Whether you visit the Taj Mahal or go trekking in Ladakh, chances are you will find a woman guide leading a group of travellers. Just a few decades back, women were rarely seen in the male-dominated field of tour guiding. Most were confined to city tours in the metros.The long hours away from home, scepticism from family and society, and erratic payments hardly made it a “respectable” profession then. But, as times changed, women tour guides, too, began to gain acceptance as professionals.A Melbourne-based company that offers immersive trips across the world actively recruits women guides. In 2016, Usha Mary seized the opportunity to become its first woman tour leader from South India. “Though my husband, Aathi, motivated me, our families vehemently opposed it,” says Usha, who grew up in the countryside near Madurai. When she chose to work as a certified tour guide, leaving her five-year job as a college lecturer, she had to cross cultural barriers and endure snide remarks. Married at 29 into a different religion, the pressure to have children was immense. “I was fed up and couldn’t handle it,” she recalls. Being a tour guide gave her a sense of strength as she met travellers from different cultures. “Now, for six to seven months, I am away from home, leading back-to-back trips,” says Usha.Monika Sharma (extreme right).For Monika Sharma, a history postgraduate and pan-India tourist guide from Agra since 2010, it was the gender bias in the tourism industry that frustrated her. “They would call me only when there was a solo woman traveller, not as a general guide, so I hardly worked twice a month,” says Monika. Now freelancing for a US-based tourism platform, she leads customised tours. “It is a nice platform — they value us and pay better wages,” she says.Over the past two decades, several foreign and domestic tour companies as well as large hotels have begun hiring women guides. The rise of women-only travel groups and solo women travellers, too, has given a boost to women guides.For a woman visiting from abroad, a fellow woman guide often brings warmth and understanding. If you scroll through the list of licensed tourist guides on the website of the Tourism Guide Association of Mumbai, more than half are women. Many are fluent in foreign languages — French, Spanish, German, Japanese, Russian, Italian and even Thai.Trekkers get themselves clicked with Neha Rai (2nd from left).Neha Rai, a 24-year-old trekking and mountaineering guide from Sikkim, even leads all-male groups. “In mountaineering, what matters is skill,” she says, confidently. Having lost her father early, the mountain girl from Dentam village battled hardship and poverty, earning pocket money by guiding tourists in the hills. Her grit led her to the mountaineering institute in Darjeeling, and today she works as a trekking and mountaineering guide in Sikkim and Ladakh.Ladakh’s pioneering trekking guide Thinlas Chorol (third from right).One of the pioneering professional trekking guides from Ladakh, 43-year-old Thinlas Chorol, leads both women-only and mixed groups. Hailing from the small village of Takmachik, she got training at the Nehru Institute of Mountaineering in Uttarkashi. She longed to trek professionally, but the only option for women was guiding tourists through monasteries and cultural sites. Determined to change that, she founded a travel company in 2009. She promotes community-based eco-tourism, hosting guests in village homestays.Guides at Tadoba Andhari Tiger reserve.Sometimes, government initiatives can spark interest in professions women had never considered. Content with domesticity, Niranjana Meshram from a village in the buffer zone of Tadoba Andhari Tiger Reserve in Maharashtra had never imagined birdwatching could be so fascinating.“In 2019, the forest department organised a week-long birding workshop,” says Niranjana. Seven local women were selected as birding guides. Now an avid birder, she has documented around 200 bird species in the region. She credits ecologists Anirudh Chaoji and Pooja Pawar, who train local communities around the forest to generate livelihoods.Yangchen Tongden Lepcha, who runs a tour and travel company in Sikkim, has been associated with the state’s tourism sector since 2013. As a mentor, she says she has seen women guides evolve over time.While Neha says she receives strong support, others admit the struggle continues. Yet, given the right opportunities, they believe guiding can be a fulfilling career for women who are passionate about travel.— The writer is a freelance contributor