Equal Prize Money Is Great—But Only Half the Story
Plus, disordered eating and male athletes and a call for more female coaches
What I’m reading
American Running Needs More Female Coaches: U.S. women runners are on fire right now. Why are most of them coached by men? [Erin Strout for Outside]
This Women-Run Guide Service is Changing Himalayan Trekking in India: Because of her gender, no trekking agency in Ladakh would give Thinlas Chorol a chance. So she decided to create her own. [Marinel M. de Jesus for Backpacker]
Hilaree Nelson’s Brazen Attempt to Ski the World’s Hardest Line: If successful, Hilaree Nelson and Jim Morrison would become the first people to ski the fourth-highest mountain in the world on a route that’s eluded mountaineers for decades. [Julie Brown for Outside]
Let’s Talk About Disordered Eating and Male Athletes: Lifting the stigma on this complex topic. [David Roche for Trail Runner]
Free Solo’s Director Doesn’t Give a F**k About Climbing: Filmmaker Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi doesn’t climb, but her determination to shine a light on what drives extreme mountaineers produced two of the best adventure documentaries of the past decade. [Lisa Chase for Outside]
“Honouring High Places,” a Lifetime of Exploring Unforgiving Terrain: Though there are many lessons to take away from Tabei’s life, perhaps the most important is not just how and what she climbed, but also how and what she accomplished as a mountaineer when she wasn’t climbing. In 1969, she founded the aforementioned Ladies Climbing Club in Japan, and she later established other women’s outdoor groups as well. [Katherine Indermaur for Alpinist]
Equal Prize Money Is Great—But Only Half the Story: Two weeks ago, surfing became the latest sport to close the prize-money gender gap. So where does that put us on the greater path to equality in sports? [Kim Cross for Outside]
A Case for Dreaming Big: They say women only apply to jobs when they meet 9 or 10 out of 10 job requirements. Men, on the other hand, will apply with only 6. Running is no different. [Emma Murray for Trail Sisters]
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Other reads
Welcome, new readers! And thank you for subscribing. This is the section where I share something interesting I read that is outside of the outside industry. This week: “Kids Don’t Damage Women’s Careers — Men Do,” by Jessica Valenti, on the need to stop blaming motherhood for a problem created by fathers:
Women are told that we need to choose between our jobs or our children, or that we’ll spend our most productive work years “juggling” or performing a “balancing act.”
For those of us uninterested in circus tricks, a bit of perspective: It’s not actually motherhood or kids that derail women’s careers and personal ambitions — it’s men who refuse to do their fair share.
If fathers did the same kind of work at home that mothers have always done, women’s careers could flourish in ways we haven’t yet imagined. But to get there, we need to stop framing mothers’ workplace woes as an issue of “balance,” and start talking about how men’s domestic negligence makes it so hard for us to succeed.
Last but not least
Those of you who know me, know I’m Blair’s biggest fan. This is why:
Jeff Sharlet (the dog) has asked me to inform y’all of a medical condition he has. Apparently, if you pay too much attention to other dogs and not to him, he might DIE. pic.twitter.com/0aCCQCbTnn
September 14, 2018