Deep She Divers

In the past where diving originally started as a serious profession with regards to areas such as the Navy it then developed to become a leisure activity around the time of the 1940's-1950's. Navy divers was a heavily male influenced area of work with few if any females being recruited. The equipment was designed around the male physique and was difficult for women to fit into. However in 1975 this changed when the first female diver was recruited and sparked a revolution in the diving industry and equality for women in this job role. In comparison, Korea has a tradition of female divers, often called Haenyos a Korean term for mermaids that these women are often called, holding their breaths for two minutes at a time and diving down to extreme depths of around 65 feet to source food sources such as sea urchins. However with their numbers rapidly decreasing from 20,000 in the 1960's to just over 2,500 existing today it is stated that “Haenyos do the work of the dead in the land of the living" as the job becomes increasingly difficult due to the rise of pollution and desperation of the animals existing within the waters. Further more the rise in water levels also raises the risk factor of the job and runs the risk of the Haenyo tradition dying out.

The concept of the Deep She Divers is an interesting one with the rise of female equality and important issues of equal rights its a modern concept that is worth being explored both in relation to myself as a woman and to maintain up to date with current issues. It also relates strongly to my project with reflection of the Haenyo's as their existence and history is being threatened because of the problems regarding ocean pollution. Therefore these designs could be used for a dual purpose, to raise awareness of pollution but also to raise funds for Haenyo's to ensure that the tradition remains and training of future recruits can still take place.