For much of its history, Antarctica has been portrayed as the last great stage for masculine endurance, tied to male-dominated periods of exploration and aligned with the society of the time. Names like Shackleton, Scott, and Amundsen became synonymous with suffering, courage, and ambition, and reputations were forged and national identities constructed.
But, for years, women were not represented in Antarctic exploration and field research. Throughout the 19th and 20th centuries, advances were gradually made in female representation across society, and women began to travel, carving out careers and legends of their own, freeing themselves from the shadow of a male-dominated society. But Antarctica remained distantly out of reach, even as the scientific community expanded to include more women, and the south became a focus for research and modern exploration.
Women in Antarctica - breaking boundaries at the edges of the world
Historically, a scattering of women ventured into the southern seas, accompanying their whaling and sealing husbands throughout the 19th century. It is known that in the 1770's Louise Seguin, disguised as a cabin boy, accompanied the voyage of Yyves-Joseph de Kerguelen to the Sub-Antarctica. Later that century, Jeanne Baret became the first female scientist (botanist) to visit the sub-Antarctic region. Māori legends also suggest early expeditions to the ice-covered southern lands, of which women were said to have taken part.
Jeanne Baret
In the 1830's, the first female account of sub-Antarctic travel was written by Abby Jane Morrell, who explored part of the sub-Antarctic during a voyage to New Zealand and the Pacific with her husband, Benjamin Morrell. Intriguingly, in 1985, the Chilean Antarctic Institute discovered the skull of a young indigenous Chilean woman on Yamana Beach in the South Shetland Islands, believed to date between 1819 and 1825. How she came to be on the South Shetland Islands is unknown. Clearly, women had a role in exploration and travel in the sub-Antarctic and southern seas, but many of their efforts have been lost to history.
In 1935, Caroline Mikkelsen landed on the Antarctic Tryne Islands during a Danish expedition. Whether she can be considered the first woman to land in Antarctica is questioned, as she did not reach the mainland. It would not be until 1937 that the first woman would unquestionably set foot on the Antarctic continent. Starting in 1931, accompanied by another woman, Mathilde Wegger, Ingrid Christensen would make a total of four voyages to Antarctica accompanying her husband, the philanthropist and Antarctic enthusiast Lars Christensen. In 1937, Christensen landed at Scullin Monolith, becoming the first woman to set foot on the Antarctic mainland. The same year, she also became the first woman to see Antarctica by air.
Caroline Mikkelsen
From visitors to explorers, researchers, and leaders
The first women to be truly considered Antarctic explorers would be Jackie Ronne and Jennie Darlington, who both overwintered in Antarctica alongside their husbands, taking on roles as part of a scientific expedition in 1947. The Ronne Ice Shelf is named in Jackie Ronne's honor. During the 20th century, more women began to break barriers; the scientists and researchers Maria Klenova, Mary Gillham, Isobel Bennet, Hope Macpherson, among others, undertook studies in the Antarctic region during the 1950's, ushering in a scattering of further scientific posts for women in the 60's, 70's, and 80's.
Jackie Ronne
In 1971, the New Zealander Ann Chapman became the first woman to lead an Antarctic expedition, while in 1974, Mary Alice McWhinnie became the first female chief scientist at McMurdo Station. In 1986, the first Polar Medal was awarded to a woman, the British explorer Virginia Fiennes. However, despite this gradual advance in representation and opportunity, the Antarctic stubbornly remained male-dominated, with base leaders, organizers, and leadership roles mostly out of reach for women.
Mary Alice McWhinnie
It was not until 1991 that the first all-female team successfully overwintered in Antarctica, at Germany's Georg von Neumayer Station on the Ekström Ice Shelf. The expedition was led by the German researcher and physician Monika Puskeppeleit, who served as base leader and oversaw a team responsible for keeping the station running and its scientific work uninterrupted through the Antarctic winter.
Monika Puskeppeleit
Overwintering crews are trusted with maintaining life-support systems, conducting observations, and responding to emergencies when evacuation is impossible. By assigning an all-female crew to this role, the German Antarctic program was addressing a deeply entrenched belief about who belonged in Antarctica. The team completed its overwintering without incident. Scientific observations continued as planned, the station remained fully operational, and the psychological challenges of darkness and isolation were met no differently than countless male crews had before them. The team also played a unique role in bridging relations between the then-divided East and West German expedition teams. There was no dramatic moment of triumph, no crisis overcome against the odds, just competence and professionalism.
So, why had it taken this long? Institutional bias and a stubbornly traditional scientific and expedition community.
Bringing Antarctica into the 21st Century
The 1991 all-female overwintering team marks a subtle but important turning point in the opportunities that women have in Antarctic scientific and field roles. Antarctica was no longer an environment that excluded women by tradition. Clearly, ice, wind, and darkness made no distinction based on gender. Rather, it was institutions and society.
In the decades since, women have increasingly taken on more roles in Antarctic operations, from scientists, engineers, and expedition leaders, to pilots, guides, and station managers. Mixed-gender overwintering teams are now standard, and women lead major research programs across the continent. Women have broken records across the continent and have seized firsts beyond scientific work. Scores of women have now reached the South Pole and explored remote regions of Antarctica, once the reserve of male bravado. Several have crossed, unaided, the entire Antarctic continent, by foot and ski, while the South Pole has even been attained by bicycle by a woman.
For today's adventurers in Antarctica, it often inspires reflection on human limits and resilience. Survival here depends less on bravado than on cooperation, preparation, and mutual respect, not only for the place itself, but for the team members, colleagues, and fellow guests you are working or visiting Antarctica alongside.
On International Women's Day, it's worth remembering that in one of the most extreme environments on Earth, a group of women proved that not all traditions, beliefs, and institutional processes are worth keeping, and that Antarctica is a place for all to learn, further human understanding, and build bridges across gender, language, culture, and race.