Rachel Gottfried

UWRT 1102
Prof. Intawiwat
April 25, 2016

Adventure in Women
A popular adventurer in todays society is Chris McCandless. Although he died on his
quest, he has inspired millions around the world to seek out their own adventure. The story of
Chris is a wonderful, sad, and inspiring story. After graduating from college, he gave all his
money to charity and left California in his old car to Alaska. He was gone for about a month
until his family noticed he was gone. They had no
idea why he left, but Chris knew that he needed to
find his passion in life, the only way he knew how.
People go on adventures for many reasons, but for

"The very basic core of a man's living spirit is his

passion for adventure. The joy of life comes from
our encounters with new experience."

Chris, regular life wasnt enough for him. He truly

felt there was more to life than money, school, and a
job. He traveled the North-West of the United States, meeting wonderful people and building
relationships. When he finally went to Alaska, his dream place, he died of starvation. When
Chriss body was found, his story went viral. His family was heartbroken, but they finally knew
where he had been. Chriss sister believes that family troubles are what sparked Chriss need for
adventure. Family troubles, the need to escape from society, and the yearning to see more of the
world are some of the reasons Chris left, but there are many reasons why others seek adventure
as well.
CNNs Brigid Delaney explains adventure well: adventure comes to those who seek it.
Many of us like to live through other peoples adventures because we feel we are unfit or dont
have the money. In reality, its completely opposite. Adventure simply comes to those who seek
it. If we want to go on an adventure all we have to do is make it happen and we may be
surprised on how much we can benefit from it. Psychologists have found that adventures can
teach resilience, help to cope with adversity, increase risk-taking, sharpen judgments, and most
importantly, give you excitement and confidence about yourself and your abilities. Many times

we push off our longing for adventure, but we need to be cautious about doing that. A large
amount of people wake up in their later lives wishing and longing for adventure and instead of
booking that plane ticket, we simply pull out a book about daring adventures. Why do we push
our desires away? Why do we push something beautiful, fun, and helpful away? Most people do
because of fear; we as humans do not like to be out of our comfort zones. Outside that comfort
zone is where all the learning and beauty is. Delaney found that women in their forties are the
leading change towards adventure making up fifty-two percent of travelers worldwide. Who
would have thought women would be the leading gender to travel with all the dangers of todays
society? Throughout history, adventure has been male dominate, continuously pushing women
away from traveling and adventure. From Delaneys findings, women seem to be pushing always
this stereotype.
It seems that history has always been about gender roles and as May Carter says, the
perceived need to fit societies gender roles that women dont do adventure recreation because
they have been taught that they cant do them. As time goes on, more and more women have
been pushing away this label and have begun working and participating in adventure recreation.
May Carter and Sue Colyer did a study with ten women working in adventure recreation in
Australia. They studied the women's experiences in a male dominated workforce. Many women
that enter a male workforce end up adopting the male identified position to survive, but even
then most of the women in this study felt their skills were underestimated and underutilized. The
study found that the ten women experienced challenges of stereotypical appropriate feminine
behavior in adventure recreation and that people were surprised at their physical and leadership
abilities. It is strange that even in todays society women are not seen as capable as men to do
adventure recreation. Women are frowned upon and not trusted as much as men to do these
types of jobs or to go on their own adventures simply because of their gender. Yes, men and
women have stark differences in physical ability, but women are just as capable as men of doing
adventure activities.
Although women are more unlikely to go on their own adventure due to the expectations
and stereotypes put on them by society, womens experiences in adventure recreation tend to
have positive impacts on them. Donna Little completed a study to find out what adventure
meant for women. She found that the womens responses focused on their wanting to search and

participate in something new; when they were in a new situation it was an adventure. Even when
the adventure was dangerous, the women were able to put fear aside and focus on their abilities.
If the challenge was too much, they
would change it to fit their abilities.
Adventure created a new sense of
confidence, learning, and newness in
the women that encouraged them to

Adventure is any activity which involves exploration,

both emotional and physical. Both involve an element of
surprise and newness.
-Clarise, 60; in response to Littles experiment

do more and to make the most of

themselves.
We know that adventure
benefits women tremendously, but if
women dont know it will help them,
what causes them to start the
adventure? Studies show that women also tend to travel solo, but why? Is the feeling of
adventure stronger when traveling alone? Studies show that middle-class women have the time,
finances and the social groups to travel, but for any woman, traveling alone is a scary adventure.
Although scary, the yearning for adventure seems to win out. Chu-Yin Chiang and Giri
Jogaratnam conducted a study to find the main reasons women go on adventures. They found
that women are motivated to travel for five reasons: experience, escape, relax, social, and selfesteem. The experience is the number one motivation since it offers the chance to learn and see
new things. The escape motivation was the second most important to women who travel because
of their need to escape. Relaxation, social and self-esteem caused the least amount of
motivation for women travelers. Women were not as interested in these things because they were
interested in exploring their surroundings.
One woman that has dedicated her life to exploring her surroundings is Jacki HillMurphy. Her first trip was taken in 1988 when she crossed Africa through the Sahara Desert.
She has not stopped traveling since. In a Podcast by ToughGirl, Jacki mentions how she is
always excited to go into a new world and that has been what has motivated her adventures.
She loves making relationships and learning the culture of each place. To her, its not just about
going to a place, its about learning the place and staying long enough to truly know it. Jacki

knows first-hand how much

adventures can change a person. She
mentioned how incredibly much she
learns about herself on each adventure
and she encourages other women go
out and do the same. She also finds it
strange that many people dont know
about famous women explorers that
were amazing on their adventures. You have to deeply research them because they are unknown.
Jacki is trying to change that by writing books about these incredible journeys alongside her
own. Her hope is that their stories will encourage women to take their own adventure. She
believes that adventure gives you strength of character and that every woman needs that
experience.
Adventure is good for everyone for it brings joy and learning to life that everyone needs.
Women have a harder time creating their own adventure because of the stereotypes of women in
todays society. Even with these struggles, women have taken it upon themselves to go on their
own adventures. Most women travel simply for the experience and for the yearning to escape
from everyday life. Women benefit greatly from going on adventures, from increased selfconfidence to simply learning about yourself and the world, there are no negatives. People such
as Jacki Hill-Murphy can testify that adventures are life changing experiences, and everyone can
go on them. As long as you are stepping out of your comfort zone, you are being adventurous.
This keeps you young, happy, and always learning about yourself, because we are always
changing and we should always be trying to better ourselves.

Works Cited
Brigid Delaney. "The Spirit of...Adventure." CNN. Cable News Network, 19 Dec. 2008. Web. 04
Apr. 2016.
Carter, May, and Sue Colyer. "Feminising the Outdoors: Women and Adventure Recreation
Leadership." Annals of Leisure Research 2.1 (1999): 73-86. Web. 19 Apr. 2016.
Chiang, Chu-Yin, and Giri Jogaratnam. "Why Do Women Travel Solo for Purposes of Leisure?"
Journal of Vacation Marketing 12.1 (2006): 59-70. Sage Journals. Web. 19 Apr. 2016.
Donna Little. "How Do Women Construct Adventure Recreation in Their Lives?" Taylor &
Francis. N.p., 6 Aug. 2007. Web. 04 Apr. 2016.
Hill-Murphy, Jacki. "Traveling the World following in the Footsteps of Early Female Explorers."
Interview. Audio blog post. Tough Girl Challenges. N.p., 19 Apr. 2016. Web. 19 Apr.
2016.
Krakauer, Jon. Into the Wild. New York: Anchor, 1997. Print.