Gender and the Sportification of Mountaineering: Case Studies

Abstract

The topic of this article is the history of mountaineering using the concepts of gender and “sportification” as theoretical frameworks. Mountains have been and in many regions of the world still are deserted areas which may be accessed by hunters or used in the valleys for goat and sheep framing. People who had to cross them used, as far as possible, the valleys. These attitudes and practices changed in the second half of the 19th century when climbing developed as a sport and when increasing numbers of male “alpinists” competed for first ascents. As this sport was difficult, strenuous and dangerous, mountains were considered as “playing grounds” of men. However, there were some female mountaineers who accompanied men or even climbed with other women. A specific focus of this article will be on the women who, in the true sense of the term, conquered new grounds countering gender stereotypes and the femininity ideals of the 19th and 20th centuries.