Teach a woman to fish, and she can feed herself for a lifetime, but she may have to work hard to earn respect. In an industry traditionally dominated by men, many of Rhode Island’s fisherwomen have had to struggle to prove themselves.
When Elizabeth Rowell’s husband Douglas died four years ago, things looked bleak. Turning down several offers to sell the 65-foot fishing boat that had been in the family since 1976, Rowell vowed to keep the Elizabeth R as her own, and continue the Point Judith-based Rowell Fishing Industries.
She said the would-be buyers came out of the woodwork and treated her unfairly because she was a woman.
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"I think if you were to have a fisherman lose his wife, nobody would call him the week after and say, ‘your wife told me to tell you that you were supposed to sell your boat as quickly as possible,’" she said.
She worked closely with her husband and learned the "ins and outs" of the business, but when it was time for her to take over she didn’t know how devious some of the other fishermen could be. She said people would go down to the dock where the Elizabeth R was tied up and tell her crew that the boat had been sold.
"I told my crew they would be the first to know if I ever sold the boat," she said, "But people coming down and saying that it has been sold has an effect on people. They were on a continuous roller coaster for six months, wondering if they had a job or not.
"The only thing we forgot to ask was how much each person had paid for the boat," she said, laughing.
Rowell, who also lobbies for Rhode Island commercial fishermen through the Rhode Island Commercial Fisherman’s Association, said there’s still a "weariness from the traditionally male makeup of the industry," but her knowledge has carried her thus far and she maintains that it will continue to keep her afloat.
"I don’t think most wives pay as close attention to their husband’s lives as I did," she said. "Both sexes have an ‘okay, honey’ sort of attitude, but we used to discuss absolutely everything at the dinner table. I never really intended to memorize how to do this, but through the years I just did."
Andrea Incollingo has owned The Bait Company in Narragansett for 18 years. She said she wasn’t accepted in the industry right away.
"Early on there wasn’t an acceptance of women coming into the industry and you had to really prove yourself," she said. "And that was probably the most gratifying thing, earning the respect of these fishermen who were such a proud bunch."
She said her challenge now is not necessarily with her acceptance within the industry as much as the industry’s acceptance within society.
"Unfortunately commercial fishermen have been portrayed as evil-doers of the ocean by so many different interest groups," she said, discussing how some environmental groups have made fishermen use different gear in order that other creatures are not harmed. "The reality is that the commercial fisherman is the endangered species here."
Not all women have experienced tests of strength in the industry though.
Michelle Noon is on the other side of the fishing industry. An account manager for Deep Sea Fish of Rhode Island, located in the Port of Galilee, Noon, who was formerly an assistant buyer for men’s retail clothing, said she found her change in jobs refreshing.
"The extent of my experience was that I liked seafood," she said.
Noon said she has not run into any discrimination at her job
"This aspect of the industry is probably only male-dominated because so many of the men were fishermen before they got into the processing part of the industry," she said "I’ve enjoyed working here.
"It’s a great industry where you don’t have a lot of corporate levels. It feels like a small business throughout," she added.
Incollingo said that although the men in the business can sometimes test a woman’s mettle, the ocean does not discriminate.
"I don’t specifically relate any of my trials and tribulations to being a woman in this industry anymore," she said. "The industry itself creates trials and tribulations for everybody."
