Women and gender change at London's Baltic Exchange

 

Women. Sea. Authority & Belonging. As a historian of the gendered seas I gossip with a lot of maritime people and then write up accounts of change. 

They tell me shocking stories off the record. ‘You can’t print this, but honestly, Jo, the sexism was indeed that bad. And it was seen as that normal! Listen!’

One of the groups of stories I haven’t yet been able to use is of the Baltic Exchange’s shocking exclusion of women since the founding in 1744, and the attempts to change that since the 1980s. 

The segregation in this crucial international trading and maritime centre has gone on and on, for 280 years, despite many men at the top supporting women’s rights: brokers, traders, shipowners and charterers. Few gentlemen's clubs have held out as long.

But on 12 August 2026 the Exchange announced that maritime executive Sigrid Teig (pictured above) will become its first female leader. The profile of this Norwegian-educated key leader in Singapore business is just starting to appear on social media this week. https://www.balticexchange.com/en/news-and-events/news/member-news/2026/Baltic-Exchange-welcomes-Sigrid-Teig-as-Deputy-CEO.html

This is no sudden initiative, as Rachel Morgan from recruitment firm Spinnaker Global reported earlier. Change-makers have been making moves for decades. As early as the 1960s one pioneering woman, Inge Mitchell, was “‘allowed’ in … even then, they only let her in through the kitchen. (See pic, right).

"She is now in her 90s, and still working hard to promote the maritime industry as one of the first female faces of shipping …. [Inge] was recently named Woman of the Year by the Women’s International Shipping and Trading Association (WISTA).” (https://splash247.com/maritime-missing-skills-talents-outstanding-women/)

In researching women's maritime history I’ve met people who worked with Inge in the 1970s. See pic. And the Exchange feted her on her 90^th birthday:  https://www.balticexchange.com/en/news-and-events/news/member-news/2017/inge-mitchell-90thbirthdaylunch.html

Who was this pioneer?

Inge Vibeke Asboe Mitchell, nee Jorgensen, (1928-95) was from Aarhus, Denmark. Her many initiatives in international linking included for 17 years working as a lecturer at the Baltic Exchange.  

The Anglo-Danish Society recorded her life in a 2025 memorial post on Facebook Facebook Inge memorial

“Inge [L] Mitchell arrived in the UK in … [1955]. She worked at the Danish Consulate in Birmingham for a few years. She also worked as the PA to HRH Prince Georg of Denmark, who was the Defence Attaché at the Royal Danish Embassy for several years in the mid-1960s. Later on, she held a PR position for the Baltic Exchange.

“She was the Honorary Secretary to the Anglo-Danish Society for many years and …  [from 1966] was married to the first BBC News Presenter Leslie Mitchell (1905-1985).”

One colleague said he remembered her “as a very glamorous, elegant lady, immaculately dressed and charming; I think we were all a bit in awe of her.” Inge was famous for her lively stories.'

See the history of the organisation at https://www.balticexchange.com/en/who-we-are/history.html and in the very illustrated book, “The Baltic story: Baltick Coffee House to Baltic Exchange 1744-1994” by Hugh Barty-King, Quiller Press, 1994. (Pics show1918 image and 1990s facade).

I hope WISTA and Sigrid will be organising a party in Inge’s honour when Sigrid finally becomes CEO this Autumn.

Timeline
1744. Baltic Exchange begins
196? Inge Mitchell arrives
2026. Sigrid Teig becomes CEO.

Seafaring women through history: my book just published

 

If you want to know the history of women at sea in both Britain's navies over the last 250 years, then my book, Seafaring Women Through History, may be what you need.

My favourite thing about it? The micro-biographies set as panels, so that you can skip-read easily.

The thing that most surprised me? That although women  pioneers in some other countries are blazing through, UK women aren't making the progress I optimistically expected, ten years ago. 

History Press published the book in February 2026 . It's the much revised edition of From Cabin "Boys" to Captains: 250 years of women at sea (2016).

You can get it from all the usual outlets. If you'd like to help a maritime charity, order it from https://www.marinesocietyshop.org/seafaring-women-through-history_9781837050734.  

LGBT+ History Month 2026: seafarers in Bristol and other ports

 As LGBT+ History Month comes to an end I’d like to say how much I enjoyed publicising to the story of Mick Belsten. 

He was a P&O seafarer who became a key media activist in the Gay Liberation Front and in the new queer publications starting up in London in the 1970s.

 I spoke about him to OutStories Bristol on Valentine’s Day.

It was a delight to know that over 80 Bristolians were there at MShed, including members of Mick’s Shirehampton family (who generously helped me with the research).

The queer history of the port of Avonmouth (where Mick's dad was a foreman on the docks) is less visible than that of Antwerp, Marseille, Southampton, Liverpool and London. That of New York is just starting to emerge via South Street Maritime Museum.   

Mick’s world was swinging London, but it seems that, remotely, he had a role in  Bristol’s 1977 Gay Festival (pictured). It was a fundraiser for Gay News, where Mick worked and whose finances had been hit by the 1976 Dennis Lemon blasphemy trial. 

Anyone who can help add a regional story of a seafarer, however fragmentary, will be important in helping build up a picure of how much the the 1960s culture of 'floating gay heavens' contributed to later Proud maritime culture on land.

For Mick's story see https://genderedseas.blogspot.com/2021/01/from-ships-steward-to-lgbt-media.html