50 years since first woman scaled Everest

PARIS, May 16 (AFP): On May 16, 1975, Japan's Junko Tabei became the first woman to climb to the top of Mount Everest.

Half a century later, the world's highest mountain is set to record its thousandth ascent by a woman.

Scaling the 8,849 metre-high (29,032-foot-high) peak has mainly been a male achievement.

By May 2025 women had reached the top 962 times, while men had got there 11,955 times, according to an AFP analysis of figures from the Himalayan Database.

When Tabei reached the peak of Everest in 1975, 38 men had preceded her.

With her all-woman team, she had struggled to find sponsors for her expedition, often being told that they would be better off looking after their children. "All men limit our likes and I do not want to be limited," Tabei wrote in her notebook upon her return. Eleven days later, a Tibetan woman, Phantog, reached the peak from the opposite side.