Print

Email story

Comment

Email editor

Women at the helm of carnival workers

Females in leadership roles is nothing new, they say. What's new is that they hold the top three positions.

By S.I. ROSENBAUM
Published March 24, 2006

They call it the Showmen's Association, but now - for the first time - it's run by women.

Last month, Shelby Royal, Karen Arnold, and Dee Dee Starkey were installed as the top three officers of the International Independent Showmen's Association.

"We're making history," said Karen Arnold, the first vice president.

The trade association for carnival workers has had female presidents before, as far back as 1980. But this is the first time women have held all three of the top positions.

On the other hand, Arnold said, "It's not that big a deal." In the hardscrabble carnival industry, there's never been room for sexism.

"For as long as I can remember, my mother and father did equal work," said Arnold, who grew up in the business.

"Listening to the stories of my grandmother, I think it was probably the same way back then, too."

Often, she said, husbands and wives would work as a team.

Royal, the new president, also grew up in an old carny family.

"The women are just as important as the men," she said.

Making a living on the road takes everyone pulling together, she said - which leads to a mutual respect between the sexes.

"Our men are all pretty level-headed, because they need those women to run those food stands," she said.

"They are very kind to us women, because we're the ones who order the sausage."

Starkey, the second vice president, is the only one who didn't grow up in a carnival family. Instead, she married into it.

Entering the carnival world in the 1970s, she said, she found that women were treated differently from what she was used to. "It's just a different way of life," she said.

"The women out on the road worked just as hard as the men do. There was a place for all of us out there."

When she worked at other jobs, she said, she felt like she was at a dead end.

"When you're out in the road, you know if you work harder, you're getting somewhere," she said.

"You earn your own respect out there."

The three women have been friends for years, and they've all had brothers, husbands or fathers hold top positions in the association.

"Us women have all paid our dues at the club," Starkey said.

Her husband was president before her. But she said it feels different to be in charge herself.

"Then it was him that got the phone calls, and now it's me," she said.

Royal will hold the president's chair until next February, when the position will fall to Arnold.

The following year, it will be Starkey's turn.

Already, Royal said, their husbands have started to joke about the "First Wives' Club."

It's a sentiment that leads Starkey to play on the old saw about the strong woman behind every great man.

"We may be women," she said, "but we have strong men behind us to support us."

S.I. Rosenbaum can be reached at 661-2442 or srosenbaum@sptimes.com.

[Last modified March 24, 2006, 11:10:18]