Although the Scottish Outdoor Access Code promises to empower everyone to enjoy nature, access is influenced by complex socio-cultural and structural factors. Neither access nor benefits of participation in outdoor leisure are consistently realised for all socio-demographic groups (Outdoors for All, 2015). One group identified to access nature-based activities comparatively less, and being more likely to experience decreased enjoyment of nature due to various constraints are women (Mental Health Foundation Scotland, 2021; Paths for All, 2019).
My research highlights women’s experiences of hiking, which research has shown to be gendered in access, representation and experience (Stanley, 2020). I follow stories of motivators and support, constraints on- and off-trail, negotiations and the changes in practices and experiences that are engendered by these (McAnirlin & Maddox, 2020). In this ongoing research, I seek out the voices of both women who hike and women who wish to but do not using walking and sedentary interviews (Witte, 2021).
Initial findings portray dynamically constructed, at times unstable, frequently fragmented constructions of women’s hiking mobilities in Scotland. Through the lens of gender as ‘situated, embodied communicative praxis’ (Schrag, 1986), I employ women hikers’ stories of leisure (im)mobilities, to accentuate tangible and intangible constraints (Urry, 2007) that operate in gendered ways, and foreground diverse ways women accommodate, negotiate, and resist these. Situated by participants within various intra- and interpersonal relations alternatively providing or restricting space for agency (Benschop, 2009), I also map the contested constructions of constraints, enablers and negotiations among the women included in this research.
Citation
Witte, A. (2025, August). Hiking on Uneven Ground: Women’s Negotiations of Access and Inclusion in Scotland. Presented at Royal Geographical Society International Conference, Birmingham
Presentation Conference Type
Presentation / Talk
Conference Name
Royal Geographical Society International Conference
