[Gocamino] Women travelers at a disadvantage

[Beth Williamson]

It seems to me from all the books I have read by pilgrims that the common showers and toilets and sleeping arrangements at so many of the albergues are a violation of Spanish mores and customs.  Books by nuns and priests particularly comment on this. I am not particularly modest and could get by in the current arrangements, but younger women could well have problems with males taking advantage of them or making them feel uncomfortable with such bathing and sleeping arrangements. People traveling with companions can probably manage but solo travelers could be most uneasy.

> To: GOCAMINO at oakapple.net; saintjames at yahoogroups.com
> Date: Mon, 25 May 2009 15:18:36 -0400
> From: blaroli at aol.com
> CC: acaciopaz at yahoo.com.br
> Subject: [Gocamino] more various
> 
> 
>   Hello you all,
> 
> Gender Equality.  The Archdiocese reports that the proportion of women pilgrims in the total of all Camino pilgrims keeps increasing:  In 2008  of the 125,141 pilgrims receiving the Compostela 52,205 were women, constituting 41.7% of the total.  In 199o women had only accounted for 30.9% of Compostela-receiving pilgrims;  in 1995 women formed 32.4% of the total; in 2000 they were 34.1 % and in 2003 40.1%
> 
> The one time when female pilgrims outnumbered their male counterpart was in the last Holy Year, 2004, when women numbered 100,431 and men 79,513.
> 
> This upward tendency in the number of female pilgrims has led the Xunta and the Archdiocese to reconsider the sanitary, and other, facilities for pilgrims throughout the Camino to take into account the growing female presence and its potential needs.
> 
>  
> 
> Hape Kerkeling.  In 2001 the popular German TV personality decided to forgo an ordinary vacation and, instead, chose to take an internal pilgrimage. He had found a Camino guidee book in a bookstore and decided to follow it. During the six weeks that he spent walking he kept a diary, and he scoffed when a Swedish female pilgrim told him that one day his diary would become world-known.  The diary was eventually published under the name “I’m off; Losing and Finding Myself on the Camino de Santiago” and, todate, it has sold more than three million copies in Germany, Austria, Holland and Korea.
> 
> Herr Kernelling was in Leon a couple of days
>  ago to announce the forthcoming Spanish and Portuguese editions of his book.  He has a special affection for Leon because of the beauty of its Cathedral and because he had decided to give up the pilgrimage there, and would have done so but for the encouragement given to him by two young female pilgrims.
> 
> The book is scheduled to be released in English in the UK and the United States sometime this summer, but it is already available in English at Austrian and German bookstores.  
> 
> As it happens,  I will be going to Vienna next week, (for the Staatsopern new Wagner Ring), and will look for the book there in English. If I find it I’ll pick up a copy. While the book doesn’t sound like my cup of tea (reportedly it is funny, modernistic, and full of diverting anecdotes and the like) I will give it a try anyway,  even although I never did manage to read but the first five or so pages of the immensely popular Coelho’s Camino book. 
> 
>  
> 
> Let me know if you would like me to bring a copy for you.
> 
>  
> 
> Hugs!
> 
>  
> _______________________________________________
> Gocamino mailing list
> Gocamino at oakapple.net
> http://mailman.oakapple.net/mailman/listinfo/gocamino

_________________________________________________________________
Hotmail® has ever-growing storage! Don’t worry about storage limits.
http://windowslive.com/Tutorial/Hotmail/Storage?ocid=TXT_TAGLM_WL_HM_Tutorial_Storage1_052009