This willpower you cannot buy with money or be given by others — it rises from your heart. — Dodie Smith (image via Wikimedia Commons) "I can't understand why men make all this fuss about Everest," Junko once said. "It's only a mountain." As a 40-year-old housewife, she first attempted an Everest expedition in 1975 — and in doing so became the first woman to scale the world's tallest mountain. Back home in Tokyo, city residents gossiped: it wasn't fitting, they argued, that a mother attempt such feats. But after worldwide acclaim and her success climbing the Seven Summits, younger women in Japan hailed Junko as a seminal figure who helped changed the country's perception of women's roles and women's work.
A Woman to Know: Junko Tabei
A Woman to Know: Junko Tabei
A Woman to Know: Junko Tabei
This willpower you cannot buy with money or be given by others — it rises from your heart. — Dodie Smith (image via Wikimedia Commons) "I can't understand why men make all this fuss about Everest," Junko once said. "It's only a mountain." As a 40-year-old housewife, she first attempted an Everest expedition in 1975 — and in doing so became the first woman to scale the world's tallest mountain. Back home in Tokyo, city residents gossiped: it wasn't fitting, they argued, that a mother attempt such feats. But after worldwide acclaim and her success climbing the Seven Summits, younger women in Japan hailed Junko as a seminal figure who helped changed the country's perception of women's roles and women's work.