Women and Rock Cliimbing

1
Charlene Evangelista

• Women and Rock Climbing

• Leisure Activity Project

2
A Historical Perspective

• Climbing has been around since the early 1800s
• The first climbers recorded were men who hardly
  spoke about their female counterparts that
  accompanied them on their climbs because it
  didnt seem masculine to write of the women
  climbers
• At the turn of the century, men brought climbing
  into popularity and it became more common
• By the 1920's, climbing became a social event
  where women were drinking alcohol, smoking
  cigarettes and rock climbing
• In the 1930's and 1940's the women in climbing
  was still rare and most had been introduced to
  the climbing by their boyfriends or husbands
• In the early 1970's Bev Johnson was a strong
  female force, as she was the first female on the
  Yosemite Rescue Team
• The 1980s were a time of increase in the number
  of women climbing and many of these women were
  leading routes, making all-female ascents of
  mountains, and pushing beyond the levels of
  difficulty previously achieved by the pioneers of
  female rock climbers
• Moving into the 1990's and the present, Lynn
  Hill became the first woman to redpoint .14 in
  1990 in France 

3
A Current Perspective

• Increasing female athleticism represents a
  genuine quest by women for equality, control of
  their own bodies, and self-definition, and as
  such represents a challenge to the ideological
  basis of male domination
• Today, women climbers are still pushing into new
  levels of achievement and the performance
  difference between men and women climbers has
  been steadily decreasing
• Although the actual number of people climbing,
  and the gender breakdown of the climbing
  community is extremely difficult to obtain, the
  number of women climbers is higher than ever and
  their performance levels will certainly continue
  to progress
• Taking a look at the past two hundred years, one
  can see how climbing has drastically changed
  Women pushed their limits, set records of their
  own and opened doors to the women who have taken
  the opportunity to rock climb

4
Current Issues

• Climbing magazine is a leader in the rock
  climbing and mountaineering media and reaches the
  largest audience in the climbing community. The
  way that female climbers are represented in
  Climbing magazine is important because other
  climbing media may potentially follow this
  leading publication and because Climbing magazine
• In a recent study by Vodden-McKay and Schell,
  they analyzed representations of women rock
  climbers in Climbing magazine and explored the
  possible effects such representations may have on
  women rock climbers and the climbing community
• Of 421 feature articles analyzed, 13 (3) were
  dedicated to women climbers and the first feature
  article about a female climber appeared in 1991
• With regard to photographs, of the 114 issues,
  18 (16) female climbers appeared on the cover
  page, 16 (14) were shown in the Gallery
  section, and 14 (12) appeared on the table of
  contents page
• In the textual analysis of the 13 feature
  articles, the foreground against which the
  narrative was present is the fact that rock
  climbing is a male dominated sport
• Eight out of the 13 feature articles mentioned
  the climbers romantic relationships with men or
  raising their children thus emphasizing their
  heterosexuality
• Through emphasizing the womens heterosexuality
  as wife, mother, or girlfriend, highlighting
  their physical appearances, and infantilizing the
  female rock climber, the female climbers were
  pulled back into patriarchal ideals of proper
  feminine behavior

5
Historical Changes in Womens Rock Climbing
Participation

• As with many athletic endeavors, rock climbing
  and mountaineering are often thought to be unfit
  for female participation as many believe that
  women do not possess the requirements of physical
  strength or mental fortitude to participate in
  such a demanding and dangerous undertaking
• There have been increases in womens
  participation but it is hindered by the
  assumption that men are better built to withstand
  rock climbing
• In a study,  39 world-class climbers (21 males,
  18 females) were assessed immediately prior to
  competition at an international World Cup sport
  climbing championship
• Values for the height-weight ratio and sum of
  seven skinfolds in the female finalists were very
  near those of the male finalists, which may
  indicate that reduction of body mass and percent
  fat are primary adaptations in these female
  athletes and females can be just as adapted to
  rock climbing as men 
• Women bear possible fears of not being
  physically fit enough to participate or being
  unladylike, which hinders leisure participation
• At the same time women have broken the societal
  boundaries of what is traditionally male and have
  dominated in rock climbing

6
Traditional Ideals

• The fact that rock climbing is a traditionally
  male sport relates back to the crisis of
  masculinity
• Due to a loss of masculine identification during
  the 19th century shift from an agricultural
  lifestyle to one of industrialization and
  urbanization, men dealt with this crisis of
  masculinity through sports
• Men felt they were able to reclaim their
  masculinity through sports and physical activity
  because it was lost in their home and work life
• Victorian men disciplined themselves through
  strict physical exercise while men outside the
  middle class took a more informal approach to
  sports
• Sport has developed as a male preserve, a domain
  in which men expressed and cultivated masculinity
  through athletic competition
• Rock climbing is an activity that fits in with
  the male claim to masculinity

7
Rock Climbing and the Victorian Ideal

• Throughout many historical periods, women have
  been perceived as the weaker sex and it was
  believed to make "running, throwing, striking,
  and climbing activities more difficult for her
  than the typical man
• Women were believed to be physically and
  biologically incapable of participating in
  physical activity and sport and girls were
  instead usually confined to the house and not
  allowed to run, jump, and play actively because
  the emotional strain of physical leisure
  experiences would be injurious to the mental
  well-being of women
• In a study performed by Watson and Pulford, test
  scores suggested that people who are attracted to
  high risk sports tend to be at the extroverted
  and emotionally stable end of the scale, with a
  tendency to exhibit Type A characteristics which
  conflict with the Victorian ideal of soft-spoken
  women
• Such conflicts between the cultural and social
  ideals of a woman and rock climbing suggest the
  male domination of the sport
• Women may not participate in rock climbing
  because their idea of their body image may lead
  to restraints in leisure participation

Me climbing ?
8
Personal Challenges

• We we were all apprehensive at first
• ? Me climbing and reaching the top

• I had participated in rock climbing five years
  ago, but have not participated until now due to
  fears of how I would appear to others, the fear
  that I would fall, the fear of being high off the
  ground, and the fear of harming myself
• While rock climbing, I felt slightly anxious and
  out of control of the situation when I reached
  the top
• I challenged myself to push myself to make it to
  the top and pushed myself to continue trying
  other walls
• In a study, The Competitive State Anxiety
  Inventory-2 and the Positive and Negative Affect
  Schedule were administered to all climbers just
  before a competition. Analysis indicated that the
  mean Negative Affect score of women climbers
  before the difficult competition was higher than
  the mean Negative Affect scores of men before the
  competition, which points to the fact women are
  generally more anxious before rock climbing
• A qualitative study of a community of rock
  climbers indicated that self-determination was an
  important element that determined satisfaction
  within the rock climbing experience, particularly
  for women climbers, which points to the
  importance of determination when rock climbing

9
Personal Insights

• I realized that I was able to push myself to
  participate in more rock climbing than I thought
  I was capable of
• Although there are many stereotypes about the
  abilities of females to participate in male
  oriented sports, it can be done just as well as
  men, and I even saw young girls rock climbing
• Rock climbing builds trust between you and your
  partner, and is a great bonding experience as
  seen from the families participating

10
Rock Climb Again?

• I would definitely go rock climbing again
  because it was rewarding to meet a personal goal
  of reaching the top
• It was definitely a bonding experience with my
  sorority sisters because we all were successful
  in reaching the top and overcoming our fears
• In addition, findings suggest that a climbing
  program with higher volume of meters climbed can
  influence grip strength, upper body muscular
  endurance and the amount of relative body
  cellular mass
• In a study it was found that indoor rock
  climbing is a good activity to increase
  cardiorespiratory fitness and muscular endurance
• Overall rock climbing is a fun and challenging
  way to get exercise and build endurance

11
References

• Baláš, Jirí, Barbora Strejcová, Tomáas Malý,
  Lucia Malá, and Andrew J. Martin. Changes In
  Upper Body Strength and Body Composition After 8
  Weeks Indoor Climbing In Youth." 2009. Web. 18
  Feb. 2011.
• Cahn, Susan K. "The New Type Of Athletic Girl."
  Coming on Strong Gender and Sexuality in
  Twentieth-century Women's Sport. New York Free,
  1994. 7-30.
• Freysinger, Valeria J., and Susan M. Shaw. "Many
  Voices Historical Perspectives on Women's
  Leisure." Both Gains and Gaps Feminist
  Perspectives on Women's Leisure. By Karla A.
  Henderson. Venture. 27-68. Print.
• Hulya Asci, F., Giyasettin Demirhan, Canan Koca,
  and S. Cem Dinc. "Precompetitive Anxiety and
  Affective State of Climbers In Indoor Climbing
  Competition." SPORTDiscus. Apr. 2006. Web. 18
  Feb. 2011.
• Kiewa, Jackie. "Control Over Self and Space in
  Rockclimbing." SPORTDiscus. 2001. Web. 18 Feb.
  2011.
• Mermier, C.M, R.A. Robergs, S.M. McMinn, and V.H.
  Heyward. "Energy Expenditure and Physiological
  Responses During Indoor Rock Climbing."
  SPORTDiscus. Sept. 1997. Web. 18 Feb. 2011.
• "Petticoats and Harnesses Women in The History
  of Climbing." Women Climbing. Web. 18 Feb. 2011.
  lthttp//www.womenclimbing.com/climb/essay.htmlgt.
• Vodden-McKay, Sarah, and Lea Ann Schell.
  "Climbing High or Falling Flat? Representations
  of Female Rock Climbers in Climbing Magazine
  (1991-2004)." Journal of Research on Women and
  Gender (2010) 136-51. Print.
• Watson, Alison E., and Briony D. Pulford.
  "Personality Difference In High Risk Sports
  Amateurs and Instructors." SPORTDiscus. Aug.
  2004. Web. 18 Feb. 2011.
• Watts, P.B., D.T. Martin, and S. Durtschi.
  "Anthropometric Profiles of Elite Male and Female
  Competitive Sport Rock Climbers." SPORTDiscus.
  Apr. 1993. Web. 18 Feb. 2011.

12
Images

• http//ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/61HVEPSX5ML.
  _SS500_.jpg
• http//www.climbing.com/photo/image/1990covers/cli
  mbing-magazine-120.jpg
• http//kazrat.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/rock-
  climbing.jpg
• http//www.climbandmore.com/upload/Image/training/
  Lynn_Hill.jpg
• http//www.sportsposterwarehouse.com/catImages/roc
  kclimbdetermination07pp-1.jpg