Women and Glaciers: Changing Dynamics in Sport, Science and Climate Change

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Date

2014-06

Authors

Rushing, Jacyln R.

Journal Title

Journal ISSN

Volume Title

Publisher

University of Oregon

Abstract

Mountaineering became a popular, male-dominated, sport in the early 1800's, which both reflected and propagated Victorian gentlemanly ideals of exploration. manly vigor, and scientific discovery. Alpine exploration yielded the study of alpine glaciers, thus the history and heroic rhetoric that came from mountaineering shaped much of the culture of glaciology. Historically women have been discouraged from pursuing mountaineering and glaciology because of pervasive and problematic gender ideologies that held women as domestic, fragile, and non-scientific, on the one hand, and men as adventurous, tough, intelligent, and brave on the other hand. These ideas about women's and men's capabilities are still present and problematic in mountaineering and glaciology today. Despite the deeply engrained gender discrimination in these fields, women have consistently resisted the prejudiced gender dynamics and have successfully reached great heights both in altitude and in their fields even as women often continue to be a minority in some sports and in science. Today there is much debate about the minority of women in sport and science. Given their gendered and interrelated histories, further exploration of mountaineering and glaciology may help inform the current debates about gender in other areas of sport and science.

Description

48 pages. A thesis presented to the Department of Environmental Studies and the Clark Honors College of the University of Oregon in partial fulfillment of the requirements for degree of Bachelor of Arts, Spring 2014.

Keywords

Women and gender, Sports history, Science history, Climate change, Mountaineering, Glaciology

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