I need your help! Survey on women/gender in diving.

[uncfnp]

To the op, if you have not seen this thread http://www.scubaboard.com/community/threads/sexism.501082/
and the associated article it may provide some additional insight for your research.

 

[Land Fish]

I consider myself fortunate not having to deal with sexism since I got certified. Re Q5, my girl friends who stopped diving or dive less are usually due to health conditions and/or pregnancy, and I'm yet to hear anyone citing sexism as a reason.

As for Q10 marketing/articles, I didn't think that'd be gender oriented, and I still don't.

Tried to answer as much as I could. I think the survey has traits of predisposition and it's probably more for proving a point than getting unbiased views. Any particular reason the survey was designed the way it is?

 

[urbaneve71]

Sexism is your avatar

and do you find that offensive? i see it as i am a woman who dives with sharks. be kinda silly of me to have a male diver avatar

plus your avatar is a male pic. LOL

 

[TMHeimer]

In the OW courses I assisted with over 4 years, I didn't notice any different treatment of women students from men. Of course (being male) I wasn't looking for it, just doing my job. I suppose there may have been sexism during or between checkout dives, but I don't think any comments made there would have anything to do with the diving community, just the community in general.

 

[Flutter]

I also took the survey, but #5 forced me to say that I saw areas of diving as a restriction to women diving - such as, not enough examples, role models, women's gear, of which the first 2 I don't personally care about, and the 3rd, I don't find true. I think you will find your results skewed due to how you set up this question.
It would have been better if you allowed us to rate between 1-6 FOR EACH OF THE SIX AREAS for #5. I would have put 5 or 6 for nearly all of them, but your system would not allow for that. Your results will be skewed.

 

[Sam Miller III]

1) Suggest that you contact the Lady divers hall of fame The all have been diving many years and possibly be a better source of information than the members of the SCUBA board

2) The first diving certification program was LA Co UW instructors association UICC in 1954 which is still active in California. It was -is and will always be the most difficult training program in the world.

It was thought no female would ever have the ability to complete the program.
We were wrong ! A number have passed
A) Dottie Frazier 1955 first female UW instructor in the world ! She is 95 going strong
Suggest google her name plus Long Beach SCUBA Show.
B) Barbara Allen 1956 second female UW instructor in the world ! Not too far behind Dottie in age
C) Zale Parry 1958 third female UW instructor in the world ! Age is ten years behind Dottie

All these females began in the very genesis of dive instruction before NAUI and way before PADI was established- They had to prove themselves in a Mans world and they certainly did !

E) In early 1960s US Divers had a series of six advertisements which appear on the back cover of Skin Diver Magazine showing men entering the water with the caption "It is a mans world "

I researched my collection of SDMs and made copies of all six advertisements which I sent to Jill Henerworth , the Cave diver in Florida when she opened her dive operation. Might want to contact her for the year and months the advertisements appeared in SDM
(She sure as hell does reply to me- The mark of success is how you handle success )

F) I completed your survey and did not care for it. Maybe some of the above with be in some small way helpful to you

G) Please post your findings ASAP

SDM

 

[57Writer]

"...which I sent to Jill Henerworth , the Cave diver in Florida..."
Sam: Assume you mean Jill Heinerth?

 

[Steve_C]

and do you find that offensive? i see it as i am a woman who dives with sharks. be kinda silly of me to have a male diver avatar

plus your avatar is a male pic. LOL

Not offensive to me at all. The female appears to be diving au naturale and it reminded me of another black and white avatar of a naked women from a few years ago from a male diver on the board. Although his was a more provocative pose than yours has. Did not really pay any attention to your name "urban eve" so I did not realize you were female.

 

[Bratface]

Sorry, I couldn't answer the ranking questions. I did the best I could but your survey could have been better. I was unable to look at the questions again to give you clarification because once it's done, you are unable to view it again.

Personally speaking, as far as sexism is concerned, I was on a dive boat with three male divers. It was a drop off dive where we dove back to shore. They ignored me on the first dive but consented to buddy up with me for the drop off dive (like I was supposed to be honored). Once in the water, they left me. No worries. I knew my way back. As I was coming to the safety stop, I saw one of the guys hanging onto the line and was upside down because his tank was light from blowing through his air (he was wearing doubles--don't ask me why). I swam up to him, took my reg out of my mouth and stuck my tongue out at him then went on my merry way to shore. Once I got to shore, his two buddies were standing there looking for him. I told them if they wanted to find their buddy, he was hanging upside down on the safety line. We all went out for two more dives in the afternoon and their tone changed but only one apologized to me.

I find diving to be the equal opportunity sport. I do have to laugh at the ads in the dive mags with the women all made up. No messy hair for them and perfect make up.

 

[lunula]

Certainly glad others haven't experienced any sexism in the sport, but I personally have - and I haven't been diving very long. I don't think it is more prevalent in diving than elsewhere - but yes, it exists. Honestly, it hasn't been anything terribly overt - like getting sexually harassed on a dive boat or having someone say, "You can't do that, cause you're a girl." But c'mon - of course it exists. Here are three examples of things that happened directly to me:

1. On a dive boat, we had two groups and two dive masters. In my group there were four of us, I was the only woman. The dive master gave a briefing and looked directly into the eyes of the 3 men and never even glanced at me. Subtle, yes - but I guess he thought my husband was more competent to remember what to do/not to do?
2. On a different boat, we queued up to get weights and I walked over only to be told, "I can give these to your husband if you don't want to carry them." Now, on the surface this might seem nice to some - but jeez, really? It was 10 lbs and he didn't think I could handle grabbing them and walking a few steps to sit down & put them in my BC?
3. While shore diving on Bonaire, we had our obligatory "overall" dive briefing and the guy mentioned we needed a key to get into the storage room (for our gear @ night). My husband was standing near the dock looking at the water (a good 15 ft away) and I was standing (literally) right in front of the guy when he was handing out keys and he walked around me to give the key to my husband.

Again, these aren't slap-you-in-the-face examples - but sexism, all the same. I'm not a waif of a woman who cannot carry 10 lbs, nor am I some hideous beast that no one wants to make eye contact with and I obviously have hands so I could've grabbed a key and seriously, my husband is the one who loses stuff all the time.

This isn't meant to slander the men who aren't perpetrating examples like these, but I don't think a lot of men even notice stuff like this. The guy who was standing behind me when the weight thing happened on the dive boat let out a chuckle and said, "Really?" very quietly as I walked away (lugging that massive 10 lbs) - so he saw it, but small things like eye contact go unnoticed.

BTW, the last time I bought a car - I walked out of one dealership because he directed all of his talk directly to my husband even though we made it very clear up front that I was buying the car (w/ my separate money) and I was going to purchase what I wanted (and my husband remained almost mute during the entire interaction). I don't think he realized his very expensive mistake, even as we walked out, as was still addressing my husband to "come back and negotiate" with him. That was overt, lol.