Where are the women?

Sunday I watched a woman rip down the hill on her snowboard. Last weekend she was easily the strongest female snowboarder out there, but while she is indeed awesome, there just isn't much competition. Sitting in the chairlift with one of the many skilled men that ride out there, I started to wonder just why more women don't ski or snowboard.

Later that night I came here and read Joey's post in the forums:

And this is really a pattern with me, too. For as far as I can think back, I've had at least one really close guy friend, and more often than not, I was closer with that guy than I was with any of my girl friends. It's really only been very recently that I've formed really strong bonds with female friends.

She could easily have been speaking for me.

For me, these two things are connected. I spend a lot of time skiing, so much so that I don't see my friends much unless they come ski (or snowboard) with me. But the vast majority of skiers and snowboarders are men. SnowSports Industries America lists females as 37% of the skiing and 26.7% of the snowboarding population. No wonder it's hard to find women to ski with.

So why aren't women riding? The Ski Diva has a thread trying to answer that question but it doesn't address why women aren't drawn to the sport in the first place. Some of the more obvious answers -- the cold, the cost, the risk -- apply to men as well as women. What is it that's keeping women away from the snow?

Last night I called Ashley, the snowboarder I was watching on Sunday, to get her perspective. She immediately pointed out that a lot of women just don't want to fall down. Part of that goes back to not wanting to get hurt, but part of it is not wanting to fall down in front of men, such as the boyfriend who brought them out in the first place. She also suggested that many women don't see the need to push themselves, at least not in the ways skiing and snowboarding pushes us.

In my experience, both of those things have a lot of merit. I can't count the number of times I've found a terrified woman at the top of the hill with her frustrated partner a few feet down shouting up at her to just "Get aggressive!" Being pushed onto a hill far beyond your current level by someone with no teaching experience makes for some very unpleasant conditions. More than once I've given some quick instructions only to find the woman in question instantly calming down once the pressure to impress her partner was removed. Even so, I doubt a lot of those women want come back after such a harsh introduction to the sport.

Skiing and snowboarding are very much about what the body can do. Women are not pushed to think that way; instead we're expected to focus on what our bodies look like. Men have a societal expectation that they will push their bodies beyond their current limits, despite any discomfort or adverse conditions. Women are not routinely expected to do anything like that, so perhaps we don't demand it of ourselves. Skiing and snowboarding are very demanding on the body, especially in the beginning. I wonder if that shift is a difficult one for some women to make or if it's simply hard to create that habit when no one is supporting it?

And even when someone like Ashley or myself manages to bring a friend out (or more frequently, some guy convinces his girlfriend to try it), those women tend to regard riding as something to be done with friends, like going to the bar. In other words, they won't be back without a lot of prompting, even if they enjoyed it. I want to build friendship with women who love to ski just as much as I do, not with someone who regards it as a social obligation.

Another friend is gradually learning to snowboard. For her it's not a passion, but it's something she's been interested in doing for years. However, when she was a single mother she just didn't have the resources for both daycare and skiing. Even now that she's married, she doesn't have the necessary free time, nor can she afford the constraints an injury would impose, so she's going slowly, fitting snowboarding into the rare gaps in her schedule. Our society gives women the bulk of the domestic burden and I think that burden is reflected in the ratio of men to women we see skiing and by the number of women who find themselves sitting in the lodge with a book after putting together a ski outing for their families.

When I was a ski instructor, I frequently taught family group lessons; the kids usually picked things up quickly, with their dads struggling right alongside them. Mothers on the other hand, were often exhausted and exasperated before they even put their boots on. Some of those women broke into frustrated tears midway through the lesson: the stress of planning a trip, packing the requisite gear, ensuring that the rest of the family had what they needed, getting to the ski area and checked in, getting lift tickets, renting equipment, buying lessons – all of that had fallen on her shoulders with very little assistance from anyone else. Having to learn to ski too, with all the risk, fear, and vulnerability that goes with it, was sometimes just too much. In those instances, I think skiing became just one more unpleasant task to be accomplished instead of the exuberant fun it should be.

Meanwhile, the lack of women in these sports is definitely contributing to a raunch culture. I feel like one of the “loop-hole women” Ariel Levy mentions (Female Chauvinist Pigs, pg. 96); as long as I put my sense of humor ahead of my feminism I belong. If I start challenging sexist or homophobic remarks I'm obviously taking things too seriously and need to learn to take a joke. I can ski any way I want, but I need to act like one of the guys, or at least like a female chauvinist pig.

So how to change this rather dismal state? I think the feminist stand-bys of being visible, challenging sexist bullshit as we see it, and creating community are the best tools to start with. I'm one of the 37% of skiers with a vagina and I'm about as visible as it gets. The next step is actively working to involve other women and ensure that they feel there is a place for them, whether they're on skis or a snowboard. It would be nice to find more women to ski with and to be able to base a friendship off a mutual passion.

Female Chauvinist Pigs: Women and the Rise of Raunch Culture author: Ariel Levy asin: 0743284283