Helen Nesbitt
Working the Water Week 6
Gender on the Water
Ever since the woman’s movements of the early sixties and seventies, women in search of a career have been breaking into worlds of work typically held by men with increasing frequency. Where profession for women were once limited to that of teacher, secretary, or nurse, in this day and age it is not uncommon to see a woman behind the wheel of a semi truck or as the CEO of a major corporation. This path towards equality has in no way been easy and the fight is by no means over, especially in many jobs that demand physical labor and carry a strong history of patriarchy. In her book Entangling the Net; Alaska’s Commercial Fishing Women Tell Their Lives, Leslie Leyland Fields tells the stories of many women who made the push to break into the extremely male dominated world of fishing. Despite the inevitable reality of incredible discrimination and physical hardships these woman choose the life of a fisherman for the very same reason as many of their male counterparts, adventure, challenge, and freedom. At the same times as proving these were not only the passions of men as commonly thought and drawing the line between the two sexes ever lighter in the sand.
Looking back at the history of sea-faring men, a picture is painted of a brave soul who turns to the sea for the most masculine of pursuits, Marcus Redicker discusses the draw of young men to board a vessel in the early eighteen hundreds in his book,Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea,“To see the world, to get a good rate of pay, to get a good job of some sort at any price, to do what father did – these were the motives of those who went to sea…Almost all working people knew…the hardships the seaman faced: His was, as a sea song said, “a damned hard life full of toil and strife.” (pg. 14)These same reasons are used today within the fishing community to validate the argument that a woman has no place on the sea. Two points stand out the most, to do what father did, and the toil and strife aboard the vessel; a patriarchal hierarchy is formed that not only denies woman’s place working aboard a boat for traditional purposes, the passing on of a profession from father to son, but also for her own well being. A boat, as the argument goes, is an unsafe place for the more delicate sex, but as Leslie Fields points out; a boat is an unsafe place for anyone, male or female. Any crew member aboard a boat shares the same dangers, the same grueling hours and the same rewards. Female fishermen, rather than slacking and being held back by the “gentle” nature of their sex, must work twice as hard as their male counterparts for the same reward.
To even be accepted aboard the vessel women must prove to the male skipper and crew that she can not only work as hard as them but often much harder. In these situations there is no room for complaint or weakness a commercial fishing woman must throw everything she has into each task at the same time putting up with harassment from her contemporaries. “You have to be twice as good. You’ve really got to have good skills and keep your mouth shut for a while .It’s a lot easier said than done. During times of harassment…you’ve got to kind of take it. There’s no recourse in this industry.” (Entangling the Net, pg. 55) On top of all this she is required to run 24-hourshifts (or 45 or upwards of 60) with a crew that simply does not trust her. To gain entry into this hostile environment women must walk the docks and face rejection after rejection coupled with jeers and come-ons.
One of the easiest ways to overcome these hardships and gain standing within the fishing community is for a woman to shed her femininity in an effort to blend in with the other sailors. Martha Sutro, a female crabber in the notoriously dangerous Bering Sea, explains why she enjoys this aspect of working the waters, “Just put on a hat and a slicker and a pair of rain boots and suddenly your not who you were…It’s like suddenly you’re a man for four months. I mean for a lot of intents and purposes, you are. I love doing that kind of stuff, so it wasn’t an identity crisis; it was more like an identity playground.” (Entangling the Net, pg. 43) It is necessary for women to assimilate to life aboard the boat and the daily habits of a group of men to survive in this microcosm of a society for months on end. In this way she transcends vast gender barriers in ways that would have seemed unimaginable a mere half century ago.
When a woman fisherman can overcome the vast constraints that she faces upon entering the masculine fishing domain she is opened up to the world of opportunities and beauty that life on the sea offers. A woman fisherman in Alaska sums up the satisfaction she feels from excelling in such a unique environment,“There are so many great things out here. There’s freedom and the land and there’s friendly people and good people to work with. You’re feeling mentally and physically well because you know you can do the work.” (pg. 51)When a woman enters a field like the fishing industry she enters knowing that she will be viewed under a microscope, watched closely for any failure that could send her packing out of the boys club and back to the kitchen. When she succeeds in such a harsh environment she is no longer viewed as an intruder but as a contemporary. When she can finally surpass all the barriers and finds herself a deck hand or even the skipper of a vessel she is what everyone on board is; no longer men or women, but fishers and crabbers.