For a woman living in the early 1700s, Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, who traveled to Turkey with her husband, Ambassador Edward Wortley Montagu, was fairly racy.
“The tunes so soft! The motions so languishing! … I am very positive the coldest and most rigid prude upon earth could not have looked upon them without thinking of something not to be spoken of,” she wrote of Turkish women dancers.
Montagu’s published letters, widely circulated back home in England, described her adventures in Constantinople’s all-female harems and baths. She mocked male writers who had discussed harems before, noting that their writings were fiction because only women were allowed to enter those enclaves.
Frenchwoman Jane Dieulafoy was another traveler who broke rules. When she went to Persia with her archaeologist-husband, Marcel, in the 1880s, she posed as a young man to avoid being covered head to foot and traveling in a secluded litter. And when she returned to France, she obtained permission from local police to keep wearing men’s clothing.
These are just two of Canadian author Barbara Hodgson’s favorite characters from her latest book, “No Place for a Lady: Tales of Adventurous Women Travelers” (Ten Speed Press, $24.95), a non-fiction account of women travelers in the 17th, 18th and 19th Centuries packed with illustrations and maps.
Some traveled alone through jungles, or cut their hair and wore baggy clothes to avoid attention in countries where lone female travelers were an oddity. They faced insects and exotic diseases, and while many had the money to finance their travels, others embarked with very little. But their travels, as Hodgson writes, raises the question: Just when was a woman’s place in the home?
WomanNews asked Hodgson–a book designer and novelist who also loves to travel–to talk about these groundbreaking women.
Q. Was there a certain personality type that was the “adventurous woman?”
A. There isn’t. There are quite a few who say they’re timid, yet they go out and do these things that you and I would never dream of doing. Others are very forthright and adventurous. Some traveled with the idea they would spread the word of God and had marvelous adventures doing that. Others had the idea of being a true adventurer, of trying to have as good a time as possible.
Q. Why did women go on these adventures?
A. A lot of women traveled because they were trying to get over some kind of disappointment–someone had died. Some traveled because they were unhealthy at home and wanted warmer climates. Some traveled to learn; [English writer] Harriet Martineau went to Egypt and North America to find out about slavery to support her attitude on abolition.
Q. What did these women contribute to society?
More Top Picks Best Gaming Desks For Streamers
A. Every single woman I’ve included has contributed strongly to our ability to travel today. They made it acceptable for women to travel. They showed men that they were absolutely capable of getting out, taking care of themselves, that they didn’t need rescuing. So many women traveled and wrote about traveling that it got more and more people interested in travel. As far back as the 1840s, women travel writers were recognized as a group.
Q. Why did you decide to write this book?
A. I’d been reading a lot of older travel literature by both men and women that was set in a time when travel was far more difficult. It’s a lot more interesting to read about someone who gets to a place on the back of a camel rather than gets on a plane. While working on the book, I realized I had a lot of misconceptions. I thought these women were brave and daring, but so many didn’t see themselves that way. They just accepted the fact they could travel. And I was surprised at how many women travelers there were.