With 2023 marking the 50th anniversary of the Protection of Wrecks Act, it is timely to reflect on the statistics that show of the 32 Principal Licensees only one is female, and for other licences issued, such as visitor licences, only 10% of these were issued to women (Historic England, June 2021). 
 
The Maritime Archaeology Trust is undertaking a project to better understand women’s involvement in Protected and Designated Wrecks and to gather information on attitudes to, and experiences of, involvement. This important baseline information will help consider potential reasons why so few women are PW licensees and relatively low numbers are involved in PWs and look to future actions to address this situation. 
 
This survey is aimed at any women working with PWs and other Designated wrecks, whether PW team members, diving visits to PWs, non-diving research and analysis, or working with recovered collections from PWs. As well as any women with an interest in PWs, diving or maritime archaeology. If you have not had previous involvement with PWs we would still like to hear from you, please answer what you can. 

How we will use the data 

Your responses are fully confidential and will not be seen by anyone outside the Maritime Archaeology Trust and Historic England project team. This project is funded by Historic England.
 
Your contribution is enormously valued.  
 
All data received will be used only for research purposes, only anonymised data will be used in public reports. No information that could be used to identify any individual or organisation will be made publicly available.  
 
If you require further advice or information, please email lauren.tidbury@maritimearchaeologytrust.org
 

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* 1. Name (if you would prefer to complete the survey anonymously, please leave the name blank)

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* 2. Which of these best describe your involvement with Protected/Designated Wrecks?  (You can tick more than one if needed)

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* 3. Which Protected Wreck sites are you/have you been involved with? (You can tick more than one if needed)

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* 4. When were you involved with these Protected Wreck sites? (if multiple apply you can tick more than one box)

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* 5. What were your reasons for getting involved in Protected Wrecks?

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* 6. Have you had an active role in a Protected Wreck team?

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* 7. Have you been involved in the Protected Wreck Licencing Application and/or reporting Process?

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* 8. What was the gender composition of the Protected Wreck team/s or group/s you were involved with? (For example, if you dived a site under a visitor licence can you say how many in the group were female and how many male?)

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* 9. Please describe any barriers you have faced to involvement or continuing involvement in Protected Wrecks. (For example, particular attitudes from others involved, issues with time or funding, lack of opportunities, or unclear processes etc.)

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* 10. What do you think could make Protected Wreck involvement more rewarding?

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* 11. If you are not involved in Protected Wrecks, can you describe whether you would like to be and what would make this more appealing to be involved in?

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* 12. Can you outline any thoughts you have on gender-related issues or gaps impacting Protected Wreck involvement?

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* 13. Do you dive?

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* 14. Approximately how many dives have you done on UK Protected Wrecks?

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* 15. Do you have access to your own dive equipment?

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* 16. Are you a member of any diving organisations (BSAC branches, university dive clubs etc)?

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* 17. Have you undertaken any archaeological training? (this can include NAS courses, university courses etc)

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* 18. If you ticked yes to any of the above please add more information, such as the type of course and the name of the university or awarding organisation.

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* 19. Do you also contribute to other archaeological sites or projects either on land or underwater?

To assist with the project evaluation please can you provide the following (this is not mandatory)

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* 20. What is your Age Range

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* 21. What ethnic group do you identify with?

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* 22. Where are you based? (first part of your postcode)

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* 23. What Gender do you identify as?

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* 24. If you would be happy for us to contact you to discuss your experiences further please provide an email address that we can get in touch with you

Please press Submit once you are finished. Thank you for completing the survey, your contribution will help us to better understand the low levels of female involvement in PWs and analyse reasons for this and the potential impact this has, and is having, on engagement with and understanding of PWs.

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