{"id":24515,"date":"2018-03-05T08:35:16","date_gmt":"2018-03-05T16:35:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rei.com\/blog\/?p=24515"},"modified":"2021-06-03T14:51:29","modified_gmt":"2021-06-03T21:51:29","slug":"meet-4-women-who-broke-barriers-in-the-outdoors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rei.com\/blog\/social\/meet-4-women-who-broke-barriers-in-the-outdoors","title":{"rendered":"Meet 4 Women Who Broke Barriers in the Outdoors"},"content":{"rendered":"

Women have been a part of the great outdoors since the beginnings of humanity, even if history books aren\u2019t always filled with their names. For Women\u2019s History Month, we\u2019re taking a look at four women who reshaped the landscape of the great outdoors. Without them, we wouldn\u2019t be where we are today.<\/span>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

Clare Marie Hodges<\/b><\/h4>\n

In 1918, Clare paved the way for future generations when she was hired as the first female ranger for the National Park Service, serving at Yosemite National Park. She first visited Yosemite \u00a0at 14, riding <\/span>four days on horseback<\/span><\/a> to reach the valley. She couldn\u2019t stay away, returning to teach at the <\/span>Yosemite Valley School in 1916<\/span><\/a>. She was still teaching near the end of World War I, when <\/span>finding men to fill jobs<\/span><\/a> at home was challenging. Clare saw her chance. According to NPS, she approached the park superintendent and said, \u201cProbably, you\u2019ll laugh at me, but I want to be a ranger.\u201d He accepted her, and the rest is history. She spent the summer as a mounted ranger, patrolling the valley and remote areas of Yosemite. She also took gate receipts from Tuolumne Meadows to park headquarters, which involved an overnight ride on horseback. <\/span><\/p>\n

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NPS History Collection (HPC-001917)<\/p><\/div>\n

Emma \u201cGrandma\u201d Gatewood<\/b><\/h4>\n

One day in 1955, Grandma Gatewood told her family she was going for a walk. It turns out she was planning on hiking the entire 2,190 miles of the Appalachian Trail alone, to become the first woman to accomplish the feat. She was 67 and <\/span>hiked the trail in sneakers<\/span><\/a> with an Army blanket, raincoat and plastic shower curtain in a homemade denim bag that hung over one shoulder. She gained national attention during her hike, appearing in<\/span> Sports Illustrated and on the \u201cToday\u201d show. But finishing once wasn\u2019t enough. She hiked the AT again in 1957 and for a third time, in sections, in 1964, becoming the <\/span>first person to hike it three times<\/span><\/a>. In 1959, she walked from Independence, Missouri, to Portland, Oregon\u2014<\/span>2,000 miles in 95 days<\/span><\/a>. She also helped <\/span>establish the Buckeye Trail<\/span><\/a> in Ohio, leaving a 1,440-mile-long legacy.<\/span><\/p>\n

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By Stratness (Wikimedia Commons)<\/p><\/div>\n

Margaret \u201cMardy\u201d Murie<\/b><\/h4>\n

Known as the grandmother of the conservation movement, Mardy looms large in our collective memory. She was born in <\/span>1902 and raised in the Alaskan wilderness<\/span><\/a>. When she started college (later becoming the <\/span>first woman to graduate<\/span><\/a> from the University of Alaska), she met a scientist named Olaus Murie. They married on the banks of the Yukon River, solidifying their love of the wilderness. After they wed, they studied caribou on a <\/span>500-mile expedition<\/span><\/a> by steamship and dogsled. The couple then began conservation work, writing articles, giving lectures and fighting for legislation to protect wilderness areas. In <\/span>1956, they studied wildlife<\/span><\/a> in the Upper Sheenjek Valley, Alaska, and used their research to convince President Eisenhower to create the country\u2019s only conserved place that <\/span>encompasses an entire Arctic ecosystem<\/span><\/a>: the <\/span>Arctic National Wildlife Refuge<\/span><\/a>. Olaus <\/span>died in 1963<\/span><\/a> and Mardy took over his conservation work. For decades, the government and conservation groups relied on her. But her biggest moment came in 1975 when she joined a task force that traveled to Alaska to find land to be protected from economic development. She testified before Congress, which pushed President Carter to sign the <\/span>Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act<\/span><\/a> into law\u2014preserving <\/span>157,000,000 acres of land<\/span><\/a> and <\/span>tripling the size<\/span><\/a> of the wilderness system at the time. Although she died in 2003, her work continues on in the <\/span>Murie Center<\/span><\/a> nonprofit.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Photo of Olaus and Mardy. English, Edith; U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service – NCTC Archives\/Museum<\/p><\/div>\n

Dr. Carolyn Finney<\/b><\/h4>\n

Dr. Carolyn Finney, our modern-day historical figure, is changing minds, educating the country and serving on nonprofit boards. Dr. Finney grew up on a <\/span>12-acre estate<\/span> outside of New York City where her parents were caretakers of the property and the first people who taught her about conservation. In the late <\/span>‘<\/span>80s and early<\/span>\u00a0‘<\/span>90s, along with pursuing an acting career, she spent <\/span>the better part of five years backpacking<\/span> around the world and living in Nepal. She next went back to school after a 15-year break to get her master\u2019s in international development and then her doctorate in geography. She went on to teach about how <\/span>people interact with the environment<\/span> at the <\/span>University of California, Berkeley<\/span><\/a> before becoming an assistant professor of geography at the University of Kentucky. She served on the <\/span>National Park System Advisory Board and is now part of The Next 100 Coalition<\/a><\/span>. The Next 100 Coalition gathers the power of leaders in civil rights, environmental justice, conservation and communities to advocate for inclusive public lands. She also wrote the \u00a0book, <\/span>Black Faces, White Spaces<\/span><\/i><\/a>: Reimagining the Relationship of African Americans and the Great Outdoors<\/span><\/i>, which published in 2014.<\/span>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

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Photo courtesy of Dr. Carolyn Finney.<\/p><\/div>\n<\/span>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Women have been a part of the great outdoors since the beginnings of humanity, even if history books aren\u2019t always filled with their names. For Women\u2019s History Month, we\u2019re taking a look at four women who reshaped the landscape of the great outdoors. Without them, we wouldn\u2019t be where we are today. Clare Marie Hodges […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":24549,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[242],"tags":[726,1866,727,651,1010],"internal-tag":[],"class_list":["post-24515","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-social","tag-force-of-nature","tag-inclusion","tag-latest-posts","tag-women","tag-womens-history-month"],"parsely":{"version":"1.1.0","canonical_url":"https:\/\/rei.com\/blog\/social\/meet-4-women-who-broke-barriers-in-the-outdoors","smart_links":{"inbound":0,"outbound":0},"traffic_boost_suggestions_count":0,"meta":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","headline":"Meet 4 Women Who Broke Barriers in the Outdoors","url":"http:\/\/www.rei.com\/blog\/social\/meet-4-women-who-broke-barriers-in-the-outdoors","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"http:\/\/www.rei.com\/blog\/social\/meet-4-women-who-broke-barriers-in-the-outdoors"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.rei.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2018\/03\/4-women-hero.jpg?resize=150%2C150","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https:\/\/www.rei.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2018\/03\/4-women-hero.jpg?fit=3000%2C1286"},"articleSection":"Social","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Aer Parris-Hoshour"}],"creator":["Aer Parris-Hoshour"],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Uncommon Path \u2013 An REI Co-op Publication","logo":""},"keywords":["force of nature","inclusion","latest posts","women","women's history month"],"dateCreated":"2018-03-05T16:35:16Z","datePublished":"2018-03-05T16:35:16Z","dateModified":"2021-06-03T21:51:29Z"},"rendered":"