Barriers to Participation for Beginners

Hi Everyone,
I'm currently doing my degree dissertation on barriers to participation for climbing, mainly focusing on the differences between and males and females.
This can then help me to identify reasons for a lower involvement in climbing by females.
The survey is only 7 questions long and only takes 5 minutes to complete.
surveymonkey.co.uk/r/YL3K56G

I'm also open to discussions here on the forum, it would be great to hear from you all.

what grade are you?

Prime -, but with good marbling.

Interesting survey. Thanks for doing research and bringing it here. I didn't have much to say to support the idea of barriers from my own experience as a female climber.

As an aside, I've found that most (not all) female climbers i know are in STEM fields, so maybe they are already very comfortable with a male majority environment.

Another note to add, I've taken a few female friends to climb who just weren't exposed as kids to dirt and to peeing outside. And they like long nails. No one here, a forum of people who embrace climbing, would write that in the survey as their own issue so I figured I'd share it. Strong badass women, who don't like to get dirty or scraped up...maybe because of gender stereotypes they've absorbed... or maybe just because.

In your survey, you maybe should distinguish between indoor and outdoor climbing, as outdoor is usually much more of a mentoring situation, requiring social connection and comfort.

Also the time choices for how long people have climbed seems skewed too way short. People here have been climbing for many decades.

It would seem you have a spelling impairment.

one of the things that i have noticed on many forums that could likely lead to folks shying away is the way new people are treated by the keyboard cowboys.
It's prevalent across all forums I frequent, including here (see above) and Supertopo.

I assume you have some plan to survey non-climbers as well, particularly those who encountered barriers and were not able to overcome them?

Poor motivation

Guys and girls both suffer from the I can't do it I will not even try. I have noticed over the years more girls tend to just not try when they don't think they can make it than guys. Guys tend to be more (not sure if it is the best word) reckless and will just go for it over girls. Not to say that I don't know guys who have been climbing for years that sometimes will not even attempt a hard route on top rope because it is to hard.

It anonys me when I am out climbing with people, there is a toprope with no risk of getting hurt setup, and they will not even attempt to climb to the first bolt etc. The only way you will get better is if you just try. I attempt routes out of my ledge all the time. Not to say I will be stupid and do a 50ft runout 5.12 with high chance of decking.

ViperScale wrote: It anonys me when I am out climbing with people, there is a toprope with no risk of getting hurt setup, and they will not even attempt to climb to the first bolt etc. The only way you will get better is if you just try.

Why should that annoy you? It's their choice. Maybe they sense this attitude from you of judging their climbing choices, and do not want to try in front of you?

As for the survey - this is a climbing forum, most everyone here is a climber. This is not the place to get a good sampling of data for barriers to climbing. When I do face barriers, it is almost always lack of partner, bad weather, or injury/illness. The first two are not even addressed in your list of barriers.

Hopefully this is not your only source for data collection, good luck with your research!

Male white privilege obviously. Ask anyone who has been to college recently.

Em Cos wrote: Why should that annoy you? It's their choice. Maybe they sense this attitude from you of judging their climbing choices, and do not want to try in front of you? As for the survey - this is a climbing forum, most everyone here is a climber. This is not the place to get a good sampling of data for barriers to climbing. When I do face barriers, it is almost always lack of partner, bad weather, or injury/illness. The first two are not even addressed in your list of barriers. Hopefully this is not your only source for data collection, good luck with your research!

I have traveled all over the world (20ish countries), done all kinds of things. There are alot of things I am not great at. I Have failed at plenty of things. I just hate when people won't even make an attempt at something. I have had to talk more than one person into attempting something and they loved it afterwards, but hey sometimes they can't do it and it is no big deal.

When it comes to climbing if someone will give you a rope and say give it a shot. Unless you have an injury that could be damaged you should give it a shot. Who cares if you don't even make it to the first bolt. If the person isn't there to lead it and setup the top rope you would not even get to try it.

I know my limit is probably 5.12ish range, but I have climbed with someone who setup a top rope on a 5.14d route. I knew I had no chance of finishing it (think I got to maybe the 2nd bolt) but I went for it anyway.

I always encourage people to try new things. Don't ever let someone talk you into making an attempt at something you are not comfortable with the risk (or you don't understand the risk) but if there is no risk go for it.

On a side note the biggest thing that stopped me from starting was not knowing anything about it. I had always thought it would be cool / fun but where I lived there was no gyms and I didn't know anyone who did it. After I got out of college and started working I met a guy who did it and started going to the gym with him. Years later I have now climbed all over the US and he has gone into the special forces of the military, hopefully he finishes the last bit of training soon and we can climb together again.

Personally at the gym I don't notice a very high difference in the numbers of climbers of each gender. Once you head outside however that seems to change, why? I have no idea.

It is very interesting to me that a previous comment mentioned that most female climbers are involved in STEM fields, that's not something I have ever thought of but upon reflection I would very much agree with. Again I don't know why.

In my personal experience, I would say there is a large, disproportionate, amount of not just females, but also males who are in STEM fields. That seems to go hand in hand with climbing in general. Definitely not the rule but certainly a norm.
My first real mentor for rock climbing- my 9 th grade math Proffesor, U.S. DMM rep, and an amazing guy all around, Steve Petro, think first free ascent of fiddle on the roof, 5.13d, In Freemont Canyon, didn't see another assent for almost 20 yrs.
First real long time climbing partner, Chemistry major, next, engineer major, who is now a college Proffesor teaching CAD and engineering. Next, my college math Proffesor and Dean of Sciences. Next, an ER doc, Next a ER PA-C, Next, a construction worker, and the three females I climb with are 1-accountant, Lawyer, and Gymnast with a STEM major. The lawyer I did meet in an upper division embryology class and she was pre-Med at the time. I wonder what the ratio of male female STEM studies is. But maybe my experience doesn't mean anything, it could have been all Enviromental, had I not been STEM myself, of course I wouldn't have been associating with so many other like individuals.

Good luck with this!

Interesting approach.

I know in bigwall climbing we have a lot of people who aspire to climb El Cap, but who never take a step toward that goal. Would be interesting to see what factors contribute to that, beside financial (bigwall climbing is expensive if you can't borrow the equipment).

Woot!
Erik Sloan
YosemiteBigwall.com

Man, how do you keep that stoke so high, even in closing?!

Thank you everyone for your replies. So far I have had 314 responses from users on multiple forums and facebook pages. the STEM Theory is certainly an interesting one, coming from Aberdeen where most of my friends climbing and non climbing are engineers for oil and gas I have never really thought of it in a wider context, something to look at in more detail in a future project?
Yes, I have a spelling impairment I am dyslexic and dyspraxic, however I am working with a tutor at university to help me learn techniques and to help over see most of my coursework, (obviously not this survey as you may have noticed). Thankfully I don't feel this has put up too many communication barriers with most respondents.
In my personal experience; I recently went on a joint field trip where (as an outdoor pursuits management student) I joined the sports coaching students for a week at an activity centre whilst we all planned an adventure race together.
All the students are over the age of 20, what surprised me was not necessary their reluctance to try anything new, or their lack of effort to try something new but the amount they moaned at every little thing they had to do!
That made me really annoyed that they were given the opportunity to go away for a week all inclusive £100 (really cheap) and they moaned the whole time about climbing outside, going for a walk up a hill to see the sunny views and mountain biking in some of the best scenery in Scotland.
So I can see where you come from when you say people that don't try annoy you.

Erik Sloan wrote:Woot! Erik Sloan YosemiteBigwall.com

Why bring a company's internet domain in with your post? For example, I don't see Randy Vogel putting a signature like that on his MP.com posts (even though he does use MP.com to promote his guides). Another good example is the user Bearbreeder - talk about great content without advertisement!

If advertising to potential clients / customers interests you, why not keep that in the For Sale forum? Or in a thread specifically titled to advertise your commercial interests?

Doesn't pass the smell test, man.