I was in Zion National Park this past weekend, and noticed something so heartbreaking and infuriating, and such a slap in the face of inclusion, that I cannot believe our national parks would allow it.

My friend and I were staying in the Zion Lodge, the only hotel inside the park, which is run by a private corporation and has a gift shop onsite. In the store was a spinning rack with wood-paneled utility knives, personalized in a variety of ways, primarily with names. In fact, the top of the rack says, “Find Your Name!”

A woman and her daughter were spinning the rack and the daughter was clearly disappointed. 

They only had boy names. 

The mother was telling the daughter to choose another souvenir, but the daughter said it was the only thing she wanted. 

I can’t imagine why she wanted it, though. According to this rack, clearly girls have no need for silly things like utility knives. I mean, what would they do with them? File their nails? C’mon – there was a rack of earrings right there!

But it gets worse. 

Several of the knives, instead of names, had other kinds of personalization — #1 Dad, #1 Son, Best Grandpa (and in fairness, they did have Daughter and Mom versions of these), but they also had Dude, Tough Guy, The Boss, Outlaw Biker, World’s Greatest Fisherman, World’s Greatest Hunter, Handyman, and every military branch. 

The message is unmistakable. Camping, hunting, fishing, motorcycles, exploring national parks, nature, hiking, wilderness, military, the outdoors – these are for boys. Girls not welcome. 

One of the reasons this hit me so hard is that I was given my first Swiss Army Knife at the age of twelve, and I absolutely treasured it! I was visiting my aunt and she had a group of friends over and somehow the conversation turned to protecting the environment. Now, I was a serious tree-hugger and a bit of an activist at twelve (not quite Greta Thunberg level, but something I took very seriously), and I got into a heated conversation with one of the adults about things corporations needed to do better to protect our planet. As the discussion was winding down, one of my aunt’s other friends stood up, walked across the room and handed me his Swiss Army Knife. He said, “That’s for you. You’re going to do great things and you might need it.” 

That knife is sitting on the shelf above my desk as I type this. It is one of the few possessions in my life that I truly care about because it felt like being acknowledged and treated as an equal, even though I was only a kid. And a girl. 

At the store, I went and got the clerk and asked where the rack was of female names.
She said there wasn’t one.
I asked why, and she said, “We can only sell what our vendor sends us.”

So there it is.

In the second-most-visited national park in the United States, no one bothered to demand a rack of names that would be inclusive of 50% of the population. 

Here’s where inclusion requires effort, intention, prioritization and sometimes sacrifice – even if the female names will sell less, even if retail space is precious in that location, it doesn’t matter!

Have a rack with female names or don’t have one at all. 

Believe me, as a Valerie, I know that not every spelling of every name can be included. Mine was often not on those racks. But having ZERO female names is not just missing the Melyssa who wishes she could find hers. It is literally excluding an entire portion of the population and telling them, “This is not for you. Move along.”

It is heartbreaking!

And how could the Park Service leadership completely fail to notice this and fix it? Probably because inclusion is not a priority in that organization. 

Years ago, I gave the talk “How Women Can Succeed in the Workplace: Harnessing the Power of the Female Brain” at the Women’s Rights National Historical Park in Seneca Falls, New York. Afterwards, several of the female employees told me how grim it is for women in the Park Service, especially when it comes to advancing their careers. They referred to highly mediocre men as getting put in charge of women who are significantly more experienced and competent than they are. Even incompetent men who screw up repeatedly get what they sarcastically referred to as, “disciplinary promotions.” 

And as disappointing as this is, I cannot be surprised.
The National Parks in the U.S. are one of our greatest treasures.
And very, very non-diverse.
Not only in leadership at the Park Service, but among employees, and worse – among visitors. 

Surveys of U.S. National Parks show less than two percent of visitors are Black, less than five percent are Hispanic, and around five percent are Asian, significantly underrepresenting these communities in the U.S. population. Prior to the Civil Rights Act of 1964, many people of color were legally barred from, or segregated at, public recreational sites, including national and state parks. It appears that there has not been a concerted effort to overcome that history. 

At Zion and Bryce Canyon, we encountered about a dozen park rangers and other employees during the visit. 
Every one of them was white. 
Every. Single. One. 

On the trails and throughout both parks, we saw hundreds of visitors.
There were two Black families among all of them. Two.
By the second day, I was actively looking for non-white faces.
There were very few, and many of those who were there were visiting from other countries.
Non-white Americans simply do not go to or work at their national parks at the same rate as other populations, and there must be a reason. Women don’t advance in their careers at the Park Service and there must be a reason. Which means these are fixable problems.  

Inclusion requires intent, effort and prioritization. 

Every aspect of a visitor’s experience needs to be examined to see where they are being excluded.
Every aspect of an employee’s experience needs to be examined to see where they are being excluded.
And those things barring inclusion need to change.
If that requires resources and commitment, so be it. 

Please don’t ever make another little girl feel like she doesn’t belong in any space, especially not a space as vast and inspiring as the national parks.

They were built to preserve our country’s natural beauty and be welcoming…to all.
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