day and immediately met our steward, who had been used in a picture in the brochure for that cruise. Immediately recognized her!

[rkacruiser]

In my experience, there do seem to be more male Cabin Stewards than female.  But, on my most recent Princess cruise aboard Coral Princess, my Cabin Steward was a young Thai woman who did an excellent job.  On MSC Meraviglia, as Yacht Club guest, my Assistant Butler (who performed Cabin Steward duties) was a Filipino female who also did an excellent job.)  I did not see any female Butlers other than the Chief Butler who was obviously very experienced in her position.  I have not observed any female Cabin Stewards on HAL.  

[navybankerteacher]

Many female cabin stewards on NCL - it seemed they were largely from Eastern Europe, rather than Indonesia or the Philippines as on HAL.

[Charles4515]

20 minutes ago, navybankerteacher said:

Many female cabin stewards on NCL - it seemed they were largely from Eastern Europe, rather than Indonesia or the Philippines as on HAL.

 

HAL has training centers in Indonesia and the Phillipines so they hire their crew from those. I was told Filipinos are mainly cabin stewards and Indonesians are mainly serving in the lounges.

[CruiserBruce]

36 minutes ago, Charles4515 said:

 

HAL has training centers in Indonesia and the Phillipines so they hire their crew from those. I was told Filipinos are mainly cabin stewards and Indonesians are mainly serving in the lounges.

Its the other way around. Indonesians are typically the room stewards, and Filipinos are typically waiters and bartenders.

[Charles4515]

26 minutes ago, CruiserBruce said:

Its the other way around. Indonesians are typically the room stewards, and Filipinos are typically waiters and bartenders.

Thanks for the correction. 

[rkacruiser]

34 minutes ago, CruiserBruce said:

Its the other way around. Indonesians are typically the room stewards, and Filipinos are typically waiters and bartenders.

 

In my experience, Filipinos are Lounge Stewards and bartenders.  Indonesians are, as you said, Cabin Stewards and dining room Stewards.  Lido Restaurant Stewards?  Seems to be a mix.  PG/specialty restaurants?  Unsure of the nationality of the staff.  Certainly a more welcoming and "warmer" mix of folks than when the PG was initially staffed.  In my opinion, of course.  

[Tonsoffun44]

Had female stewards on MSC and Celebrity years ago - they were also the only ones to call us Mr. Ms. or Mrs. the entire cruise. Was kind of odd they told us to call them by their first names but would NOT use ours, yet the male stewards on those sailings all used our first names when they saw us in the halls.

[BklynBoy8]

We had Camila on QM2 and she was Truly a Gem!

 

Beautiful and Extremely Helpful...

[sanger727]

On 11/7/2022 at 9:55 AM, Hlitner said:

Each cruise line has their own hiring practices.  If you were to cruise on Seabourn you would find that all the cabins are serviced by stewardesses.   

 

Hank

 

Well, that's quite sexist (on the part of Seabourn, not you). 

[George C]

We have had female cabin stewards on rccl and celebrity and more lines, last celebrity cruise in royal suite we had a female attendant.

[mammajamma2013]

21 hours ago, CruiserBruce said:

Its the other way around. Indonesians are typically the room stewards, and Filipinos are typically waiters and bartenders.

Granted we haven't cruised as much as you have, but in the twelve cruises we have completed, all of our room stewards have been Filipino. Princess, Norwegian, and Carnival.

 

We always ask country of origin when we meet them; my husband was stationed in the Philippines and always wants to make some kind of personal connection, albeit a small one.

Edited November 8, 2022 by mammajamma2013
Expand my thoughts

[bluetardis]

Across many cruise lines and many years, my stewards have always been male. I have never thought about it before.

[CruiserBruce]

17 minutes ago, mammajamma2013 said:

Granted we haven't cruised as much as you have, but in the twelve cruises we have completed, all of our room stewards have been Filipino. Princess, Norwegian, and Carnival.

 

We always ask country of origin when we meet them; my husband was stationed in the Philippines and always wants to make some kind of personal connection, albeit a small one.

The comments I posted were about Holland America's staffing.