Photo by Neil Caudle 



Margaret and Murphey Hopkins 



fish and keeping records than she does fishing. 



It has never worried her to be the only woman on a 

 boat. "In all the years I fished, no fisherman ever in- 

 sulted me, ' ' she says. But she admits that she's had to re- 

 mind crewmen of their manners once or twice. On one 

 fishing trip a few years ago, she found some of the crew 

 reading "girlie magazines." 



' ' I asked them nice the first time, ' ' she recalls. ' 'Then I 

 had to fe//them, 'Put those girlie magazines away.' But 

 when I came back in after while, there they were out 

 again, lying right there on the table. That was when the 

 girlie magazines went swimming." 



Margaret sees no reason why young women shouldn't 

 aspire to be commercial fishermen, if they're willing to 

 work. She says there's nothing unfeminine about 

 fishing. Murphy agrees with her. 



"I'd always rather have her on a boat with me than 

 some man," he says. 



Femininity, according to Margaret, is a matter of the 

 mind. 



"I have feminine thoughts," she says, "but I can do a 

 man's work. And I love a boat more than any man ever 

 loved a boat. Being out there on the water, well, it's bet- 

 ter than a trip to the psychiatrist. It eases your mind." 



Fisherman's life troubles wives who wait at home 



Women don't have to be on the boat culling fish or 

 mending nets to be involved in commercial fishing. 

 Often the fisherman's wife who never leaves the dock 

 contributes significantly to her husband's occupation. 

 She is the one who is understanding of the long hours 

 fishermen put in, the fluctuations in catch and pay 

 and the heavy expenses fishing sometimes incurs. 



In a Sea Grant study, Marcus Hepburn and Jim 

 Sabella, two sociologists, talked with fishermen's 

 wives at Harkers Island about commercial fishing. 

 They wanted to find out how the women felt about 

 their husbands' occupation and how it affected their 

 lives and that of their family. 



The Harkers Island women told the researchers 

 they felt that life for a fisherman's wife was hard. The 

 unpredictable hours, the unsteady income and the un- 

 certainty of retirement were main concerns the 

 women voiced. And because of their own difficulties, 

 more of the women interviewed opposed rather than 

 favored their own sons becoming fishermen. Similarly, 

 more opposed their daughters marrying fishermen. 



Predictably the women said they worried a lot 

 about their husband's safety and nearly two-thirds 

 wanted their husbands to limit fishing to day trips to 

 "inside" (sound or estuarine) areas. Hepburn says the 

 women's worries influence their husband's fishing ac- 



tivities. Research has shown that men who work the 

 offshore fishing boats for extended periods of time are 

 typically younger, unmarried men. Older, married 

 men tend to fish closer to home for shorter periods of 

 time. 



While the women may not be enthusiastic about 

 fishing, they are supportive of their husbands. Many 

 do the bookkeeping and file the taxes. 



Among fishermen's families, the children tend to 

 have greater contact with their mothers than their 

 fathers because of the fisherman's long absences. And 

 the more the fisherman is away from home, the closer 

 his wife and children become to her side of the family. 



Hepburn says most fishermen will marry women 

 who have been exposed to the fishing culture. Usually 

 their father, grandfather or close relative was also a 

 fisherman. "A woman is not a fisherman's wife by 

 happenstance," Hepburn says. "She usually knows 

 what it is like to be a fisherman's wife. They are 

 women prepared for the unique pressure of fishing." 



"It takes a special woman to be a fisherman's wife," 

 says Mary DeBoy, president of the Brunswick 

 County Commercial Fishermen's Association. "You 

 have to understand fishermen don't work by the 

 clock. Their clock is the tides, the weather and what is 

 out there to be caught." 



