candidates
‘We’re Looking for a Few Good Women’ Diving schools still struggle to attract women candidates WE LIKELY NEVER WILL KNOW which came first, the chicken or the egg, but this much is certain: If more women are going to become certified commercial divers, there first have to be more women taking the plunge at diving schools. Instructors at diving schools across North America said they would like to see more women candidates enroll, but at present, few women seem interested. Dav id H. Weisman, t he executive director of t he Jacksonville, Fla.-based Commercial Diving Academy, said his school graduates about 260 students per year. In 2008, six women graduated from his school, but that number dipped to just two in 2009. So far this year, one woman has graduated from the 20-week program, and one more began attending the
Push-ups at the Commercial Diving Academy.
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school in the spring. The percentage of women candidates at his school is so low that Weisman termed it “infinitesimal.” “At our school, it’s definitely not going up,” he said. “At best, it’s 1 to 2 percent. We do everything we can to recruit equally. In fact, we make sure on our Web site that we show women who have been through the program so that we make it clear that it’s available to anyone who’s interested, but we still don’t get that many.” Some school executives, such as Bill Matthies, who runs the Minnesota Commercial Diver Training Center in Brainerd, are seeing the number of women candidates shrink. His eightweek program draws 38-48 students per year, and over the last few years, not a single woman candidate has enrolled.
