Shackles of Convention

Women mountaineers were largely overlooked or if considered tended to be drawn into a debate about women's rights rather than them being acknowledged purely for their achievements as pioneers of mountain climbing by women or as mountaineers. The achievements of women pioneers and mountaineers deserve greater recognition, primarily because all mountaineers are in debt to those who have gone before.

Malcolm Craig has climbed extensively in the Alps, on many of the peaks featured in this book, and marvelled at the achievements of women who made early ascents there and elsewhere in the world; they deserve to be better known. While in Malaysia in 1969 he was responsible for the first Outward Bound course for girls in that country, which included climbing.