Feb 27, 2024
Women in the Wilderness: Celebrating 40 Years of Women's Trips
The year was 1984, Ronald Reagan was in the middle of his two-term presidency, the Cold War was raging, and Sandra Day O’Connor became the first woman appointed to the Supreme Court of the United States. Women around the nation were fighting to cement the gains made by the Women’s Movement in the 1960s and 1970s, amidst backlash and discrimination. With so much change in the wind, a few leaders saw the opportunity to grow the Outings program by leading the first Sierra Club backpacking trip exclusively for women.
While the Outings program was founded in 1901, only nine years after the creation of the Sierra Club, never had there been an Outing exclusively for women. Among the visionary leaders who pioneered the women’s trips at the Sierra Club were Letty French, Frances Reneau, Carol Dienger, and Carol Hake. When Letty and Frances proposed the idea of a women’s backpacking trip in the Sierras, they were met with some pushback. However, those in the Outings program who did not understand the reasoning behind the idea soon fell silent when the trips rapidly filled up and a second and third section had to be added to accommodate the demand.
Carol Dienger, one of the pioneers of women’s trips, asserts,
“There is something about women being able to help each other in a way that is very positive… [we] are able to encourage and lift each other up, and learn from each other in constructive ways.”
Martha Schultz, another leader involved in the early days of women’s trips, added that the women who attended “were all there to learn. They were all so supportive of each other. When you put men into the mix they tend to take over without even realizing what they are doing.” In the days when women backpacking, especially solo or without men present, was a rarity, these trips geared toward women taught vital backpacking and wilderness survival skills, and more importantly empowered the participants to see that backpacking is something well within their abilities. As Carol said, “If you don’t try something, you won’t find out how much fun it is and how much it can expand your horizons.” Our female leaders knew how important it was to teach fellow women wilderness skills and show them backpacking was well within their reach. However, they did not expect how transformative and life-changing these trips would turn out to be for the participants. Carol Dienger’s daughter, Jenny Moon, was raised attending Family Trips with Sierra Club and began staffing women’s beginner backpack trips in the early years. In 1986 Jenny and Martha led their first women’s backpack trip together and have since each been leading Sierra Club trips both in the States and abroad. In 2024 this “dream team” will reunite once again to lead the Moab Adventure for Women [24170A]. Ursula Glick-Kelley, a participant on Jenny and Martha’s 1986 trip, found the experience life-changing and it instilled a deep love of the wilderness. Ursula has now joined the Outings leadership team and will be leading Boots and Boats in Bend: A Women’s Multisport trip [24167A].
Over the past forty years, women’s trips have evolved and expanded to include service trips, lodge retreats, multisport adventures, and of course, backpacking excursions across the United States. The first trips were mostly beginner-friendly and an opportunity to learn new skills. While this continues to be the case, they also provide an opportunity to escape and relax in a beautiful environment without the burden of trip planning and preparation.