The Travel Edition

FemWealth Issue #23

Aug 15, 2021

When I was but a little child, I had already a strong desire to see the world. Whenever I met a travelling-carriage, I would stop involuntarily, and gaze after it until it had disappeared; I used even to envy the postilion, for I thought he also must have accomplished the whole long journey. - Ida Pfeiffer, World Traveler

When Ida Pfeiffer started on her first journey around the world in 1846, traveling to countries such as Brazil, Chile, Tahiti, China, India, Persia, and Greece, women travelers and explorers were an oddity. At that time, women of her social class were still negotiating their independent participation in the public space.

Ida Pfeiffer, (14 October 1797, Vienna – 27 October 1858, Vienna), née Reyer, the World’s First Solo Female Travel Writer

We’ve come a long way since then! Women have reached the highest mountain peaks, deepest seas, and the most isolated places on Earth. Most countries are safe and welcoming to women (though far from all, especially for solo travelers). In many parts of the world, women can freely explore the cities they live in (unfortunately not always without danger) or the ones they chose to visit.

Women also gain recognition for being talented travel storytellers, as many writers, journalists, bloggers, and vloggers prove. Moreover, women of diverse backgrounds are becoming powerful voices for more conscious, inclusive, and sustainable traveling and are active in reimagining the travel industry.

In today’s edition of FemWealth meet two of my favorite storytellers who invite to travel, flânerie, and trips down the memory lane & (re)discover the world through women’s eyes:

Patti Smith, Singer, Songwriter, Playwright, and Poet

Legendary performer Patti Smith is still going strong, touring and performing on some of the world’s most important stages. She is appreciated not only for her music but also for her writing.

In her memoirs, Smith writes in a stream-of-consciousness style about friendship, love, loss, coffee culture, the New York of her youth, and the iconic visits to the places where the writers and artists who’ve influenced her (such as Sylvia Plath and Frida Khalo) have lived.

📚 Just Kids

📚 M Train

📚 Year of the Monkey

📥 Subscribe to Patti Smith’s newsletters The Melting and 100 Cities.

Lauren Elkin, Autor of Flâneuse and Cultural Critic

'Flâneuse [flanne-euhze], noun, from the French - ‘a determined resourceful woman keenly attuned to the creative potential of the city, and the liberating possibilities of a good walk’.

Paris- and Liverpool-based US cultural critic Lauren Elkin follows the steps of the Flâneuses, the female urban walkers of the past and present wandering through the cities. Starting with the nineteenth- and twentieth-century cultural and artistic luminaries (George Sand, Virginia Wolf, Sophie Calle, and Agnes Varda), women have gained their urban independence and got inspiration from observing and being observed in the public spaces. Contemporary Flâneuses can be spotted everywhere from New York to Paris, Venice, and Tokyo (the cities where Elkin has lived).

And most importantly, as Elkin points out, the “flâneuse is not merely a female flâneur, but a figure to be reckoned with, and inspired by, all on her own. She voyages out, and goes where she’s not supposed to; she forces us to confront the ways in which words like home and belonging are used against women. She is a determined, resourceful individual keenly attuned to the creative potential of the city, and the liberating possibilities of a good walk.”

📚 Flâneuse: Women Walk the City in Paris, New York, Tokyo, Venice, and London

📖 A tribute to female flâneurs: the women who reclaimed our city streets

🌎 (Re)Discover The World Through Women's Eyes

📖 The women porters making history on Peru's Inca Trail via BBC Travel’s 50 Reasons to Love the World

🌐 Sasane Sisterhood Trekking and Travel, Nepal - a trekking and tour operator that trains female human-trafficking survivors to become trekking guides in the Himalayas [Discover more sustainable and socially responsible startups and initiatives here]

📖 Lucie Azema : "La voyageuse est une femme libre"