The S.S. Sicamous began her work on Okanagan Lake in 1914. At that point, gender segregation was not only common, but socially expected. The ship, like many others in the Okanagan, had a Men's Saloon and a Ladies Saloon on board, with women and children on the back end of the ship and men on the front. It was considered to be inappropriate for men and women to socialize independently, and men were not expected to mind the children.
During the beginning of the 1900s, women were not able to vote. The Women's Suffrage Movement had been occurring since the 1800s, when women's right to vote was removed (1849). It is important to note that women at the time were not considered to be individuals, and instead were the property of the men around them. During this time period, there was a social standard which expected women to be homemakers who took care of the children, cooked, cleaned and cared for their husbands. Before a woman was married, she was the property of her father or brother, and once married would be passed on to her husband. Women were not legally considered to be "persons" until 1929, 15 years after the Sicamous' first voyage.
So why was there a divide?
Humans naturally want power and control. Men are physically typically larger than women, and have historically carried more power in many ancient societies. Humans are mammals, and mammals follow a patriarchal structure biologically. It is not surprising that this structure was followed so closely for many societies. The human brain had not been studied, and while many things were being invented, social standards were not questioned in the past the way that they often are in modern day.
Though social changes are happening all around us, the 20th century was a time of drastic changes to human rights expectations, and movements were becoming more common. A sudden change to social standards in the way that they began in the 1900s was shocking to many. It was previously often expected that little girls would dream to follow in their mother's footsteps to being a homemaker, rather than finding adventure or a career. These stayed as the majority until the first world war, when many men were sent off to fight, and women were left to take over the jobs that had previously been considered to be too difficult for a woman to do. Thus began the wave of women in the workplace, with many putting their careers above their families, as men had been doing for centuries. The realization that women can do the same work that men can was previously unheard of on such a wide scale. In the time of the Sicamous, women went from requiring a man to care for them consistently, to being businesswomen who reached for what they wanted on their own.
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