First woman to lead Hutt club
It has taken 94 years, but a woman, Dr Phaedra Upton, has finally climbed to the top of the Hutt Valley Tramping Club.
Formed in 1923, the club has always been run by a man.
A scientist and keen mountain biker, Upton hopes she will be the first of many in a club that had produced some notable female trampers and climbers but never a president.
Upton was surprised to be elected as the first woman in the top job but was confident she would be the first of many.
She said one of the biggest challenges facing clubs was attracting new and younger members to keep clubs going.
Her selection is a far cry from 1935 when the club faced national scrutiny after an eye-catching headline in New Zealand Truth: ‘‘Lady Tramper Throws Bombshell, Criticizes Cut of Girls’ Shorts.’’
The source of the story was a Miss H G Niven, a long-time club member.
‘‘The Hutt is buzzing with indignation and consternation regarding the alleged statements of the Hutt Valley Tramping Club’s Vice President, Miss H G Niven, at the annual meeting of the club last week. She is understood to have criticised emphatically the cut and brevity of the women’s shorts and made reference to the eyesore of amorous couples on the tramps.’’
In a follow-up article Miss Niven downplayed ‘‘any suggestion of flagrant flirtations’’ among club members.
Author and tramping historian Shaun Barnett was not surprised it had taken nearly 100 years for Hutt Valley to elect its first female president.
‘‘Tramping clubs are a reflection of society and it is a reflection of how patriarchal society is.’’
The country’s oldest tramping club, the Wellington based Tararua Tramping Club, did not elect its first female president, Jenny Foggo, until the mid 1980s.
During WWII the Tararua club would have folded without women stepping up to run it but when the men returned from serv- ing overseas, the women were expected to meekly stand down. One of those was Mavis Davidson, who the returned men refused to take on a climbing trip to the South Island. A few years later she got her revenge by leading the first allfemale party to climb Mt Cook. Barnett said the Truth article reflected a common attitude towards women and tramping at that time. Having women tramp in shorts was seen as improper. Most clubs ran mixed tramps with older women chaperoning girls.
‘‘In the 1920s and 1930s a lot of the trampers were young people and it was reassuring to mothers to think there was an older woman present.’’
The Tararua Tramping Club even had a women, May Vossler, who specialised in that role.
The first media reference to the formation of the Hutt Valley club in 1923 noted there were women on the committee, one of whom, Ria Macalister, went on to become a prominent tramper with both the Hutt Valley and Tararua clubs.
In 1973, she recalled being closely chaperoned by Vossler, despite being 35. ‘‘On our mixed weekend trips she insisted that the women stayed in the hut after dark. You had to have a very good reason before requesting to go out and then you had to take a companion with you.’’