UKC

I have been climbing for over 30 years, I often read over my old climbing guides and look at routes on UKC, I am always bewildered that there are no first ascents by female climbers.

There are some, but why are you bewildered? We live in a still very gendered society (one where questioning a gender binary seems to enrage many), and a society where women still live with institutionalized sexism along with more casual sexism and misogyny.  I believe there is still one climbing club that doesn't accept female members? But even if that is not the case now, it wasn't abnormal 40 years ago which reflects the culture then, and cultures don't change that quickly quite often. Within a hobby-subculture there isn't going to be the financial incentives to challenge unfair treatment of certain groups as there is in the worlds of business and employment. It might be relatively straightforward to legislate for equal pay and against gender discrimination when it comes to jobs we do, but harder to legislate to make all climbers have equal numbers of male and female climbing partners! 

Not as many as men, in part at least, for the reasons Toby outlines but there are plenty of female first ascents. There was a fairly recent thread about hard female first ascents if you want to check that out.

Edit: here you go   https://www.ukclimbing.com/forums/rock_talk/hardest_uk_first_ascents_by_wom...?

I think there are 4 single gender clubs, 3 women only, The Pinnacle who I hold in the highest esteem, and iirc 2 Scottish women's, and the Outdoor lads.

It is interesting, I know and have climbed with many women who are better climbers than me but I am not sure how many have done first ascents. Possibly it is an ego thing, I have done some first ascents onsight, and in a funny way, wish I never named them. The experience was amazing*, but the naming was an ego thing. Possibly women not having such such strong egos, do not claim them. I truly belive that women are the superior gender, they probably laugh at all the male FAs, as they soloed them the week before, but kept it quiet, so the weaker sex could have their moment of glory.

*Onsight climbing is the absolute best IMHO, it's easy just go to a new to you crag, with no guide, and climb a line you fancy.

Hannah Burrows-Smith, Di Gilbert, Louise Thomas, Libby Peter, Glenda Huxter... will have several first ascents and certainly first female ascents. 

Or Gwen Moffat if you go back a generation. 

Oh, did you mean that, a first ascent is a first ascent, it's the uncertainty of outcome that makes it special, not the gender.

The names I just Iisted have done more than their fair share of adventurous uncertain outcomes climbing in some remote places. Their climbing CVs would put almost any person, male or female, in a small niche group. 

Absolutley but the thread is about First Ascents, the grade is actually irrelevant.

I guess Emma Alsford will have done a load in Morocco?, but eg, a lot of new routing of all sorts of grades was done for the slew of recent FRCC guides, Dow, Duddon, Eskdale, Slate and Sport, routes of all grades, how many of the first ascents are by women?

The OP, has asked an interesting question.  I note a lot of dislikes, but no one has come up with a list of routes first ascended by women.

There you go, set up a UKC ticklist of female first ascents.

There are a good number of ascents in the Alps and other more remote places, where there are presumably, possible sexual partners, both named as first ascensionists. I seem to remember that in Scotland too there are classic routes such as those on Rannoch Wall, where both partners are named as doing the first ascent.

I've at long last, just started reading "Climbing Days", by Dorothy Pilley; and so far it seems that her exploits in the early days of the 20th century are reasonably, though not entirely equally, level with her male friends in doing new routes (on Lliwedd for instance).

How do you know if they are female? In the case of CC guides there are just initials, you can only know their gender if you know the  person.

Winspit  Sea Walls  Winspit is an unusual crag  in that five females made their first, First Ascent at the crag, a trad sea cliff.

Plenty of sociological reasons, as discussed already, which should not be easily dismissed.

But there's also simple demographics. For the vast majority of time that climbing in the UK has been developing, the number of women participants has been tiny compared to the number of men. Then there's climbing standard: until very recently it was rare to see women at a crag operating at the same level as even the best men at that crag, never mind the best men generally. And most notable new routes are near the harder end of what's possible at the time, which in the past has excluded all but a tiny number of women. Which leaves new routes which aren't cutting edge but which require a keen sense of exploration and discovery. Here again there may be sociological and/or psychological factors at play, but again the opportunities to be found will inevitably be limited to climbs of an achievable standard, which until recently has been considerably lower for most women.

What will be interesting is to see whether the proportion of female first ascentionists grows now that there are so many women operating at or near the top physical levels possible.

John Arran gave a good answer above. I agree that the difference is striking when you flick through guidebooks. It probably boils down to participation levels through the years and a fundamental difference in the male/female psyche reflecting the desire or lack thereof to leave one's mark, be the first to do something etc.

If you just look at popular crags then the answer makes sense as the routes developed get more difficult over time, and the first people to climb them are often going to be the best climbers about at any given time. 

Some names might pop up in this fascinating older thread:

https://www.ukclimbing.com/forums/rock_talk/ukc_hive_mind_female_mountain_r...

Why here?

Was there a particular club or group or perhaps university nearby.

It has been mentioned that women were not at the leading edge of climbing, but an awful lot of men have done first ascents in the last 20 years not at the leading edge, so that cannot be the complete story. I wonder if it is something with not much appeal to Women, I have always thought the naming and claiming of routes possibly has something to do with Ego, is ego more of a man thing?

Has Angela Soper done any or many first ascents, she certainly has the talent, and was around at time of great opportunity.

Clare Sheridan has tons (hundreds maybe) of new routes to her name in Ireland. 

LMH (Graig Fawr Rib) in Cwm Silyn was first climbed by a female rope a hundred years ago. They were from Lady Margaret Hall and members of the Oxford University Women's Mountaineering Club.   Their names are not recorded.

There is a great Podcast series "Written In Stone"  in  which the first part of season 2 is about the history of female climbing focused on the 1980s.

It covers some female international climbers who did lots of first ascents, and also discusses the factors that led to making this relatively rare. One factor was the relative rarity (although they certainly existed) of all women climbing teams in earlier decades.  Definitely worth a listen. 

I believe that the current hardest UK sport climbing first ascent by a UK woman is an 8c by Jen Wood. I expect that will be pushed to 9a and beyond in the next decade!

It was cool to be at Raven Tor a few weeks back on a rainy day belaying my 12 year old daughter on a route there with her putting the clips in on the lower grade classic and sharing beta with her female friends.

That day (all day) the only climbers were female- one working a mega classic 9a, 2 working a classic V9 traverse and my daughter and her 2 friends (all under 15) with quick red points and even flashes up to 7c+! 

I expect 20+ years ago it would have been rare to witness an all female only climber crag! 

besides the very obvious ones? The Nose for example.

Obviously the people at the top of the game were putting up plenty of routes for example: https://www.ukclimbing.com/articles/features/catherine_destivelle_-_rock_qu...

You're asking the wrong question though, why aren't more men putting up more of the routes, the number of FAs by women relative to total number of female climbers is probably significantly higher. Whereas most FAs in an area are put up by only a handful of men.

This whole thread could be based on the false premise that the proportion of female first ascents is lower than the proportion of female climbers, at the appropriate grades.

Unless and until you have all the data, there may be nothing to explain. 

Mrs Mummery was on the first ascent of the Teufelsgrat, on the Taeschhorn. Where "lanterns were fashioned out of empty champagne bottles"!

Certainly not the case nowadays / the last 30 (?) years. You might have a point historically though.

"Whereas most FAs in an area are put up by only a handful of men."

Nah, if I look at most guidebooks there are many, many more protagonists than a handful. There are a few exceptions though, e.g. Cornwall springs to mind.