Behaviour
was compelling and, in the end, I reasoned, my mission was to simply represent the facts and attempt to write an article that validated women’s issues, and also would be informative and enlightening for both sexes. This is not about bashing men.
It’s about celebrating women, and offering a possible template to a more gender inclusive future in our industry.
So what is sexism anyway? The term sexism is credited to Pauline M. Leet when she used it in a speech at Franklin and Marshall College in 1965, comparing sexism to racism, suggesting that it was discrimination based on a person’s sex or gender. For two centuries or longer, gender stereotypes in North America emerged from our well-established patriarchal society, which expects men to be determined, athletic, strong, and brave, while women are presumed to be emotional, nurturing, tolerant and softhearted. Generally, the expectation is that a woman will be the primary caregiver at home making sacrifices through years of raising children. Those gender stereotypes sometimes lead to a discriminatory belief that one sex is superior to another, and in the extreme, it can foster harassment and sexual violence. Caroline Bird wrote in 1968,
“Sexism is judging people by their sex when sex doesn’t matter. Sexism is intended to rhyme with racism. Both have been used to keep the powers that be in power.” More than 100 years after
Elizabeth Cady Stanton launched the first women’s movement, a wider consciousness in the 1960s and 70s brought about new rights and roles for women. The 1964 United States Civil Rights Act included language giving women equal opportunity in the workplace. And Title IX in the Education Codes of 1972 directed the educational establishment to provide women equal access to higher education and organized amateur sports. Yet in the United States today, women still do not receive equal pay for equal work, and are less likely to be promoted. A figure of $0.78 for every $1.00 earned by a man is often volleyed around as the current rate paid women, yet the details and demographics are certainly more complicated. Additionally, a 2009 study found that overweight women are held
18 Magazine
to a stricter physical benchmark than men, and in sports, that factor may be even more significant. The glass ceiling for women is heavily influenced by appearance standards. Jen Hudak, one of the greatest
female half-pipe skiers of all time, was rankled when on the eve of the Sochi Olympics, Freeskier Magazine chose to print an article featuring the ten most attractive competitive women skiers: “Just being a good athlete isn’t enough anymore. In order to be successful as a female athlete, you have to be strong and beautiful. You definitely see the objectification of women in the action sports industry throughout marketing and advertising.” It’s tough to quantify the
differences that women face specifically in sports, but an Impact Report for 2011/12, by the Women’s Sport & Fitness Foundation, found that women’s sport in the UK received only 0.5 percent of UK sports sponsorship and 5 percent of TV coverage. A dive professional recounted to
me that she was once told that she had received a gear sponsorship simply because she “had a vagina.” In his article, ‘A Brief History
of Sexism in TV Coverage of the Olympics’ in The Atlantic, Nolan Feeney writes, “In a country like the U.S., which provides no government support for Olympic athletes, sponsorships are a lifeline, but good luck securing them if you’re Sarah Robles. Dubbed ‘the strongest woman in America’, Robles was considered the U.S.’s best shot at winning a medal in Olympic weightlifting. “On her best day,” notes Buzzfeed, “She can lift more than 568 pounds (258kg) – that’s roughly five IKEA couches, 65 gallons of milk, or one large adult male lion.” Yet prior to coming to the Games,
she was living on a budget of $400 a month. “You can get that sponsorship if you’re a super-built guy or a girl who looks good in a bikini. But not if you’re a girl who’s built like a guy,” she told Buzzfeed. Kay and Laberge mention that
in Adventure Racing, women are valued for “teaming” skills. However, they are also “mandatory equipment” on mixed gender teams. On the one hand, they describe women as important team members, and on the other, they require minimum female participation, inferring that the team is only as good as the weakest link.
because I received hundreds of replies and tens of thousands of views
Change is slow in scuba diving The good news is that women are slowly breaking down the doors to fully participate in action sports. They are challenging the masculine tradition, and demanding equal treatment and equal opportunity. But diving is a different beast and
despite the welcome inroads made in other arenas, change is slower in our sport. Though the likelihood of injury is low in scuba diving, it’s still viewed as risky, and men dominate risk sports. The ‘whiff of death’ hangs over scuba, and in particular, technical diving. Nobody wants to see a woman get hurt or killed. Our diving culture emerged from,
Undoubtedly a hot button topic,
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