Women and Scuba Diving: Leave Out the Macho Stuff!

by Peter Mieras

• The history
• The perception
• The facts & reality
• Where to start?

In the short time that recreational scuba diving has become popular and has seen its market and followers growing, this activity has been a traditional male oriented sport. In spite of a growing number of women in scuba diving and a slow turn around of the ideas and views, scuba diving still isn't considered as an activity that women naturally take part in.

The history

Most of today's diving equipment and safety rules for recreational diving find their origin in less peaceful activities. Military to be exact. Earlier diving equipment has been used mainly for salvage purposes and tactical manoeuvres such as placing or disarming mines underwater. Rebreathers, which use the principle of reusing exhaled air by adding new oxygen, date back as far as 1900. It is not after Cousteau's and Gagnan's invention of the Self Containing Underwater Breathing Apparatus (SCUBA) in 1943 that recreational diving finds a platform to take its first small steps towards a larger public. In the beginning the people that did scuba diving were mainly ex military personnel that used their access to training and equipment to explore the underwater world for fun. They formed clubs and civilians that wanted to join these clubs had to undergo an army like training with a heavy accent on physical capabilities and strength. Here we probably find the birth of the myth that a diver needs to be a rough and tough person and therefore women are seen unlikely to meet this profile.

The perception

We can't just exclusively blame men for this idea. Women, who have been traditionally raised and told that their duties were mainly those of raising children and run the household, needed to overcome also their imposed image. Not everybody is rebel enough to throw off this image. With the continuous emancipation and self-consciousness of women and the growing market of recreational diving they have fortunately found their way into this magnificent activity of discovering our biggest and yet most unknown part of our planet. However it is still a largely male dominated sport and I strongly believe that a lot of women would like to discover diving but still battle with the attitude that diving is difficult because of physical and knowledge demands.

Even now there are men that see e.g. a cleaning lady as not intelligent enough to learn to dive! As if your profession and or sex determines your IQ. Believe me ladies, this man has cleaned toilets and offices and is an instructor now.

Of the women that I have interviewed for this article most of them have been accepted in the dive world as being equal. However many of them encountered reactions in the beginning ranging from "isn't diving dangerous" to "that is nothing for a woman". Some of them have been stimulated by their already diving partner to try it and have sometimes become better and more fanatic divers. Others have been pushed too hard by their partner and stopped because of that peer pressure.

In the earlier days a female instructor was seen as an exception but today we see more and more female instructors and they perform as well as their male colleagues with sometimes more sense of responsibility! Male instructors still have a tendency to show female divers that they are inferior by overdoing physical exercises. Anne, a rescue diver in France, told me that her instructor let her carry him 200 meter over the beach as part of a rescue exercise. This instructor better looks at his teaching instructions, as this is not even done for men.

Unfortunately in many associations and federations the males still need to prove their perceived superiority. During a visit to IT-College in Cannes I interviewed two women that both dive for more than 10 years. Daniela Goldstein, a Course Director, who trains divers to become an instructor: "There is a huge difference between the old style diving clubs and professional diving organisations, especially here in France. Professional diving organisations tend to see anybody who wants to learn to dive as a customer and therefore the service level needs to be equal for all. When I started 13 years ago I had to do all kinds of silly snorkelling and diving exercises that had no touch with the reality of diving. During my instructor course I was the only female candidate. The initial reactions I got when I started were like: 'too bad you started at 29 otherwise you would have been a good instructor'. And 'why are you here at this instructor course? Do you think you can be an instructor?' After several attempts to sabotage (!) me in the course I was able to show the same people my instructor card." This is extreme but not rare.

That things sometimes can go differently confirms the story of Franziska, a Swiss scuba instructor. "My whole family has been diving, so for me it was very natural to take up scuba diving from the age of 12. It turned out to be a passion and my father needed to slow me down as I shouldn't neglect school. When I became an instructor I was fully accepted as a female instructor but only after a while. My experience is that women need to prove themselves more being as good as male colleagues, even when we passed the same exams! Male colleagues often test your knowledge and skills as if they were an examiner and even students try to undermine your authority."

Daniela: "I don't want to speak specifically negative about male divers, but if they would open their mind a little bit and leave out the macho stuff, things would be much easier for women to start or keep diving. I also have found that female instructors can approach students from a different angle than men and sometimes motivate students differently."

Guud, a (cave) diver from the Netherlands, has a very simple attitude towards this whole discussion. "I don't consider that women are different as divers and I have never had problems with acceptance. I am a fanatic cave diver and in this domain it is less common to see female divers. However I don't give it too much thought as I need to concentrate on the dives!"

The facts & reality

Although it is hard to get really good statistics the current estimations tell that about 20-35% of the active diving population is female, a little bit dependant on regions. There are a lot of discussions about women and diving and complete books are written about it. Physiological differences between men and women can't be denied and some studies have shown both specific disadvantages and advantages for women.

One of the most quoted differences is that women have a larger surface to body mass ratio and are therefore more sensitive for cold. Although this is scientifically proven the solutions are simple such as wearing a thicker wetsuit or just accept that your dive time in colder water may be a little shorter. Some men will stretch the dive time to such an extreme that they get out of the water with a slight hypothermia. Better?

The statement that women are more likely to get decompression illness because of the larger fat content that nature gave them is not proven. Recent studies have indicated a possible increased risk during the menstruation cycle, but these tests were only done in a laboratory. We hardly understand the basics of decompression illness and how and under what circumstances you get it, let alone that we are able to indicate differences based on gender.

My observations as an instructor have been that female divers are good divers and sometimes better as they have less need to prove themselves. They can simply enjoy what they see underwater and don't have the need to use their depth gauge as a performance indicator. If they are not certain of their performance it often has to do with the attitude of the surrounding divers, mostly men. So how "superior" are male divers? They are certainly superior in the litres of alcoholic beverages they consume before and after diving, against all dive safety rules. They tend also to be superior in taking unnecessary risks. Diving while the storm is coming in, in strong currents that are really dangerous, diving deeper and deeper while ignoring safety limits. The ones that don't follow them in their stupidity are seen as wimps. Reading the accident records sometimes makes you shake your head and wonder if they are still worth their dive certificate.

Taking this into consideration, many female divers are a safer and better diver and most of them respect the limits. It is true that women in a very general sense have less physical power and in some situations they will have difficulties keeping up. However this is such an individual issue that you cannot take this as a reason not to do a sport. Diving is fun and everybody should be doing it in accordance with her or his limits. Less able people can scuba dive and be excellent divers.

Michelle from Canada is even an advanced diver and for her the whole question was more an issue of able versus less able divers and her personal limits, than a real gender issue. She found that the lack of gravity made her more able while diving than on land. The reality is that there are no real differences that would stop women from diving and that this activity can be enjoyed by almost anybody.

Where to start?

If you would like to try scuba diving the best you can do is to see if there is a local training centre or scuba dive club. Ask for an introduction dive and see if you like it. PADI is an organisation that even has developed a complete introduction programme that is for children from the age of 8 to adults up to 80! You should be able to find a PADI dive centre near you. If you like the initial experience you can do a beginners course that will allow you to dive all over the world. Local dive centres or clubs can form a good base to build up a circle of dive friends and to expand and share your experiences.

A good example is Zareena, a Swiss diver that recently became a Divemaster. She followed in the footsteps of her older brother who was already diving. After finishing her course she said: "I don't feel myself being less than men although it is sometimes hard to carry all the gear (tanks, weights etc.). A lot of women think diving is too hard or difficult for them, or they're scared. But I learned a lot from the courses, i.e. to manage critical situations or to get to know your physical and mental limits. DIVING IS JUST GREAT!!!"

So have a go at it and see if you want to discover another universe.

Peter Mieras
Instructor in Cannes, France
SUB-VISION

With thanks to all the women that have kindly helped me write this article by giving their opinions and sharing their experiences.