Along the coast with your feet in the water, Nordic walking with poles, a classic walk in the forest or a backpack hike: for several years, walking and hiking have been driving the physical activity of the French, with more women hiking while roaming .
What's simpler than walking? Study after study and even more after the confinements of the Covid-19 crisis, walking and hiking are attractive. According to the 2020 national survey on physical and sporting practices led by the National Institute of Youth and Popular Education (INJEP), around 25 million French people engage in it on a regular basis.
“It does not require significant investments when you start, you hike around your home, there are no contraindications,” explains to AFP Brigitte Soulary, president of the French Hiking Federation which counts some 250,000 members.
New practices have appeared, such as “longe-coast”, a water walk where the water rises up to the waist or even the chest and which even has a French championship, “rando caching”, a mixture of hiking and game hunting. treasure, or even “Afghan walking”, where breathing is coordinated with the rhythm of the steps.
– Count your steps –
But the practice is much more widespread, because many walk or hike without being registered with any club.
In Marseille, Lyon and even in the Ile-de-France region, “online hiking” is developing: you disembark at one station and leave from another, which you reach on foot.
The health benefits of walking have nothing to do with this success either, in the age of apps that count steps.
And, new, a few more women are embarking on itinerant hikes, usually more frequented by men.
Chloë Chaudemanche is currently doing her anthropology thesis on the effects of gender on the practice of itinerant hiking, solo or in groups. “From my observations,” she told AFP, “I have the impression that there are more and more of them, particularly young women, especially solo or in duos. There are also a few women's groups.”
“Physically a woman can walk like a man, so it’s really social facts, gendered socializations that make women question their ability” to hike, she explains. The researcher, also a hiker, also points out “the absence of role models, of figures of inspiration, of women hiking”.
She notes that it took time before equipment was adapted to women's bodies, like backpacks for example. As part of her thesis at the University of Lyon 1, she is also interested in the management of periods during hiking.
She also noted that some sports brands had entered the field, also launching all-female hiking groups. The brand allows them to test shoes and wants to gain customers.
– “Aren’t you afraid?”-
Mountain guide in the Basque Country, Caroline Aphessetche created Lilika in 2020 with the aim of “all women feeling legitimate to go hiking, whatever their level”, she explains to AFP.
“Many do not know how to find their way and want to take routes other than those they use around their homes,” she explains. She does not close the door to men. “A man told me: 'I'm happy when I come with you because I have the right to be bad here,'” she confides, considering that women “are really good in the mountains.”
Teacher-researcher at Lyon 1 University, Eric Boutroy is currently working on “ultra-light walking” which consists of minimizing one's load.
For the solo practice of women, in particular when they bivouac, he notes the existence of “barriers to appropriation of these modalities of activity”. “You're hiking alone, but you're not afraid?”, the question is often the same. “In sociology, this is called a call to order,” he explains. As soon as we “technify” – which includes orientation or mapping skills – or increase the number of nights spent outside, there are these barriers for women.
Nevertheless, he notes that “there are more women today doing more complicated and more committed things than before.”
