Women's Backpacks - What's the Difference?

So what are the differences?

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1. Our shoulders are narrower. We tend to have narrower shoulders than men, and having a pack that is too wide can lead to the straps slipping off our body or putting pressure on our shoulders and back, leading to pressure points, rubbing and general discomfort.

• Just a note on women with broad shoulders - just because a woman has broad shoulders, does not necessarily mean a man's backpack will fit her better. Men's backpacks are typically designed for the shoulders to support a lot of the weight in that backpack. This works well for men because their center of gravity is higher up in the body, around the torso area. So it's easier for them to carry the weight with their shoulders.

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2. Our torsos are typically shorter. The length from the shoulder to the hip on women tends to be shorter than for men, usually around 15"-17" on average; packs that consider this will allow you to adjust the weight and carry that weight in the proper spots. So it makes sense to find a backpack with a smaller torso.

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3. We have boobs (S-curve shoulder straps). As women, we're told to find a backpack with S-curve straps so that they'll wrap around our boobs better. And it's true, that curve in the strap helps prevent the straps from smashing down our boobs and, instead, contour around it. Many ultralight cottage companies now sell interchangeable s-curve straps and/or smaller torso backpack sizes if needed. But, is the right torso size and s-curve straps really enough to create a comfortable fit for our female bodies? For example:

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• Are you a short woman with a long torso, hourglass figure, and 'busty'?

• Are you tall with a short torso, broad shoulders, narrow hips, and small boobs?

• Or, are you average height with a proportionate torso, but have narrow shoulders, wide hips, and big boobs?

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The point is, you are probably not the "average-sized woman" who can comfortably fit into the standard-size women's backpack of Small, Medium, or Large. And as a woman, you already know you are not a small man and so you typically have trouble trying to comfortably fit into a small men's backpack, much less a "unisex" backpack. If you're looking for an ultralight backpack that's under 3 pounds, much less one that can support multiple days of food or long water carries, then your options for a comfortably fitting ultralight backpack for your female form are much, much less.

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4. Our hips are different. The hipbelts on women's specific fits tend to be canted upwards to cradle the hip bones and displace the weight evenly. If you require hipbelts for a particular trip, then you probably may have struggled, at one point or another, with pain and/or bruising on your hips from the hipbelt "digging in." It's probably because the hipbelt didn't have enough of an angled flare to cup around our angled hips, or you needed the hipbelt to extend longer somehow.

 

Your biology at birth affects the way your skeleton develops and changes during life. Every woman's hips are unique, just like our fingerprints. And they are definitely very different from a man's hips. The major differences between a woman's hips and a man's hips is the shape of the pelvis:

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• Our pelvises are broader - women can give birth, so we need a larger pelvis to accommodate a growing baby and the room needed for the surrounding organs to shift around as that baby continues to grow and move towards the birth canal.

• Our hips are wider - since we have a wider pelvis, it creates wider hips for us which also causes our hip socket joints to be angled a bit more forward. 

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Thus, when compared to a man's hips, our hips are wider, flare out, and angle forward. Hipbelts need to be designed to accommodate these nuances. If you get pain and bruising from your hipbelts, where it feels like they're digging in, then you probably may need a hipbelt that is more angled, and/or has the ability to expand and adjust to a larger size.

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5. Center of gravity. Women tend to have a lower center of gravity due to their anatomy. This means that if your pack weight is not distributed evenly, you might find yourself being pulled backwards and forcing yourself to compensate by leaning forwards more. Women's bags are designed with a lower center of gravity to help distribute the weight evenly, allowing for more comfort.​

• Women's center of gravity is closer to the pelvis area. If a broad-shouldered woman wore a man's backpack weighing about 20% of her weight (the standard calculation of how much weight a person should carry), that does not necessarily mean she will be able to comfortably carry that weight. If anything, she may feel top heavy wearing a man's backpack, or may feel like the backpack is pulling away from her. Unless, of course, the entire weight of all her gear is "ultralight" to what is most comfortable for her, and so the design of her backpack may not have much of a bearing on her ability to carry the weight. Thus, a woman cannot assume a man's backpack will work for her just because she has broader shoulders. Her lower center of gravity and the design of the backpack will affect how well she will be able to carry a heavier weight, or not. 

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Final Thoughts

Women's bodies are so nuanced. Sojourn Trekkr addresses these nuances by designing our gear with multiple points of adjustment. If you're a woman searching for a backpack for your next outdoor adventure, find your nearest outdoor outfitter and start your search with those specific features that are meant for a woman's body: s-curve straps, adjustable torso, and angled hipbelts. Look to see how many points of adjustment they have built-in. Once you've found a few backpacks with those features, try on all of them and see if one of them is a better fit. If those don't work, look online for companies with a good return policy and try on everything else to see if those will work, then just return the ones that don't.

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