Does gender make a difference?

[ScubaBaby]

Ontario Diver....

Hmmmm, Enquiring minds want to know

Butch...in rubber.....i think its more:
Mental images in mind.....eek.....don't want to know!!!
(Only messing Butch..you know I love ya really! =-x )

 

[Butch103]

They generally lock people up in those padded rooms with those extra long sleeves who have thoughts and inquiries like that.
:bonk:

You are all buggers for punishment............:egrin:

Careful I may have to post a pic of me in the wetsuit.

Bucth eace:

 

[ScubaBaby]

WOW!
I didnt expect that turn around. Everyones been saying how they didnt care - yet we have 35 people saying they'd prefer male and 38 not minding either way and only 10 would prefer a female instructor!

 

[keralucu]

It makes no difference to me either - as long as my instructor can impart information, skills and knowledge in a way that I can understand, remember and then emulate, I don't care what gender he/she is.

I have two instructors, one of each sex and they are both excellent at teaching, patient and persistent with me & my sister...(I'm not sure I'd have the patience to deal with the millions of questions that we ask! which is why I'm the student....)

 

[Rick Murchison]

There are two distinct questions in this "poll."
When I first responded, I was responding to the question posed in the title of the thread, which is "Does gender make a difference?" - and it does, as I said, in everything.
The second question (distinctly different) is whether I have a preference in the gender of an instructor - and to that my answer is "no."
Like Scubababy, I am a little surprised that over half of those who voted have a preference.
Rick

 

[Bob]

I had a lady instructor for AOW and she was great. She was detail oriented, very knowledgable, and great fun to be around. I have no preference as to gender. Whoever it is must be competent! I want to learn and learn right, and if the instructor can't provide that, then I will change instructors or ask for my money back. I make that clear to the shop and the instructor ahead of time so there won't be a misunderstanding later on.:tree:Bob

 

[joewr]

I agree with Rick(big surprise), but more than that I am astounded! What the heck possible difference would the gender of a dive teacher make? After all, we are not learning how to properly fit a cup...or whatever other gender-specific item that one could think of!

Amazing!


Joewr

 

[ScubaBaby]

My reason is cause I had a bad experience with a female instructor....and i also feel genuinely more at ease with a bloke above and below water. Girls tend to dislike me.

I expected the results to be approx: 80% makes no difference, and 10% male and 10% female. I didn't expect this at all!!!

 

[Texass]

I remember seeing a piece on TV when Elizabeth Dole was running for President. Her biggest gender based detractors were other women. The segment stuck with me mainly because I was amazed at some of thier reasons for not trusting a woman to be President.

As for which I would prefer as an instructor, I've had both and don't care. My OW & AOW instructors were both women and my Nitrox & Rescue instructors were both men. All 4 had their own distinct personality. All 4 broadened my understanding and got me to think "out of the box". All 4 helped me improve my diving abilities.

 

[King_Neptune]

[sp]
Nope, not even a little bit ... But here is why ... Doing what I do, I have the unique ability to gain some extremely interesting information. About 18 months ago we ran a series of surveys and one of them dealt with just such a subject as this one.

You might be interested in WHO said WHAT but more interesting to me is [red]WHY[/red] and even WHEN.

It's not anything very complicated either, it is actually a very basic reason. I myself would have to answer along the lines of "As long as they had all the right stuff" it wouldn't matter to me.

But that "RIGHT STUFF" is the KEY to the question.

WHO said WHAT?

Answer: Women clearly preferred Men

AND WHEN?

The largest levels of those women that preferred men as their instructors were at two different ends of the chart. Open Water and Advanced women showed a clear preference for male instructors. Above Advanced BUT below DM showed a drop in any prefs but once again those becoming DM's once again showed a strong pull toward the same thing the Open Water and Advanced showed, the women preferred men.

[red]THE WHY![/red]

This is the part that once we had compiled all this data we found ourselves feeling kind of dumb, and the first thing I did was ask ladydiver about it and she stopped and thought about it and said, "Yeah, I would have to say it makes complete sense". Since then we had made a point of asking others about it and most of the women said that after thinking about it they agreed.

The interesting part to me is the drop off and then later the picking back up of this feeling. The stated reason for this feeling was one of [red]SECURITY[/red]... A simple, yet natural feeling of Physical Strength is what made the difference. Basically, in a nut shell one of the respondents said it best with...

"If something goes really wrong, Whose arm do I want responsible for grabbing me and pulling me to safety? Screw being 'PC', This is no time to play hero, I want the arm that is 3 times more powerful than my own thank you very much!"


DOH! Well duh, Yeah I would have to agree, when I was very young and my father was teaching me to dive, I can admit that I would have preferred my fathers 18' arms grabbing me than my moms ... Especially since the age of 8 I towered over and out weighed my mother almost 2 to 1.

It sure made me think...

=-)