This is the web version of Americanas, the EL PAÍS América newsletter in which it addresses news and ideas with a gender perspective. If you want to subscribe, you can do so. in this link.
Do you remember, when you were at school, what the playground was like? Do you remember where the girls were and where the boys were? Probably, the boys forcefully occupied the central space of the courts, while the girls were more on the margins, a little cornered, avoiding the balls and the roughness. How and what spaces can be inhabited seems to be something that society teaches women from a young age; it is not in vain that conquering the public with safety, being able to go out alone has been one of the great female struggles.
In this search to expand the limits that constrain what a woman can or cannot do, there has historically been a place that has been revealed to them as distant, impossible, insecure, far from their economic possibilities and, above all, dominated by the masculine: the space of travel. For centuries, men who traveled under the romantic label of the adventurer rarely encountered any female travelers in the 18th and 19th centuries. The few who did so ran the risk of “her reputation being diminished and showing a lack of modesty,” as Indian professor Sonia Khan recalls in your academic article about the female trip, where she also points out that despite traveling alone in their carriages, the women were not really alone: they were part of the elite and in the meantime they had an entourage of male assistants at their mercy.
The trip, according to tourism expert professor at the University of the State of Mexico, Marivel Mendoza, began to become popular among women after the 1970s and, in Mexico, almost a decade later. But despite being an activity that has always been presented as far from women’s possibilities, the most recent data shows that women are traveling alone more than ever in history.
By 2010, already the Harvard Business Review warned that the number of women traveling alone had increased by 230%. Solo travel was very popular among Europeans and North Americans, but over the years, this trend has also reached Latin women. According to company data Latam airin 2023, of the more than 31 million trips made by women in the group’s destination network, the majority (51%) were made alone.
“It seems that one of the many ways that women have been exercising their newfound financial and social autonomy over the past few decades is through travel. Thanks to tourism research, it was already known that women are the main decision-makers regarding family vacations, but women are also becoming active subjects in their consumption of other types of trips,” says Professor Mendoza. in research done with other colleagues published in the journal Steps‘Women who travel alone, the experience of Mexican tourists’.
In this research, we sought to recognize precisely what the experiences of women traveling alone in Mexico are. “We reviewed studies from other parts of the world, mainly Canadian, English, and Japanese women, and we found that practically no one was writing about this in Latin America. We wanted to know how Latin women experience it and we found 20 women whom we interviewed on social networks and websites. The sample is not representative, but it is indicative that, in Mexico, these women who set out to travel alone have high educational levels, economic independence, awareness of their rights and the conditions that they as women can claim,” explains the academic.
According to the literature collected for the research, the main reasons that encourage women to buy a plane ticket and go on a trip with themselves are: “The need to get out of their comfort zone to develop a sense of autonomy and individuality and prove themselves. to themselves. Many women discovered that traveling alone increased their independence, as they learned to manage their vicissitudes themselves and to be in charge of their own destiny, knowing that they could only rely on themselves.”
A trend only for digital nomads?
One might think that this explosion of solo travelers is nothing more than a phenomenon accentuated by the pandemic and the proliferation of digital nomads traveling the world, making millions of other women fantasize that they can live and work on a beach. But the reality is that the trend remains almost as strong when talking about elderly women. “There are many more women who travel alone than men among older adults,” says the Road Scholar, the world leader in educational travel for seniors. In its study published on November 15, 2023, it ensures that 85% of its solo travelers are women. The reasons for this trend are very diverse: almost half of women over 65 in the US are unaccompanied, there are many more widowed women than widowed men, and the divorce rate is highest among older Americans.
“In our interviews we have the case of an elderly woman, very independent, very brave, who we asked why she did not travel with her children and she told us: “I prefer to go alone, when I go with them I have to go to the family rhythm, when I go alone I can make my decisions. I try to stay in all-inclusive hotels so that I don’t have to go out much and have relative security,” says Professor Mendoza.
The expert assures that, at least in Mexico, the search for security is an identifiable pattern: “They travel alone, but take care of themselves, they try not to go out at night, not go to remote places, we even find pages with recommendations for ways to dress, not give evidence of being a tourist, and support networks. Women are encouraged, but taking precautions. There is a kind of geography of fear, women’s use of tourist space is still governed by a patriarchal system of fear, social control and judgment about appropriate female travel behavior,” she says.
In another segment where the increase in women traveling alone around the world can be seen is travel for work. “The increase in women traveling alone in Latin America for work reasons is increasingly evident among the hotels of the Marriott group,” explains Úrsula Gutiérrez, director of operations for the chain’s premium brands for Latin America. “On many occasions we are asked to reserve an entire floor exclusively for women due to the high demand from executives. The work travel audience was previously 95% men, but that has changed to a ratio of 60% men to 40% women and continues to grow. “We see more executive women traveling alone or even traveling with their son and a nanny,” says Gutiérrez, who assures that in places like Lima, Peru, other segments that have grown exponentially in hotels are trips between friends and 15-year celebrations that They change a stunning party for a trip.
For blogger Shelley Marmor, creator of the blog Travel Mexico Solo, the reason why thousands of women like her take more and more risks, despite constant warnings and persuasions to go on a trip alone, is because of the conquests they make by inhabiting the territory of the trip. “The journey brings you a deep sense of power and agency, it gives you the feeling of ‘I did it!’, because people assume you can’t do it. One of those things that you have to break down when you decide to do it is the perception that being alone as a woman is negative or risky.” Professor Maribel agrees: “After the trip they arrive confident and sure of what they are capable of achieving and doing. Just as other studies suggested, we were able to identify a certain level of empowerment after these trips, a strengthening of trust, to the point that there is recidivism. “Women see that they can, that they are capable, so they continue traveling.”
Our recommendations of the week
Thank you very much for joining us and see you next Monday! (If you have been sent this newsletter and you want to subscribe to receive it in your email, you can do it here).
Sign up for the EL PAÍS México newsletter for free and to whatsapp channel and receive all the key information on current events in this country.
Subscribe to continue reading
Read without limits
_
#whirlwind #women #traveling #world