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The Blessings of a Good Thick Skirt: Women Travellers and Their World
What drew Annie Taylor and Alexandra David-Neal to Tibet, when it was still cut off from the world and so hostile to foreigners, and particularly female ones, so they had to wear male Tibetan dress for protection? What did Hester Stanhope and Gertrude Bell, two such different women, find so compelling about the desert life of the East? What possessed Mary, Duchess of Bedford, to take up flying at the age of 60 - or Naomi James to sail around the world, or Arlene Blum to climb Annapurna? These, and other, accounts of women travellers experiences around the world are included in this book.
239 pages, Paperback
First published April 1, 1994
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Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
June 25, 2021
Because, should you have the misfortune to fall into an animal trap in deepest Africa, as did the 19th century explorer-traveller-ethnographer, Mary Kingsley, a good thick skirt can help shield you against the massive spikes at the bottom of the pit.
Not exactly the sort of thing your average modern day traveller would consider par for the course while journeying. But the women Mary Russell writes of in The Blessings of a Good Thick Skirt were a tribe apart: dozens of women, from medieval times till the 1980s (this book was first published in 1994), who upturned conventions and social norms in order to travel.
Russell begins with an introduction to the women who’ve been the greatest travellers of all, the ones who would’ve notched up huge air miles had the concept (and air travel, in many cases) been around in their time. After that introduction, she goes on to cover the different types of travel, with a few paragraphs devoted to each woman who exemplified that. There are, first, the pilgrims who went to the Holy Land; then the missionaries. There are aviators, mountaineers, sailors, women who trekked deep into Tibet and Africa, cycled across Europe and into India, and so forth. The last few chapters of the book cover some interesting and thought-provoking issues concerned with not just these women, but with women’s travel, and women’s liberation itself. Clothing; self-defence; coping with dangers and challenges; how women travellers are different from men; feminism and how it was regarded by not just society as a whole but by these famous women travellers.
I found myself fascinated by these women. Many, of course, have had the support of substantial funds to enable them to travel; but there have been those, too, who have managed despite obstacles like poverty, unsupportive families, censorious critics, and more. And that’s what seems to have come before the travelling itself. The anecdotes Russell quotes—of women climbing mountains in long tweed skirts, of women trekking through West Africa with babies in their arms, of an all-women expedition to Annapurna, and so on—are both revelations of the grit and will-power of these women, as well as the prevailing social norms. That so many of these women could achieve their goals despite such staggering odds is inspiring indeed.
I have only two grouses regarding this book. For one, because Russell covers so many women in so (relatively) few pages, the names and their accomplishments soon fade into a blur. By the end of the book, I had an impression of lots of fascinating, adventurous women, but only a handful of names that stayed with me (and those, like Amelia Earhart and Mary Kingsley, invariably of women I’d already heard about). In many cases, Russell begins a brief biography of the woman in question, and then abruptly switches to someone else. Fewer women, more complete biographies (or at least not just a few paragraphs per woman) might have had a greater impact for me.
And, I do wish it had not been so completely European- and American-centric. Yes, I suppose these were the areas with the wealthiest and best-educated women, the women with the means to travel; but I would have loved to have at least an exploration, even if brief, of why Asian or African women weren’t included in this book. Given that Russell does talk about several medieval women travellers, I would have thought some of the Mughal ladies (Gulbadan Begum perhaps first and foremost) deserved at least a mention for their many travels across the length and breadth of Asia.
Not exactly the sort of thing your average modern day traveller would consider par for the course while journeying. But the women Mary Russell writes of in The Blessings of a Good Thick Skirt were a tribe apart: dozens of women, from medieval times till the 1980s (this book was first published in 1994), who upturned conventions and social norms in order to travel.
Russell begins with an introduction to the women who’ve been the greatest travellers of all, the ones who would’ve notched up huge air miles had the concept (and air travel, in many cases) been around in their time. After that introduction, she goes on to cover the different types of travel, with a few paragraphs devoted to each woman who exemplified that. There are, first, the pilgrims who went to the Holy Land; then the missionaries. There are aviators, mountaineers, sailors, women who trekked deep into Tibet and Africa, cycled across Europe and into India, and so forth. The last few chapters of the book cover some interesting and thought-provoking issues concerned with not just these women, but with women’s travel, and women’s liberation itself. Clothing; self-defence; coping with dangers and challenges; how women travellers are different from men; feminism and how it was regarded by not just society as a whole but by these famous women travellers.
I found myself fascinated by these women. Many, of course, have had the support of substantial funds to enable them to travel; but there have been those, too, who have managed despite obstacles like poverty, unsupportive families, censorious critics, and more. And that’s what seems to have come before the travelling itself. The anecdotes Russell quotes—of women climbing mountains in long tweed skirts, of women trekking through West Africa with babies in their arms, of an all-women expedition to Annapurna, and so on—are both revelations of the grit and will-power of these women, as well as the prevailing social norms. That so many of these women could achieve their goals despite such staggering odds is inspiring indeed.
I have only two grouses regarding this book. For one, because Russell covers so many women in so (relatively) few pages, the names and their accomplishments soon fade into a blur. By the end of the book, I had an impression of lots of fascinating, adventurous women, but only a handful of names that stayed with me (and those, like Amelia Earhart and Mary Kingsley, invariably of women I’d already heard about). In many cases, Russell begins a brief biography of the woman in question, and then abruptly switches to someone else. Fewer women, more complete biographies (or at least not just a few paragraphs per woman) might have had a greater impact for me.
And, I do wish it had not been so completely European- and American-centric. Yes, I suppose these were the areas with the wealthiest and best-educated women, the women with the means to travel; but I would have loved to have at least an exploration, even if brief, of why Asian or African women weren’t included in this book. Given that Russell does talk about several medieval women travellers, I would have thought some of the Mughal ladies (Gulbadan Begum perhaps first and foremost) deserved at least a mention for their many travels across the length and breadth of Asia.
March 9, 2019
This was a quick and entertaining read.
It’s a quick overview of female travellers from Ancient Rome to the present day; the blurb asks the question of what drew these women to embark on their travels, but we don’t get any in-depth answers. It reads more like a list of anecdotes, each woman picked up, given a few paragraphs, and then dropped to move on to the next. This works well as a light read, and to get a sense of the fact that women travellers have existed throughout history, and travelled for many reasons, but I never felt that I got to know any of the women, or even really found out any more about them that they existed and the bare bones of where they travelled to.
The advantage of including so many women is that it gives the reader a general overview of the subject; the disadvantage is that this comes at the expense of depth. We never really get to learn much about ‘their world’ as promised by the title, because with 1500 years of women travellers, they come from many different worlds, in time, in place, and even in social circumstances.
I would have preferred, I think, more depth about fewer women, as it would have allowed greater context for each woman.
It’s a quick overview of female travellers from Ancient Rome to the present day; the blurb asks the question of what drew these women to embark on their travels, but we don’t get any in-depth answers. It reads more like a list of anecdotes, each woman picked up, given a few paragraphs, and then dropped to move on to the next. This works well as a light read, and to get a sense of the fact that women travellers have existed throughout history, and travelled for many reasons, but I never felt that I got to know any of the women, or even really found out any more about them that they existed and the bare bones of where they travelled to.
The advantage of including so many women is that it gives the reader a general overview of the subject; the disadvantage is that this comes at the expense of depth. We never really get to learn much about ‘their world’ as promised by the title, because with 1500 years of women travellers, they come from many different worlds, in time, in place, and even in social circumstances.
I would have preferred, I think, more depth about fewer women, as it would have allowed greater context for each woman.
February 16, 2024
I expected stories of individual women travellers but instead got a miss mash of themed chapters that jumped from person to person with no story depth. The book hasn't aged well with multiple references to women's place in the world as mothers and as the weaker sex. More patronizing that affirming. (Purchased at Skoob Books, London, UK.)
February 17, 2024
2.5✨ An interesting look through history at many intrepid women who chose a life of adventure and travel over the expectations and social conventions of their day. Unfortunately the writing became repetitive and the author’s rather biased opinions took away from the fascinating adventures of the women who documented their travels.
January 26, 2026
One of my new favorite books, honestly. The writing is so good and the stories are super engaging. It actually took me a while to get through because I was busy digesting everything… I ended up annotating the whole thing. It’s such a great intro to these characters before diving deeper into their lives.
February 22, 2025
I had high hopes for this book as it covers an interesting topic but the stories didn’t flow and at times the writing felt academic, almost like a university textbook. It wasn’t engaging, just informative.
November 22, 2021
Fairly interesting, but none of the subjects were looked into in great detail.
November 14, 2025
A fascinating history of women who either had or took the opportunity to travel. The narrative, however, gives away it's age, having been written 50 year's ago, and reads a little like a headmistress' report. Lists of achievements (impressive) but the narrative would have been more engaging if we, the reader, had got to understand the women better.
May 4, 2011
I thoroughly enjoyed this volume of stories of female travelers. I have to say, I was a little taken aback to have the volume start in such modern times, but I think the author made a good decision to group the travelers by their mode of travel. This way it was easier to compare and contrast the experience of the various women over time. I would, however, have liked a bit more detail on the women. It seems like we only got a few details here and there on the travelers, with more focus on how the author felt about what these women had to go through, instead of a more thorough story. I do agree that few of these women were feminists, and felt compelled to voyage from any desire to further the feminist agenda. Instead these women were compelled simply to travel, to go somewhere and see something unique and new and different, just because it was there. And that, in my opinion, is the best reason one could possibly have for a journey.
February 7, 2013
I really actually quite enjoyed reading this. Before you hold up your hands saying "Whoaaa! Feminism alert!", the majority of the women travellers mentioned in this book aren't bra-burners, but are as the author says "women whose travels were or are the result of a compulsion".
As someone who could be likened somewhat to Bilbo Baggins, who likes home comforts and thinks there is plenty of fun and exploring to be had in my own country, I found myself as I progressed through this book, starting to dream of adventure and felt foreign lands beckon. In reality, the countries explored and travelled through back in the 19th century have changed from what Margaret Fountaine and Mary Kingsley would have experienced. However for many of these women it was a chance to escape social strictures of the day and I think that is something that is certainly still relatable to us today.
As someone who could be likened somewhat to Bilbo Baggins, who likes home comforts and thinks there is plenty of fun and exploring to be had in my own country, I found myself as I progressed through this book, starting to dream of adventure and felt foreign lands beckon. In reality, the countries explored and travelled through back in the 19th century have changed from what Margaret Fountaine and Mary Kingsley would have experienced. However for many of these women it was a chance to escape social strictures of the day and I think that is something that is certainly still relatable to us today.
August 4, 2011
A very interesting read. I hadn't realised how many intrepid female travellers there were, particularly in Victorian times (I love those crazy Victorians). The book was arranged by ethernet of travel rather than looking at each traveller in isolation, which did mean that some women were featured in multiple chapters. It did help by outlining some of the challenges unique to female but sometimes made keeping track of exactly what each outdraw amazing women did a bit difficult.
October 10, 2015
Bitin. Not as much stories about women travelers as I hoped. Though it did give me a list of women with interesting lives who I am now interested in looking up.
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews