writing women back into the countryside: a book

[makespaceforgirls]

I mentioned on the play equipment thread that I was writing a book about women and the countryside and didn't want to derail that conversation, so for anyone who is interested, here's a bit about it.

The book is based around me walking two of the oldest roads in England, the Ridgeway, which runs along the chalk of Oxfordshire, Wiltshire and Dorset and the Harrow Way, which runs from Andover to Devon via Stonehenge. It's in part about me getting my courage back to walk alone, and about why women feel threatened in the countryside, but it's also about why women in general are meant to be at home, or in the garden, about how the countryside is not a 'natural' thing, and how so many men walk all over the countryside for books and women don't.

On a more lateral tack, it also looks at why archaeology is done by men and through men's eyes, how almost every walk I take is done to the accompaniment of gunshot because the army are everywhere around me (see also the countryside is not natural), why John Betjeman was a terrible husband and how he would have been torn to shreds on MN and much else besides.

There are some very short excerpts from it on this website:

tenderfoot.co.uk/s-walker-text/

It's just gone off to be read by someone else. I have no idea whether it is brilliant or an insane cheese dream that only I would read. We will see;

If anyone wants to read a chapter or two, I'd be happy to oblige.

I'd like to, OP.

Oh, me too.

That sounds really interesting.

That sounds great OP, I walked in the dales a lot in my younger days and would love to walk alone, I’m quite a solitary figure!

Anyone who wants to, DM me an email address and I will send something out. Thank you!

I hope you publish that book. I so enjoyed reading your blog. You write so evocatively of what you see and hear and feel.

OP thanks for this thread! Just embroiled in homeschooling just now but would very much like to come back and discuss this issue later when I am free. The Ridgeway is my neck of the woods.

Can I ask why women don't like walking alone? Genuinely interested, not trolling I promise!
I walk a lot in the countryside and it's never occurred to me to feel unsafe. I see as many women walking alone as men. Not a single woman in my entire life (I am in my early thirties) has ever once expressed an opinion of feeling unsafe, in my hearing. I didn't know this was a thing!!
Would love to understand why. I can see why you'd be alarmed about getting shot at by the army (yikes!), but leaving that aside for the moment (as it must only affect a few areas of the country). Is it a fear of being attacked by a man, or is it something else?

Congrats on getting your book finished though OP! It's a tough thing to do

Oh that's so good, OP. Good luck with the book!

I'm so glad you posted this makespaceforgirls. Your writing is beautiful, as are the photos. I would love to read more. Will DM.

I've just had a look at your blog - I am writing something very similar about riding with my children, ironically one of the chapters is about a 3 day ride along the Ridgeway with my children when they were younger and my terminally ill dad. Just as you are asked 'why do you walk alone?' I'm often asked 'will you be alright on your own with you kids?' Of course I will! Their dad knows nothing of horses or wild camping, and any journey that involves him is far better with 5 star hotels! Hopefully my son will grow up to see that women have as much place in the countryside as men do. My daughter (to my delight) already strides around the place like she owns it.

When I lived in the UK I walked alone in the countryside a lot - back in AU, never. The bush is creepier.

Me and nearly all of my friends and family work in agriculture and rural land management - whether actually farming the land, managing the land, working in conservation or as agronomists and I can’t say that I think any of us feel threatened. Agriculture is an entirely different place now, my ag uni had a pretty much equal split of females and males.

I feel far more unsafe or threatened walking in cities and towns!

I would be scared to do a hike and camp alone

Thank you everyone.

@FeistySheep. Part of the book was trying to work out why. I walked alone for mile after mile before I had my daughter, and then I became afraid, perhaps because I didn't matter to anyone before and now I did. And I love walking alone, but am aware that it makes me vulnerable.

This is in the book, but I can heartily recommend a website and FB group called Adventure Queens. Some of them are crossing the Sahara on a unicycle (I exaggerate only slightly) but others are posting about being afraid to camp alone, or doing a mini adventure with their kids in the garden. They are very accepting of both being afraid and not being afraid.

Sounds fun OP. I love walking through the countryside alone, especially on a week day when footpaths are quiet. There's a wonderful sense of freedom to it.

@makespaceforgirls thank you for explaining. To be fair I would be afraid of going into the Sahara on my own - lions?! I did mean the UK though. I have camped alone and really enjoyed the 'me' time.
What exactly is it that makes you feel vulnerable though, you don't say? Is it attack by men? Or having an injury and being unable to call for help? I can't see how the last would be an experience exclusive to women though.
If it is attack by men, do you think it is an irrational fear? Or is it backed up by statistics that show that women are more likely to be attacked by men in the countryside than in urban areas?
Genuinely interested!

It sounds interesting, Op.

Just don't generalise your experience without evidence. You can write about why you feel afraid in the country, but is there any research to show this is how the majority of women feel? It would be really interesting to find a rural/urban inhabitant split of data on this, and to compare male/female results. In my experience people who live in the country are not afraid of walking alone in it, men or women. Whereas people who haven't lived rurally at some point, find it 'creepy' regardless of sex.

Is it still true most archaeologists are men.

I love your ideas, but you need to do some research, and not start off with conclusions based on gut feelings, if you want your book to be published. It could be absolutely fantastic.

Your book sounds delightful and clever and I'm looking forward to buying it :)

I love your ideas, but you need to do some research, and not start off with conclusions based on gut feelings, if you want your book to be published. It could be absolutely fantastic.

It sound more like it's a personal account, her feelings on this. Which is absolutely fine.

Sounds really interesting, OP. I met a very elderly lady some time ago who had walked the length and breadth of the UK, sleeping in hedgerows. She was one of the first female academics, I think, though I can't remember where exactly.

Nan Shepherd another writer who springs to mind on this subject

I love your ideas, but you need to do some research, and not start off with conclusions based on gut feelings, if you want your book to be published. It could be absolutely fantastic

I actually completely (but respectfully) disagree. I think a woman's personal account of a solo journey is far more marketable and readable than a sort of academic analysis of women walking alone. The success of books like The Salt Path have established the personal travelogue as a massively popular genre.

@Hollyhocksarenotmessy To some degree @ErrolTheDragon is right, and it's a personal narrative, but there is a lot of research in there as well, although it's more about the way in which men 'police' women going outside - Rachel Hewitt writes and tweets about this very well - and the history of this. Also the way in which the vast majority of nature books are about men walking out, while some barely mentioned wife stays at home doing the actual family work. Also, in a more metaphorical way, I walked a lot of the way around and across Salisbury Plain, so it's about meeting that maleness head on.

As for archaeology, I can give you a lot of links but the following is pretty much true:

senior archaeologists are still mostly men

too much archaeology is written from the point of view of men, in a way which can be distorting

conventional stereotypes of what is male and female are used to interpret times which may have thought very differently about sex and gender and archaeology is often used to reinforce these stereotypes even today

subjects which are perceived as male get investigated far more than those seen as 'female'

Female archaeologists spend a lot of time being cross about all of this because it is really quite regressive

There's certainly some interesting reevaluations of male-focused archeological assumptions now that bones can be accurately sexed!