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#ClimbForEquality #TriForEquality

Help us reach our goal of 1000 #ClimbForEquality/#TriForEquality posts on Instagram by the end of 2019. Read about implicit bias via the link below and share a pledge to #ClimbForEquality/#TriForEquality.

Identifying and Interrupting Bias

Take Action: How You Can Support Gender Equality in the U.S. via Melinda Gates

Backstory

Take a moment and picture in your mind’s eye. What does a mountaineer look like?

Ever since she was a young girl, Caroline Gleich has always had a dream of climbing and skiing the biggest mountains in the world, and using her platform as an athlete to protect our planet. When she told people about her dreams, she was met with skepticism. “You’re too small. You’re not strong enough.” She was told her dreams were impossible and she would die trying.

When she started dating her now husband, Rob Lea, he was relatively new to backcountry skiing. When she would take him out on ski tours, other backcountry skiers would always assume he was guiding her, and ask him where they were headed. When they decided they were going to attempt to climb Mt. Everest, people asked Caroline if she was going to basecamp. They assumed Rob was going to summit.

When Caroline and Rob learned more about implicit bias, they felt they finally had the language to communicate these seemingly invisible forces they have been feeling for many years. Implicit bias is the subconscious or perceived bias from onlookers and peers that perpetuates unrealistic roles for women. How it manifests can vary but one way Caroline has experienced it is a “prove it again” mentality where women’s success is attributed to luck, not skill. Women have to keep proving themselves over and over.

Rob was introduced to the UN “He For She” movement and took the #HeForShe pledge, but quickly realized he wanted to do more. He wants to encourage other men to take the same pledge and also felt like there was a unique space in the outdoor world to spread the word.

After experiencing this over and over in their every day lives, Caroline and Rob decided they needed to do something. They decided to create the #ClimbForEquality and #TriForEquality campaigns, to introduce a fun way to approach an uncomfortable topic. They decided to use their adventures of climbing Everest and Rob’s Ultimate World Triathlon (climbing Everest, swimming the English Channel, and riding his bike across America in a six month period in 2019) to bring awareness to this issue.

When you look at the top, you still see an absence of women. Women account for 50.8% of the U.S. population, and yet, as of June 2017, only 11% of those who stand on the Mount Everest summit are women. This disproportionate representation of women goes beyond peaks to CEO positions (5%), Congress (20.5%), and Venture Capital (6%). Most disturbingly, girls’ self-confidence peaks at age 9.

How we treat people is how we treat the environment. If nature is a mother, it is in our best interest to elevate the status of women, girls and mothers, in the US and the rest of the world.

Their goal was to get 100 #ClimbForEquality hashtag posts on Instagram by the end of their Everest climb (which they achieved by June 2019) and 1000 #ClimbForEquality posts by the end of 2019. Will you help them reach their goal?

Let’s see more women getting to the top.

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