Excerpts from the home page of the Ladies Scottish Climbing Club:
At its first meeting in Edinburgh on 27 May 1908, a committee was appointed and a constitution agreed with the main aim to:' … bring together Ladies who are lovers of mountain-climbing, and to encourage mountaineering in Scotland, in winter as well as summer.'The ladies of the climbing club enjoyed all the trappings of their status that allowed them to indulge in such leisure activities. Married to lawyers, doctors and other middle-class professions, often with housekeepers and servants they had the leisure time to enjoy outdoor pursuits. A luxury relatively few Edwardian women had.
Video from the National Library of Scotland.
Also, a luxury very few men had in 1908. Most worked 12 hour days. Field work, factories, mines.
ReplyDeleteDid I post that before I corrected the lousy spelling?
ReplyDeleteMy friend John Middendorf https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Middendorf has been writing about women climbers: https://www.bigwallgear.com/p/representation-of-early-women-alpinists-457