Travel Abroad Safely For Women

Recently, Michael Huxley, founder of Bemused Backpacker, wrote an article entitled Why I Hate The Term Solo Female Backpacker.  It reminded me of the posts we published here by GeoVisions teacher in Thailand, Carla Gott.  Carla pinned 3 posts for us on teaching in Thailand as a woman ... the safety, health, packing and living solo aspects.

You can read Part I, Part II and Part III of Carla's posts here.  We also have 8 posts tagged with Travel Safety, that you may find interesting.

As Mr. Huxley points out in his post, "...it is just as safe for women to travel independently as it is for any man, and any stereotype or assumption that states that isn't true, is in my opinion, wrong."  We found that in Ms. Gott's posts for us on women teaching in Thailand and living alone.  With a few mindful precautions, it is very safe for women traveling independently.

I chose Mr. Huxley's post to share with our subscribers because of this quote: "The prevailing wisdom is that somehow just because they happen to be female the fact that they have dared to go it alone and travel the world somehow elevates them above the norm, somehow makes them braver and stronger than everyone else. Of course it is much more difficult for women to travel isn't it? So of course women have to be braver and stronger than men to conquer that mountain.

That is absolute rubbish."

It is exactly what Ms. Gott had to say in her posts.

Did you know that although 50% of the jobs in the United States are held by women, at GeoVisions 75% of our participants are women?  It says a great deal about women, travel, going abroad.  90% of our programs are solo programs.  In other words, everyday we see women of all ages and walks of life come in, take on a program they really want to do, go abroad and make it highly successful, and return to encourage others to do the same.

Mr. Huxley obviously see's the same thing:  "Perpetuating the ideology that it is dangerous for women to travel independently and alone does absolutely nothing to normalize the fact that women are perfectly capable of traveling independently and safely."

What do you think?  If you're a female traveler, what are your experiences?