Topic of Choosing #3: Women on the AT

12/7/15

Women only make up about 20% of the Appalachian Trail hikers. Female involvement on the Appalachian Trail is often centered around overcoming fixed social barriers. Women have to deal with the established societal gender roles while out completing their treks. While these barriers are supposedly getting better with the coming age, the gender restraints largely affect the sojourn of the female hiker. Women that engage in the trail experience are often burdened with this prejudice effect. Many male hikers blog about female participation on the trail online, and express their discontent with women completing such long-distance trails. This kind of attitude towards women on the trail greatly affects the mindset of women when they think of engaging in the thru-hiking experience. Women often respond to these kind of posts online in an offended way, believing their rights as females have been demoralized. With many people upholding a discriminatory perspective towards the actions of women, it results in a great deal of discouragement amongst the female gender when it comes to engagement on the Appalachian Trail. The only way most women know how to deal with these assumptions is to go out on the trail and begin proving them wrong. In most cases, women decide to preservere and head out on the trail to start their journey, despite the opinions of others.