Women in Paddling: Gender in Guiding

June-July 2000

This is an article from WaveLength Magazine, available in print in North America and globally on the web.

by Kathryn Gardner

All smiles on this guide course Photo courtesy Tofino Expeditions

In May 1997, during a guide retreat held on Saltspring Island, BC, a group of women guides convened to discuss problems that they had encountered while leading sea kayak trips and to share solutions. Some of the complaints were directly related to 'being female' and were quite worrisome.

In February/March 1998 I published in WaveLength a questionnaire concerning gender-based issues in sea-kayak guiding, to discover the nature and extent of these problems and develop strategies to cope with them. Considering the aversion that people have to questionnaires, the number of responses wasn't bad. Of the twenty-one replies, 70% were guides, 20% were owner-operators; half male and half female.

The short answer to the question, are there gender-based problems in guiding, is "no". The long answer is that while everyone seems to agree gender-based biases should not exist, in practice some people do in fact hold predisposed opinions towards the opposite gender.

After listening to his own answers in an interview, one male responded, "I don't think I'm terribly sexist, but maybe I am."

Another male stated, "Having led trips with both female and male assistants, I prefer female guides. [They are] better organized and more thoughtful."

Several men seemed to feel 'threatened' by this questionnaire, possibly thinking that its purpose was to lay blame against male guides. But despite their differences, both sexes answered the questions in pretty much the same way.

There were some differences, however. While men seemed to be united in their beliefs, women's responses were much more widespread-some women had experienced problems that they attribute to their gender, others had not.

Men and women all agreed that both genders are equally capable of leading sea-kayak trips. Physically, everyone agreed that lifting heavy gear is the most difficult challenge that women face and all agreed that by using good techniques and elbow grease of the group, physical strength is not an issue. "Knowing your limits helps," writes owner/operator Kelly Fleming.

There are other physical challenges in guiding that may not be so obvious. Short guides may not be able to reach the top of a vehicle to load a boat, and taller or heavier guides may have trouble finding a boat large enough to accommodate them. Guides' personal health may be at risk after working too hard for many days in a row. But these challenges affect both genders. Interestingly, men stated that menstruation is a physical challenged faced by women on a trip, but none of the women mentioned this at all.

The issues that are the most concern to female guides are having their decisions challenged by fellow guides and gaining the 'respect' of clients. But still these responses averaged a score of only "2.5", meaning that the situations seldom occurred.

While only one out of nine men reported his decisions being challenged by a woman, three of nine reported having been challenged by another male guide. Women's answers were slightly more varied. They reported slightly more challenges to their decisions by both males and other females. Only one woman reported frequent challenges to her decisions by her male colleagues.

Although most women rated both their "difficulty in gaining respect from clients or other guides" as very low on the five-point scale, most of them cited an example of what they believed to be a gender-based problem. Some of the comments were: "Men tend to be more comfortable in a dominant role", "On occasion, a male guide will want to show off" and "Most women [clients] respect me lots, but fewer men show respect". The combination of the ratings and the comments seems to indicate that women do have difficulty now and then, but not frequently.

Both male and female guides agreed that if clients approached only one gender, it would be the male. While men theorized that this is dependent on who is the head guide or who appears to be more competent, women theorized that clients will look to a female guide for emotional support and a male guide for more technical matters.

Challenging a colleague's decision seems to be more of a communication issue than a gender issue. A guide who does not agree with his or her colleague's opinion, sometimes is not clear as to the rationale behind it. And although everyone knows that they shouldn't question the head guide's decision in front of clients (unless there is an immediate threat to the group's safety), it doesn't hurt to remind oneself of that common courtesy.

Not only does questioning a decision in front of the group make a person feel humiliated, it may also cast doubts in the group's mind of the leadership capabilities of their guides. Communication issues such as this could soon blow out of proportion if not dealt with tactfully.

The dynamics of a co-ed group are different than a single gender group but this is not necessarily a bad thing-just different. Men tend to be more competitive among themselves whereas women seem to be more supportive. Men are more likely to jump in a kayak and "just do it" while women seem to be more comfortable knowing what all the risks are and what skills they will need, so they can prepare to be "ready to do it".

All guides, male and female, must develop and maintain both their physical and intellectual skills and present themselves as confident, knowledgeable leaders. Isolated cases of male (or female) chauvinism or discrimination can and do occur but life for guides in the Pacific Northwest is largely free of 'gender issues'.