Invisible Divers: A Research Project
About the study
Invisible Divers is a pilot study to understand how the sport impacts on women both physiologically and in equipment design.
There are two questionnaires linked here - one for equipment and one on physiology.
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In Caroline Criado Perez’s excellent book Invisible Women, she identified how data, in all its forms, ignores women. From health to transport, almost every aspect of our lives, products and services have been based on data gathered from male subjects. That equally applies to scuba diving.
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The aim of this research pilot is to start the process of gathering data and through that, begin to understand how scuba diving has ignored the impact on women. We’re calling this a pilot because we recognise that we do not have the resources to create definitive research. Not just yet!. As a UK diving club we are aware that the data will be skewed to cold water diving with its harsher physiological environment and greater amount of equipment. That said, if we gather enough data, we hope to be able to identify some trends that can be researched further. As much as anything else, we want to highlight how women have hardly been considered in the design of diving equipment and dive tables or computers.
The surveys has been designed to be simple to complete and on any device – computer, tablet or mobile phone. We’ve also kept it anonymous to encourage as many people as possible to join the study. We might have asked for more questions or more specific details, but we needed to strike a balance between gathering data and getting as many responses as possible. It is for the same reasons that we have kept the questions to recreational dives on air or nitrox under 50m. This is because the additional complexity and physiological risks that come with technical diving could also skew the data. Let's leave that for another study!
The surveys are open to everyone, regardless of their gender or diving experience. Getting a range of respondents will help to offer a comparison and identify any trends. The physiology form is designed to be filled in after each dive, so one person can contribute dozens of data points. The equipment related form is intended to be completed just once.
We will publish the first set of data after the UK diving seasons ends in October. In the meantime, if you spot any glaring errors or have any questions, please contact us at holbornscubalondon@gmail.com
Invisible Divers is a Holborn Divers project led by Mia Scaggiante and Zoe Diderich, with Mark Brill.
A bit of background
A little while ago, some of our members tuned into a virtual talk about women and diving.
Whilst it was about the role of some pioneering women in scuba, at the end of the virtual session, one of the questions asked was ‘why there were fewer women divers compared to men divers?’. The (male) spokesperson suggested that it was because women don’t like wreck diving, and the (female) spokesperson agreed...
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Whilst we can hopefully assume it was intended to be a throwaway comment, and (probably) a joke, it’s indicative of a far wider problem, and it raises significant concerns.
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It plays into some worrying stereotypes about women. For example, wrecks are big and bulky, and so women prefer prettier things, like colourful fish and reefs.
Some of our female diver heroes
We all know that these stereotypical perceptions are untrue, baseless, and there is no evidence whatsoever.
Indeed, there have been many female pioneers to the world of diving who have made significant contributions, to name a few:
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Jill Heinerth, a leading cave diver;
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Dr Nevada Winrow and Taylor-Symon Winrow, who founded Black Girls Dive Foundation in the United States;
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The late Polly Tapson who led a mixed gas expedition to the Lusitania nearly 30 years ago – years before BSAC had recognised Trimix;
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And many, many more.
In her excellent book, Invisible Women, Caroline Criado Perez explains about the unintentional male bias in data that has ignored the needs of women in almost all aspects of our lives – from public policy, workspaces, the media, to product design, technology and health and medical research.
Criado Perez sets out a plethora of examples in her book.
Taking her principles and arguments, these can be applied to other area in our lives and society. So what about scuba diving?
The data-gap in SCUBA diving
We decided we wanted to know more about the scientific data available for and about women who dive.
From what we can deduce, it is apparent that pretty much all of the research that underpins the tables and algorithms in dive tables and dive computers was conducted on men i.e. white, male, young, fit (typically men in the navy), AND... wait for it... goats!
Yep, you heard right.
Where then is the research on women and diving?
Whilst there has been research on women, menstruation and diving in the 90s, it appears to be somewhat ad hoc, and few and far between.
Rather worryingly, it appears that (very likely) none of it has made its way to dive tables and computers in a meaningful way i.e. that goes to address women’s health and well-being.
Equipment and design
Women have different skeletal and muscle design, and overall vastly different bodies to men both inside and out.
Has there been any consideration of women in the design of cylinders, regulators, mouthpieces, weight belts, jackets, suits?
In our club, we face an uphill battle that there is never enough small fin sizes for women in our kit box. Or more precisely, fins that properly fit women’s feet. Masks are also an issue.
Finding the right sizes and shape of fins and masks to purchase is so difficult. This is because they all tend to cater for men’s bodies. And this applies to all pieces of diving kit.
The apparent “lazy” approach that manufacturers try to address women’s so-called needs is the “pinking and shrinking”. The insinuation is that if dive kit is made to look “pretty”, then women are probably going to be interested in purchasing the kit.
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Whilst this approach is highly irritating (and unhelpful) for almost every female diver we know, ultimately it fails to solve the critical issue: not enough thought has gone into women when designing equipment.
It adds up to one thing: women are practically invisible when it comes to diving.
It’s not to say that male divers or anyone in particular are to blame. It’s systemic and it's everywhere. It’s what Criadio Perez terms “the unintentional male basis”.
It’s not done on purpose. But when you realise it, you cannot ever un-see it again.
Our scuba diving community is quite small and tight-knit in the UK.
Is there something we can do about it?