I love scuba diving. As a marine biology nerd, my greatest passion in life is exploring the fascinating and complex underwater world. Scuba diving taught me how to focus and carefully observe my surroundings. Scuba diving taught me how to calm myself down and solve problems in situations where I would normally panic. Scuba diving allowed me to use these skills to witness a Giant Pacific Octopus swim inside an abandoned Volkswagen Beetle.
However, I do have one major problem with Scuba diving as it is today.
I have a problem with the fact that even in the enlightened year of 2008, it is still a male-dominated sport.
I recently read an article in a dive magazine that stated that thirty-five percent of certified divers are female. Here in the Pacific Northwest, it feels like it is about ten.
Cold water diving is rough. The water is freezing. The gear is ridiculously heavy and the scuba diving industry is virtually unaware of the existence of humans shorter than 5'6''. These conditions tend to attract a specific demographic: tall, white, middle-class men.
On top of that scuba diving is a social sport. Even though you do not talk while underwater, a lot of talking goes on before an after the dive. Good communication is crucial to the safety of a group of divers. Most divers use the buddy system (dive in pairs) and dive buddies are expected to have the skills to rescue one another if an emergency occurs.
Scuba diving's social aspect creates an environment that has the potential to cultivate sexism. If women really are as weak and helpless as the popular media portrays them, then why would any sane person want one as a dive buddy? I'm not saying that all male scuba divers are sexist, but I am saying that a male scuba diver that believes sexist ideas will probably be less likely to want a woman as a dive buddy.
I personally have not encountered any severe sexism while diving, but occasionally things happen that really irritate me. I find it frusterating when male divers insist on helping me with my gear after I have specifically stated that I don't need help. However, this mentality of chivalry occurs on land all the time. I have never had anyone choose not to dive with me because I am female.
The strange thing about scuba diving is that it is the feminine women who often have the most trouble with getting male scuba divers to taken them seriously. I guess it really isn't that strange, it is just something I haven't really experienced since I am not very feminine. It wasn't until I was discussing women in diving with dive instructor and Girl Diver founder Cindy Ross that the idea of feminine women having the most trouble ever dawned on me. Cindy once told me a story about a women who was struggling in the beginning open water courses and was told by her instructor that she should "stay home and bake them cookies instead." She told me many stories about women who were told to "stick to snorkling" because of their appearence and/or their struggles with the introductory courses.
Introductory open water courses are hard for everyone at first. But they must be 100000 times worse if your instructor tells you that you are incapable of doing them because of your appearence.
I strongly DISAGREE with many of the viewpoints expressed on the Girl Diver website. However, I feel that Girl Diver is doing an excellent job of promoting scuba diving for women and this task goes beyond political beliefs.
But I'm not going to lie, I would really love to see some feminist grrrl divers here in the Pacific Northwest! If anyone has any questions, feel free to ask them in this post!
Here is the Girl Diver Website.
Here is PADI's official website for anyone interested in getting dive certified.
Here is SSI's official website for anyone interested in getting dive certified/
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Hey awesome post! I've always wanted to try scuba diving. I tried snorkeling once and loved it only I wish I coulde go all the way under water like in scuba diving. I never realized there was so much sexism in the sport though :(
I live on the East Coast so the water probably isn't as nice as the Pacific, but I would love to get certified. I know they offer a certification program at my college (but it's pretty $$$), maybe I'll check it out. See, you are already inspring people!
I'm PADI certified. My 14-year-old daughter and I took the classes together. Even though we were the slowest qualifiers (we took our test in an outdoor pool, in March, in Kansas, without wetsuits -- we were blue by the time we got out of the pool) no one ever gave us a difficult time, and the instructor and the others in the class (all men) were never a problem and treated my girly-girl daughter like any generic kid, even though some of them were only in their 20s.
That was 10 years ago; she and I still dive when we can, but it's expensive, so we don't get to go often. I haven't found diving while female to be a problem; but I haven't been to the Pacific NW, either.
When I certified about half my class was female. Mostly women over 35-40ish, but the few times I've been diving here in the PNW since I've hardly seen any female divers, and honestly most of them were part of a couple.
I think money may be a big factor. Men generally have more disposable income than women do and even if you have your ticket diving here is pretty unappealing (I got my cert in the Sound in October, it sucked big time, but even when it's not cold murky river dives are just not a lot of fun).
Now when I lived in Florida I did see a lot more female divers out there. Money might have been a real factor there too, because it's cheap as hell to dive in South Florida. So many dive shops sell rental gear for cheap and there isn't any need for even a 3mm suit let alone the uber-expensive dry suits that seem almost necessary in these parts. Air is cheap, boats are cheap, and you can dive pretty much all year at the drop of a hat, plus the array of wildlife and dept of vision is a lot more interesting than the Columbia or the Willamette.
Most of the guys I know who cold dive really seem like they are tied up in a lot of macho b/s or some paramilitary fantasy.
Hey there! Just wanted to chime in to tell you that one of my good friends from high school is a diver. She was a marine biology major in college in south Florida, and she has traveled to Jamaica and Hawaii to conduct research and teach children about the environment. Right now she's living in northeast PA, so she's not diving very often. But she did encourage her boyfriend to get certified, and they just went on a diving trip together (I forget where).