Women Climbers 1850–1900: A Challenge to Male Hegemony?

Abstract

Winner of the Richard W. Cox Postgraduate Prize at the 2012 British Society of Sports History annual conference.

Middle-class women journeyed in increasing numbers to the Alps during the last half of the nineteenth century; a substantial minority climbed. They have received little attention from cultural, social or sport historians. Where they have been referenced, women climbers were seen either as an addendum to their fathers' and brothers' expeditions, as atypical ‘new women’ or simply non-existent until the early twentieth century. This paper will refute these premises, highlighting the wide variety of levels with which women engaged in mountaineering, from first ascents of major summits over 4,000 metres to lower level walks. It demonstrates these middle-class women ignored contemporary medical advice to avoid strenuous exercise and challenges the notion that climbing and the high Alps were a uniquely male space.

Acknowledgments

Thanks are due to The Alpine Club for allowing access to many photographs, journals and fuhrebucher. In particular the Librarian Tadeusz Hudowski and archivist Glynn Hughes. I am also grateful to Peter Marshall for allowing use of the photograph in Figure 1.

Notes

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