German Woman Again Denied Gondolier Slot

Alexandra Hai, a 35 year old German filmmaker and long-time resident of Venice, has failed in her third bid to be the first person without gonads to guide a gondola, according to the Italian news bureau, ANSA (which incorrectly reports that she is an American).

For at least 1000 years, according to Nicole Martinelli of zoomata.com (in English), no woman has ever been allowed to enter the profession, tightly held by the 400-member Gondoliers' Association. The Association administers the test that admits new gondoliers, and despite years of practice and a bricklayer's physique, they have once again judged that Alexandra lacked that certain elusive quality that a good gondolier must have. She's been trying since 1999.

These kinds of gender exclusions aren't that rare in Venice. It was literally front page, sensational news a couple years ago when a woman waiter started working in a cafe in Piazza San Marco, until then, an all male bastion. I remember chatting about it with a young waiter at Caffè Florian. While he was telling me how he thought the whole thing was rather overblown, one of his grey-haired colleagues butted in and helpfully explained how the physical rigors were simply too much a young lady to handle. (Nevermind that there are scores of female waiters in Venice outside Piazza San Marco.)

Comments

[chris]

they should get a life! what a bunch of old male farts! Women always enhance the workplace, it's called ballance

[karan]

I don't think I'll lose much ssleep if Alexandra Hai never gets her gondolier's license but I am impressed that she is so determined.

I do want to point out that even women have gonads...we call them ovaries. Perhaps you meant to say that the physical attribute that Alexandra lacked was nads, stones, balls, testicles, goolies, etc...oh you guys have so many names for them.

[alan spencer]

Saw a story about Alexandra in Easy jet mag, I go to Venice often, there again in July, I am a photographer with work in a Venice gallery, I was looking forward to being a gondola customer and meeting Venice's 1st female gondolier, but thwarted by male chauvinists, scandalous, I still hope to meet her.,Alan Spencer
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I'll be there in July shooting with a Canon 5D and a Seitz Roundshot, mainly. Let's have a coffee.

N.

[lupey]

as a true (female) venetian, i agree that females should not lead a gondola. full stop.
it's a tradition. and it doesn't harm anyone. i don't really see the point. much publicised efforts from this foreign(!!)girl are just a way to remedy her hopeless frustration. get a life. pleeease.
And i don't really see how allowing this girl to wander canals can do domething for improving women equality.
bah.
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Hmmm. I'm not taking the bait. Thanks for your opinion.
It seems, though, that women are not actually being excluded, at least formally. It's just that no woman has yet passed the test.
N.

[Paris]

Thank goodness she failed! I do not go to Venice to see German transplants who fight to change other culture's traditions against their will. Oar on Gondoliers! Keep the intruders out!
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Foreign born gondoliers have existed for decades, possibly longer. It's the fact that she's a woman, not a German, that is causing the stir. A Venetian woman would cause the same drama.

N.