There is greater gender equality in mountaineering research

ABSTRACT

It is well known that reflections on gender identity in tourism studies are important and that gender influences research. However, the situation is unclear in a male-dominated activity such as mountaineering. By using a systematic review, this research note aims to identify and analyse the gender of authors who are working on mountaineering tourism issues. A literature review was conducted using the Web of Science search engine. Of 866 papers identified, 42 met the inclusion criteria and belonged to the category of ‘Hospitality Leisure Sport Tourism’. Overall, although femininity is limited in mountaineering and the number of women who participate in this kind of tourism is small, in the world of mountaineering science, women occupy a similar position as men do. In doing so, they challenge the traditional gender discourse in mountaineering activities and, thus, hegemonic ideas about gender and equality.

KEYWORDS:

• Gender relations
• mountaineering
• tourism research
• women

Acknowledgements

The author would like to thank two anonymous reviewers for their valuable contributions to improve the manuscript.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

Funds for this work were provided by the Pedagogical University of Krakow (Poland).