Our editorial team is a reflection of our readers

by Carolyn Ray, Editor

In the past four years, the world has evolved, and so have the needs of our readers.  JourneyWoman has always been a place of inspiration for solo women, and that will never change. We also know that women are at the forefront of travel, and that women over 50 (who make up the majority of our readers) often feel undervalued or ignored by the travel industry. That definitely needs to change! 

In expanding our editorial team, my goal is to do a better job representing the mature traveller over 50 as who she realy is, not an antiquated stereotype. Our editorial team is a reflection of our readers — adventurous, curious, generous, kind and compassionate.  We don’t see age as a limitation — rather, we see age as a path to freedom. That’s why we celebrate the wisdom of women in their 50s, 60s, 70s, and 80s and beyond.

The age-defying women of JourneyWoman continue to do what they’ve always done – blaze their own trail and hope the rest of the world catches up to them!  I love what reader Jo Ann Wilson said in a recent article: “I don’t succumb to the challenges of aging and do what I can to keep my body and mind as active as I can, but I am a senior, proud of it, call myself that and am grateful that I am still alive and able to claim every year, wrinkle and gray hair.”  Or Joy Fox, 87, who says:  “The word ‘old’ does describe some people my age, but it does not describe me. I am still young inside – my actual age makes no difference – it is a social classification only, a number on a piece of paper. I retired from a government job at 55, started a business and formed an association in my sixties, which is still going strong 26 years later.” That’s the JourneyWoman mindset! 

Our influential role as women in travel 

Our editorial team also understands our influential and important role as women in travel, as we become more conscious of where and how we travel, and the need for women to lead the way forward through our own example. We write about our first-hand experiences, tapping into our wisdom and perspective as women over 50, to bring you authentic, engaging stories and travel tips on everrything from accessibilty and mobility to safe places to visit and stay. However, we also know that women need to create meaningful change in travel, and are ready to take our place as influencers, advocates and change-makers.

All of our regular contributing writers are accomplished and experienced travel writers and authors. Several of them, like Leyla Alyanak (one of our original women over 50 solo travel bloggers), have been writing about solo travel for decades — it is not a ‘new trend’.  We also have a shared understanding of our role and purpose in support of the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), particularly #5: Gender Equality. 

To acknowledge our role as influencers and ambassadors, we’ve created our own Editorial Guidelines that reflect our ethics and purpose. These are the guidelines that the JourneyWoman team tries to live by when we travel — and they’re the guidelines we encourage our contributors, readers and Women’s Travel Directory members to live by too.  These guidelines include our commitment to travel sustainably, support local and women-owned businesses, treat wildlife with respect and choose eco-friendly and recycled travel products, among others.  These may be ambitious, but they’re a start!

What our Editorial team produces:

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• JourneyWoman Monthly newsletter (first Friday of each month)
• JourneyWoman Book Club newsletter (once a month, the Sunday before the book club meeting on the third Wednesday of each month)
• Things She Loves (once a month, with women-recommended travel gear, published the last Tuesday of each month)
• Travel Deals and Discounts (once a month, featuring small businesses in our Women’s Travel Directory  – we don’t spam you and curate 10 trips or less for each email)  Please note we do not operate any tours or retreats.
• Special mailings from companies in our Women’s Travel Directory with exclusive offers for JourneyWoman readers (on request, one or two a month).

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