Empowering new voices in the outdoors - a series of workshops to educate, excite, and engage young women in outdoor recreation

Abstract

The discrepancy between participation levels of men and women in outdoor recreation is becoming well-documented. The goal of this honors thesis is to address this inequality by leading workshops that educate and empower young women to pursue outdoor adventure. Systemic issues such as sexism, lack of opportunity and fear of violence, as well as issues such as lack of representation of women in outdoor spaces, failure to include girls from a young age in adventure sports, and a disconnect in wilderness courses to address women-specific topics (e.g., menstruating in the outdoors) can be found in literature about this gender-gap in outdoor recreation. The three workshops addressed how to navigate snow sports, hygiene and menstruating in the wilderness, and how to plan a trip. By creating a safe-space to discuss previous obstacles, talking to women who have similar experiences, and taking before and after surveys of participants, the results of my honors thesis demonstrates that these workshops are an effective method to address the disparity between men and women in the outdoors that other communities can harness going forward.