Save Eco Destinations

photo courtesy of Sheknows.com

Last year, Responsible Travel published a study indicating that more women than men are making ecologically responsible changes in their lives, including where and how they choose to travel for their holidays, EcoTravelLogue reported.

Out of the people who booked eco-friendly holidays online via Responsible Travel, 67% were women! That is a lot of women vs. men. It makes me wonder—why?

I can think of one essentialist and totally debatable argument: women, perhaps because of their bodily cycles, are more in tune with nature and thus empathize more with the Earth’s environmental woes than men do. I would say this is probably true of some women, but absolutely not true of all. After all, it’s full of women (and men) out there who have no idea what’s going on outside with the environment their apartments and offices; they only know when they start menstruating.

Menstruation is in no way a cause of environmental awareness, let alone a cause of green activism.

But whatever the reason, it’s a fascinating and intriguing subject.

Of these 67% of women, 37% opted to travel by themselves. This underscores the increase in independent travel—as well as women earning more money than they used to in relation to men, which allows them to afford traveling alone. While the gender pay gap is still running rampant—no question about that—it is slowly narrowing in some areas, such as academia.

Also, more women are taking charge of their careers and financial security by becoming independent workers: running their own companies, becoming freelancers, and so on. As well, it has become more socially acceptable to travel alone, no longer being indicative of the person being a loser. Women are becoming more active, independent, and brave. But we already knew that.

The world is changing and the waves of progress are rippling across the continents to myriad corners of the (okay, mostly Western) world and our culture.

Of the 67% of women, 45% booked a holiday for two (whether it’s the woman booking the trip or her partner, who could be female or male, who is the green traveling nut, remains unknown).

Do these figures ring true for you? Do you think there’s a gender aspect to green travel?