Working the Waters

We have come so far and still have so far to go…

In reading the entangling net it is easy to feel mixed emotions, on one side you feel proud that we have come far enough that women are present at all in such a male dominated profession, and then on the other side you feel sad that they still experience sexism and prejudice among there male peers.   Both feelings are valid, feminism had to have accomplished something because a hundred years ago it was not even and issue to be discussed.   Women were not in a workplace like a fishing boat, in a world where secretary and school teacher were the only options I am sure woman back then would see the fishing women of today and triumphant heroes.   This view also bears in mind the question where will women be in a hundred years?  Will feminism keep on the same path and pace, will women and men be equal and free to work the same jobs a hundred years from now?

            One of the beautiful concepts these women portrayed is that men are not better, stronger; they don’t work harder than women because these women did it.  There is no worry of a broken fingernail on a fishing boat, you must work just as hard as those around you or you won’t have the job much longer.  Commercial fishing is one of the most physically taxing jobs in the world and women can do it just as well as men.  Debra Nielsen was quoted to say

“I'm only five feet tall and I weigh one hundred pounds and so men have a protective instinct toward me. I've had to surmount that my whole life to actually get in and do anything. The only way I've been able to get past is by being quicker and knowing what I'm doing. It's about leverage. ... You have to slow down. You have to use your head in a different way and your body in a different way. I think it’s important that people know how small I am because if I can do it, it means any woman can do it...”

The book explored the notion of why, why are these women putting the selves through this harassment and injustice just to fish for long hours and do hard work.  I would have thought the first reason was money, being a college student that makes sense to me.  But that is not what I heard in the voice of many of these women.  It is adventure and pushing the envelope, the joy of knowing you can do it.  Matha Sutro commented

“Why women are increasingly drawn to this. I don't know.”… ”I don't know if it has something to do with Alaska and the whole lure of being able to partake of something that formerly was withheld from you, or maybe its a breed of women who have been raised or somehow have been grown up to understand that certain barriers that supposedly were there are not legitimate. Even withstanding all the dangers, it's an important experience and it's very viable, very-I hate to use the word “fulfilling,” but it is very fulfilling.”

            We have come so far and learned so much about gender and bending the roles we were “given”.  Women are in every corner of the working world today and sexism is being confronted, harassment is being prosecuted, not tolerated.  Yet women are objectified more in media then ever before, anorexia and self hatred are rampant, men can still be pigs.  Will the story ever end, probably not, as long as men and women are different they will still have there differences, we can only hope for more global understanding of equality between the sexes.