A (Very) Short History of Women in Diving
(8-2005)


When I happened to mention to some of the guys at work that I was working on writing a book they nonchalantly asked what it was about. “Women in diving.” I replied, to which they scoffed and one of them said: “It will be a very short book.” How true he could be. If you wanted to find out about the presence of women in the diving field, or about any special woman in diving I assume that the key words typed in would be something to the effect of: “women diving” or “women divers” or perhaps even “female divers”. Forget about even trying “women commercial diving” or any combination because your search will come up dry. I tried several search engines and I was disappointed by the lack of options. I found a very plain web page dedicated to women in diving called: The Women Divers’ Hall of Fame[i]. If you want a truly brief history of women in diving I guess that this would be the place to go. It will not take too much time out of your busy day to read a brief biography of some of the magnificent women that have graced the world of diving since as early as the 1940’s. It was comforting to see how many great women divers the Navy has. The amount of women in the recreational diving area has grown; there was even one woman I know from when I lived in Cozumel. Women in biology, medicine, and photography were quite a few and all have impressive resumes but I only found two names directly related to commercial diving and one woman who runs a commercial dive school.
What was sad about this web page was that there was nothing more to it. A couple of the names didn’t even have a bio to them. The nomination forms were for last year and it looked as if the whole thing had been abandoned. I could almost hear wind and see a lonely tumbleweed bounce across my screen. I urged my friends to visit this page and perhaps combined interest could bring some life back to it. It wasn’t until I moved on to the home page that I saw a promising note about articles on women in diving to be posted on a larger web site. I contacted this web site two months ago and have still to receive a reply. Could it be that they were just swamped in emails from women dying to contribute articles on diving? Other than that there was no more to this page: no photos of the women, no photos of their work, not a single illustration or even a map. OK maybe I exaggerate, the homepage illustration of a woman diver with flowing locks holding a flaming torch is rather sexy. How does she keep her hair so sleek, not to mention, how does she keep the torch lit? I found one article from years and years ago about women in commercial diving on another web site, one which is soon to be defunct, I hear. The diveweb[ii], a very complete and professional site dedicated to commercial diving has a features library and there I found a very comprehensive and interesting article about women in commercial diving written by Madalyn Russell. In this article I recognized the name of a girl who graduated from my school who the director often mentioned. He was very proud of her so I was glad to see that she was still around, at least when the article came out in 1998! Either she was exceptional or the director hadn’t seen that many women walk through the school since she attended five years before me! There were 135 women listed on the Women Divers’ Hall of Fame and only 3 commercial divers; that means only 2.2% of these women are commercial divers. While I was in dive school the director sent me to a little college which was having a career day dedicated to women. The careers being introduced to the girls were those in which women make up 10% or less of the work population. At that time only 4.2% of the student force was made up of women. In our company we make up about 1.6%. In Singapore, in 2002, there were 200 divers; not one of them a woman; in other words: 0%.
What was disappointing was the dispassionate way that the women on the article on commercial diving mention how companies are not willing to make the changes necessary to have women in their crews, or, for example, how some of the women interviewed in the article mention that they share hotel rooms with the men so as not to be a “liability” to the company for having to pay for a single room for them. One man interviewed wasn’t concerned with the hiring laws as much as he was about what his wife would think about him sharing a room with a woman so for that reason he is reluctant to hire women.
I must say that here I am grateful to the company for having hired me and from the beginning having made it a requisite, a given that I would not share a room with a man for three simple reasons: 1) I am married 2) some of the guys are married 3) some of the guys are not married. Makes sense to me.
As for women in the military, I found a beautiful page along with photos dedicated to those trailblazers [iii]. Of all places it appears like the Navy has seen the most women come through their tough diving programs, succeed and go on to play important roles in all sorts of operations. I also noticed a common mention that many of the women were “petite” and it made me wonder just how much size matters.

Ironically someone at the Sub Aqua Association (SAA) seemed to have the answers, or at least felt close enough to getting the answer[iv]. If I may quote directly from some parts of the article: “Physiologically, women hold less potential for power, speed, work capacity and stamina than do men. At a specific height a woman has a smaller heart than a man. Coupled with smaller lungs (by about 20%), a smaller thorax and a smaller cardiac output. Women can not functionally achieve the maximal oxygen consumption capacity that a man can reach.” The article, however, goes on to mention that women use less air while diving but work closer to the maximum capacity than males. In other words, we try harder to do the same work over which a man doesn’t have to exert himself. The article also gets a little convoluted in explaining why women could retain heat better than men (we have more fat and less muscle, it says, but I don’t think this article used a typical group of diving males both recreationally and commercially since I have seen some guys who have considerably more fat to muscle than I have both in the recreational and commercial fields) but at the same time get chilled quicker and then are not able to reheat as well due to larger surface area (I think they meant big boobs and big asses) and, again, less muscle. There is mention that we are, indeed, more sensitive to cold and heat stress than men (though, thankfully, we sweat less doing so). Again, our lack of muscle is mentioned and that we have weaker shoulders and arms; but wait! This makes us work smarter, the writers add that this applies “specifically to commercial divers” (am I to assume that until I became a commercial diver I was a not so smart technical diver and SCUBA instructor?) but then goes right on to say that we are not to be trusted during our period since it may affect our cognitive abilities. Guys and Gals: not to worry, sharks hate “old” blood, quoting a theory that our periods may act as a shark deterrent (I bet the proponent of that theory was a man who was quite put off by his wife’s monthly visitor and could only assume that everyone else would be as well). Here is the best one yet (it’s amazing what you find in the internet): “Some women with severe menstrual tension have been found to have abnormal personalities reflecting underlying mood changes during this particular time of the cycle. Women who suffer with this problem should not dive during these periods.”

So should we dive or not? The article says we are more sensitive to cold and panic easier yet have natural buoyancy and “enhanced” swimming and survival skills. I start to picture a voluptuous temperamental woman on her period who, in the throes of hysterics and having lost her ability to make rational decisions, throws herself into the water where she proceeds to float very well, thrash about and yell longer than the men on the boat wish to hear, all the while working at her maximum capacity, using less air and keeping the sharks away. By the way, she didn’t sweat as much as the guys would have had they been in shark infested water and she also didn’t consider it a life threatening situation (yes, the article mentions we panic more yet see situations as being life threatening less often than men).

Speaking of life threatening situations, I found an article about a female commercial diver who sadly died while doing a dam inspection[v].

It was written by The Front on December 14th, 2000. Martine Côté was killed by suction while working in a dam. The article mentions her love of water and how she felt closer to God when diving so perhaps it was fitting that she die in the water. I love water but in all honesty this chicken does not want to die in it. I love it so much that to me dying in it would be the equivalent of being murdered by my husband. I would hate to have my last seconds on earth be full of the disappointment of betrayal by the one I love. I want to die when I am an old feisty little lady with a walker. I’ll tell people stories about the days when I was a commercial diver and by looking at me they won’t believe me. I’ll pull out my CDs of photos but the technology will be too advanced for my little CDs so they still won’t believe me. I’ll say: “want to see my tattoos?” and they’ll say: “I can’t see them with your pantyhose all scrunched up like that.” I’ll have to pull up the stretched old skin as I laugh: “I’m not wearing pantyhose dumbass.” And they’ll say: “Honestly grandma such language! Ewww disgusting I don’t want to see your tattoos. Mom, take grandma back to the rest home she’s pulling telling crazy stories again.” But I guess I better have children first.

On a serious note, however, the article about Martine Côté is heartbreaking because of how she died. It is an example of how things can easily be made safer and are so often not because, perhaps, it takes the glamour out of the job and it costs money. This article states that Canada loses a diver a year. This was a statement made by Gordon Hayes of the Canadian Association of Diving Contractors. When someone can say that so matter-of-fact it only reiterates to me how disposable we are. I was expendable and a dime a dozen as a SCUBA instructor, I am still quite dispensable as a commercial diver. Oddly enough it is not an extremely lucrative career, and divers do not have unions, not here (only in the west coast) and not in Canada (according to the article). When the journalist asks Pierre Lefèvre, representative of the Quebec chapter of the Canadian Professional Divers Association, why this is so, the answer is that divers are lone wolves and lack the cohesion needed to form a union. Mr. Lefèvre says that divers are also afraid to speak up for fear of losing their jobs or facing disciplinary action. Yes, we are a dime a dozen. Martine Côté was not a dime a dozen. I don’t believe any diver is but when you get a woman who succeeds and stays long enough in this profession, you know that she did not get there by being cute; she got there by working at maximum capacity by, and here I quote the SAA article by Dr. P. Bryson again (they may have got one thing right) “applying technique and intelligence to a physical situation rather than brute strength” and perhaps she also may have avoided working when she was cranky so as not to upset the guys.

I wonder if I have the right attitude at times. My approach has been to not be too much of a bitch. Nice and sweet... and stubborn. I’ve tried to take heed of my father’s advice to pick my battles carefully. But sometimes I wonder if maybe I’d have more respect if I were tougher. Seems to me the times I have gotten into trouble have been met with approval from the guys. Sometimes I am sure I over think things. The woman issue seems to always loom in the foreground before anything else. I often end up wondering, “Did they do this to me because I’m a woman or am I just being paranoid?” Example: This week I am the lone and sole person who was not assigned to any job. I was offered the shop (though there is nothing to do there) because I am full-time and must be offered the hours. One foreman explained that it was all about seniority, but at that moment there were more guys with less seniority than me working in the field. I am still not paid as much as many of the guys who got hired straight out of school at the same time I was hired. They are paid more because they supposedly have other skills from previous jobs. Quite a few of them have yet to use those skills. It seems that showing potential and passing all training with flying colors is not enough but is that because I am a woman or just because that’s the way it is?

Reading about women involved in commercial diving I think of Norma Hanson. Norma Hanson had a long and varied career in diving. She was an abalone diver back in 1949, she fed fish in hardhat gear as a tourist’s attraction, she did salvage diving and she was the second woman to join the Pile Drivers Union but the first female commercial diver to do so. She looks like she was a very beautiful woman in her younger years. To do what she did in a Mark V; not the lighter (but still heavy) gear we use now a days is no easy feat. As a novelty and rite of passage of sorts, the dive school I attended liked for all its students to try at least one dive in a Mark V. All suited up, including the hat, the breastplate, suit, belt and boots, we were wearing well over 300 pounds of gear. Try climbing a little ladder with that gear on. Norma Hanson, you are amazing, I take my (hard) hat off to you.

Dottie Frazer was also a trailblazer in her time. Tiny but determined she made her way from free diving to becoming the first female scuba instructor in 1955 and a hardhat diver in 1960. This is what I mean when they often mention the small size of the women who dive. Certainly smaller than average. Of my other female colleagues, one is quite petite. She is going on her third year with the company and is currently working in Japan. Meeting her was the best thing that could happen to me in this career. I realized that many of the experiences I had been through she had as well. I also realized that my point of view is not skewered; it is just the point of view of a woman who has chosen a strictly male oriented career and must accept the consequences. She too has gone through her rites of passage both as a commercial diver and as a female one to boot. She has stayed on and loves the job; more importantly she has remained professional. I mention this because unbelievable as it may seem I actually found an article in a dive magazine about the pros and cons of sleeping with your instructor[vi]. Though this article was geared toward recreational scuba, I believe that it applies to commercial as well and not just during training but on the job.
One of the dumbest things a woman could do regardless of her career choice is to sleep with a teacher or boss. Even if it is not for the purpose of making a job easier it will always be seen as a move to advance in position. I have heard a few stories of past women who worked for our company who made that mistake. One of the women who got hired along with me started a relationship with one of her foremen a short time into her career. Needless to say she was not well received by her co-workers. No matter how well they work they will never be remembered as anything more than the one who slept with so and so. If this move is regarded with disdain in most professions it is even more so when women are a minority. This is not to say that even when you remain virginal for all practical purposes, gossip will not follow you when you succeed. According to gossip on the island in which I lived for five years I was a lesbian. This rumor was born after my repeated “snubs” toward a couple of the other instructors and the fact that I did not sleep with my students. According to gossip I slept with two of my instructors while in commercial diving school. Need I mention that these are the two classes in which I got 100% on the finals? If such rumors have also coursed through the company I work for, I have yet to hear them; but this does not mean that I don’t have to be very careful and not make room for a rumor to be started.
I can only hope that someday I can be part of the history of women in diving; that my career will be long enough to help extend that history and that someday soon when I come upon the Women Divers Hall of fame I can see a whole slew of new names. Perhaps I did not go about my research properly but in time typing in the words woman and diving should hopefully result in a lot more positive articles. Sure we are very different from men when it comes to our physical and physiological make up but this should not be a reason why we cannot be part of the underwater world. Even if we have to work harder at it to just be “average” does not mean that we are not worthy of the praise.
To close this commentary on a light note: though articles or mentions of women in diving are few and hard to come by the amount of photos of women in diving gear are countless. I even found a page dedicated to all the films in which a woman performs some diving activity whether commercial, technical or recreational[vii]. The references seemed endless and made me see that though in real life women divers are scarce in Hollywood there seem to be more female divers than male.
[i] Women in Diving, Working Their Way Past the Glass Ceiling… To the Bottom www.underwater.com
[ii] www.diveweb.com
[iii] Military Women Divers, http://userpages.aug.com/captbarb/divers.html
[iv] SAA Women in Diving by Dr. P. Bryson and M. St. Leger Dowse www.saa.org.uk
[v] Diving for Dollars www.montrealmirror.com
[vi] www.divegirl.com
[vii] Women in Deep Sea Diving Suits