Women Guides for Women Trekkers: Setting the stage

Appalachia, June 2003

EWN has evolved within the context of two large-scale trends. First, there is a growing recognition within the international development community that women play a central role in the use and management of Himalayan landscapes and that they must be centrally featured in any development schemes ( Byers and Sainju, 1994¹ ). Second, mountain tourism, especially trekking, plays a central role in Nepal’s highland economy, both in terms of foreign currency earnings and in days of employment for Nepali workers ( Banskota and Sharma, 1995² ).

These are some of the factors affecting the role of women in today’s trekking industry in Nepal:

• Men own or manage most of the trekking agencies located in Nepal.
• Men, as official heads of households, usually own the trekking lodges; but increasingly women manage the lodges, because men are migrating out for other jobs. This is particularly true in upper valleys, where families are of Tibetan ancestry.
• Government agencies, which are responsible for trekking permits and park management, tend to be staffed by educated men.
• Nepali women do serve as porters for trekking parties, but this work is more commonly done by men.
• Local vegetables are almost exclusively produced by mountain women and may be sold to lodges for use in preparing trekkers’ meals.
• Foreign tourists come to Nepal for the purpose of trekking, and many of these visitors are women. In recent years these women visitors have indicated a growing desire to trek in the company of Nepali women rather than men. This desire has given rise to a new, largely untapped market sector.
• Women have not traditionally worked as guides, but this is changing in some areas.

¹Byers, Elizabeth, and Meeta Sainju. 1994. “Mountain Ecosystems and Women: Opportunities for Sustainable Development and Conservation,” in Mountain Research and Development, Vol. 14, No. 3, pp. 213 – 28. University of California Press for the International Mountain Society and United Nations University.

²Banskota, K., and B. Sharma. 1995. “Mountain Tourism in Nepal: An Overview.” MEI Discussion Paper series 95/7, ICIMOD, Kathmandu.