Behaviour
The pithy stories that broke my heart were mostly off-the-record. Some wrote tomes while I volleyed back my encouragement and support. Others met me for lunch or beyond earshot at a local dive site. Real stories of harassment, discrimination and egregious, even criminal behaviors, were described. But, as one woman put it, the behavior was tolerated because she didn’t want to be labeled as a diving “Femi- Nazi.” (A derogatory term for strong, committed women popularized by Conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh.) I listened to complaints of
women being held back in training and career advancement, feeling invisible, and given the silent treatment at dive shops. And, there were a few who nervously shared accounts of overt intimidation by male divers, boat captains and storeowners. I listened to stories of sexual groping by male peers and general workplace harassment, a pattern made even more intolerable by lack of professional opportunities and severe pay inequality. The stories were visceral and some of these women had never openly shared these truths. They wanted the information broadcasted to the diving community, but they did not want to be identified as an informant. A competent, skilled young woman said this to me. “One of the most difficult incidents I experienced was when I worked for a dive center in Florida. A new employee was promoted ahead of me. I had been with the organization for almost three years and a dive master employed there less than three months (I even assisted with his dive master course) was moved up to manager of the facility. The storeowner sat me down and explained how ‘girls aren’t successful in this industry’ and that ‘it’s a boys club’. He even went so far as to tell me that, ‘no matter how hard I work, it just won’t happen’. He said I might have a little chance in the industry if I moved to the Caribbean. I was considered a bitch if I stood up for myself or I was being ‘too sensitive’. I worked twice as hard to not even be considered equal. I filled tanks, carried tanks, unloaded gear and prepped the boats. I was the second highest rated instructor at the store, an equipment technician and even had a Master’s degree, yet I was the lowest paid employee and never considered an equal.”
20 Magazine Weighing the totality of all
the accounts, posts and phone interviews, I discovered a community divided. I struggled with the direction for my article and in the end decided to share the perspectives from both sides of the fence, hoping that my readers could appreciate the viewpoints and perhaps imagine themselves in somebody else’s shoes.
The Educational Setting Many anecdotes revolved around ‘first contact’ within the sport of scuba diving: the Open Water Diver class. Experiences were wide- ranging for observers, practitioners of discrimination, and victims. From a private message, a male reader who had experienced reverse discrimination wrote: “I have observed clear sexism.
The females are always walked gingerly through lessons while it appears that the instructors assume the males just get it right away. On boat trips, everyone is careful to watch over the female divers, often going out of their way
Sick of hearing women complain about unequal treatment? Tired of men saying there is no problem?
to extend some courtesy to help the poor female with the big heavy equipment, or the slippery deck, when boys with less strength are not helped, and sometimes even teased or chastised when they struggled.” But a busy Florida dive shop
instructor and captain wanted to point out challenges he faced trying to teach a mix-gender class. “I routinely had more men than women in my open water certification classes. The men always wanted to assist the female students in the class, in any way possible. This would be especially bad when couples took the class together. On numerous occasions I had to prevent doting husbands or possible suitors from setting up dive equipment for the female students in the class… Some of the women in my classes would take advantage of this and have nearly everything done by the male student of her choosing. Obviously this was stopped so that everyone met the performance requirements of the course. It made for some awkward conversations.” This writer saw a different
dynamic at the leadership levels of training. “Dive master and instructor level training was a whole other ball game. The roles were somehow reversed from the get-go. It seemed that the ladies had something to prove by the time they got to the professional level, and would train intensely. I never encountered the ‘oh I’m just a helpless woman, please do everything for me’ attitude at these levels. The men in the class always hated to be out performed by the female students, and they were intensely aware of it when it occurred. Sometimes it would motivate the male students to do a bit better, other times I had to put an end to sexist remarks.” The student’s viewpoint was
sometimes eye opening, observing unprofessional behavior of instructors or dive masters. “I cannot tell you how many times an instructor is completely distracted (to say it nicely) by a pretty diver/ student. In my OW course there was a petite pretty blond and she got three times the attention than any other student. The instructor went as far as trying to get her to take her wet suit off on the pool deck instead of in the locker room. It was bad. Needless to say it was the last time I trained with that instructor.” Another poster was quick to point
out the lack of leadership roles filled by women in cave and technical diving. He noted that the National Association of Cave Divers (NACD) listed 41 instructors that are all male. The National Speleological Society Cave Diving Section (NSS-CDS) had just five females in a list of 51 instructors. He looked at the TDI website and noted that six of 36 instructors in Florida are female. Global Underwater Explorers (GUE) does not have a female cave instructor in its ranks at time of writing. These statistics are by no means complete or fully researched, but they left me wondering why there are so few women in leadership in these technical organizations. At the recreational diving level,
DEMA reports that 35 percent of open water divers are women and that 23 percent of continuing education students are women. In leadership, the Professional
Powerful young women are becoming a
prominent force in the diving industry
Association of Diving Instructors (PADI) reports that there are currently over 25,000 women who are members at the Divemaster level and above. The reality is that less than 20 percent of PADI professionals
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