Gender bias in Pelagics? (MOVED)

[Jan]

How about a trip for the other gender?

[ourspot]

How about a trip for the other gender?

Hi Jan. I arranged this non-commercial pelagic trip for myself and a bunch of my closest birding friends to go and have an awesome seabird experience together (as friends like to do). I didn’t realise I needed to fulfil a certain PC quota of equalities amongst the participants onboard. As usual I’m glad you managed to take so much from one of my reports. Cheers Scott.

[Jan]

Hi Scott, Don't get ratty! I don't know you as I don't live up North, but it was rather obvious that females were not part of the group. I'm not going to add anything else about your choice of birding pals......gender or otherwise. If you were to do another trip maybe more of us really envious types might be able to go along????

[harryhatman]

Hi Jan, I think the lack of women is driven more by the disproportion of female birdwatchers generally rather than Scotts choice of birding friends.

Hopefully this will change with the times. Probably a separate issue than for this post though.

[Jan]

not trying to detract from the report about the trip at all, Harry. In the birding circles you and Scott move in, there may not be many wimmen, but there are loads I can think of, maybe they have other commitments that prevent going on long pelagic trips like that? Hopefully the skipper didn't have that idiotic belief that a woman on board means bad luck....

[RussCannings]

Hi Jan,

I'm glad you're hoping to see more women on pelagic ventures and I doubt you'll find anyone here who disagrees with that. In this case though I can assure you that your concerns are misplaced. Like Scott, I try to organise regular pelagics through the year. Most of these trips get advertised in advance and are open to everyone. For whatever reason, women make up less than 10% of people that get in touch with even vague interest on the trips. Why this is exactly I'm not sure but if anyone would like to get in touch with me to suggest ways to improve the experience, I'd be sincerely grateful. This is quite different from British Columbia where I'm from where pelagics are closer to 50/50.

A trip like this Kermadec one only happens because someone like Scott has put in an INCREDIBLE amount of effort to research, plan and promote (and spend a lot of $!). Any one is free to do the same thing, with whomever they like--100% women even! And yet, very few people seem to want to try.

So I invite Jan or anyone wanting a different mix of humans on a boat to simply send an email or pick up a phone and get in touch with your local skippers. There are so many awesome offshore opportunities around this country (We're the "Seabird Capital of the World" right?), yet it seems like there are less than 25 people who show a regular interest in trying to get out and organise these things in NZ.

Happy seabirding all--awesome report Scott!

Russ

[Jan]

Just wrote a reply to Russell and then didn't press 'submit'. There are lots of female sailors, like me, who don't get seasick but in my area there aren't many good areas apart from Kaikoura. There are many female birders so it's a slight puzzle.

[ourspot]

Jan. When you imply someone is basically being sexist you should expect a response. Please make comments relevant to the post articles, rather than personal sly digs, which effectively highjack the post from what’s it’s intended to be about. My issue is the distraction from what I think is a very exciting article about a magnificent journey. I have no need to explain who I chose to come on the Kermadecs trip as it was a personal journey. And for your info I have plenty of women who come on the Tutukaka pelagics I organise. Neil feel free to remove all this nonsense at your convenience. Cheers Scott.

[Jan]

I wasn't implying anything of the sort, scott. it was just so obvious that women were absent. When you said it was all your mates that came along, what was i supposed to think? you could have just replied that maybe a ladies trip could happen in the future, rather than getting defensive in a way that isn't very nice. i'm sure you are a very kind, helpful and friendly person, and I'm sorry that a simple query about the other gender has caused so much angst.