Volume 1, No. 19. October 19, 2001
[Photo of two women dressed as mermaids on the WWA Trade Show floor. Photo by Vicky Adams-Nemec
Oh,
WOW
The WWA inducted its second class of Hall of Fame members at last week's show,
with six men joining the 25 charter members named last year. That keeps the
grand total of women in the WWA Hall of Fame at one, Phyllis Smith, who was
inducted last year. That 30-to-1 ratio does not accurately reflect the gender
distribution of the association's membership, or of the industry, and it certainly
doesn't reflect waterpark patronage.
The WWA took the first steps toward redressing that imbalance with a seminar
devoted to women's issues in the industry. "Women in Water" expressed in its
title the double-entendre line women must tread while trying to build careers
as waterpark operators and suppliers. "A young female at the WWA gets a lot
of attention," said Franceen Gonzales, general manager of Golfland/Sunsplash's
Waterworld Safari in Phoenix, Arizona, and one of the seminar's moderators.
The kind of attention she was talking about was the kind that two clamshell-clad
mermaids were attracting as they lounged in one of the vendor booths on the
trade show floor—it had nothing to do with professional respect or building
business relationships. "I never saw a glass ceiling in my profession, I never
thought of this as a male-dominated industry until I came to WWA," Gonzales
said.
In the seminar, one of the top-drawing sessions of the week with about 50 attendees,
women shared their frustrations over everything from dressing in a way that
balances professionalism and femininity to the lingering sexist imagery that
abounds in the industry. They also shared some avenues to success, such as learning
the technical aspects and terminology of the business, sticking a foot into
any door that opens to expand their job skills and working for an enlightened
boss who encourages their professional development.
Out of that last discussion
emerged a new WWA-sponsored mentoring program to enhance women's participation
in the industry and the association in particular, including the possibility
of a scholarship fund to help pay women's way to the convention. Every seminar
participant signed up to either serve as a mentor or to be mentored. The group,
tentatively calling itself Women of Water (WOW) also decided to continue the
discussions at future WWA conventions.
An even more significant outcome of the meeting was the tone of how these women
plan to address the issues that concern them: through professional interaction
rather than reactionary radicalism. Or, put another way, the vendor using the
mermaids lost quite a bit of potential business in that room.