Mount Everest: Who Has Climbed It?

Mount Everest has been recognised as the world’s highest peak since a British survey of India in the 1850s. Early attempts to conquer it were unsuccessful until Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay achieved the feat in 1953. This historic climb marked the beginning of humanity’s pursuit to conquer the formidable mountain. In the early years, only a handful of climbers—an average of about two per year—reached the summit.

The first woman to climb Mount Everest was Junko Tabei of Japan, who became the 39th person to stand on its summit in 1975. You might wonder why it took so long for a woman to join the ranks of Everest summiteers. Ideas that women were prevented may have once been true but this cannot be the case these days. Yet, even today, the number of women climbing Mount Everest remains disproportionately low.

As of May 2024, a total of 7,136 individuals have successfully reached the summit: 6,266 men and 870 women. This means that only about 1 in 7 climbers are women. This is not that they have been stopped but more that they don’t want to. Why you may ask is that?
The disparity cannot solely be attributed to external barriers. Instead, it seems to reflect differing motivations and interests between sexes.

Men often pursue exploration and physical challenges, seeking to “tackle the world” and test their limits. Women may have different priorities and interests. This is not to say women lack the ability or courage to climb Everest—many have done so and continue to do so. However, the data suggests that fewer women are drawn to such pursuits compared to men.

Understanding this disparity requires a focus on individual motivation rather than assumptions about systemic barriers or oppression. Some women are inspired to climb Everest, while others are not. The same is true for men, though the numbers show a greater proportion of men are motivated by such challenges.

Rather than framing this as a failure or imbalance, we should celebrate the achievements of those who climb Mount Everest—men and women alike—and respect the different motivations that drive individuals to pursue their goals. Adventure, after all, is a deeply personal journey.

So when someone is trying to say why aren’t more women doing this or that I think we need to talk about motivation rather than claiming that women are being unnaturally stopped or oppressed. Women have different priorities than men and that is not a problem needing fixing.