[1][2][3] When Elvira's father died, Alexander became one of the wealthiest men in Massachusetts, which allowed them to have their daughter educated[4][page needed] by governesses before attending Miss Graham's Finishing School in New York City, after which she spent time in Paris, and then Dresden, where she acquired fluency in German and French, thus getting familiar with foreign languages that would be essential in her future.

[5][page needed] William introduced Fanny to climbing after their marriage,[6] and together they spent many summers in the White Mountains in New Hampshire; here she summited Mount Washington (6,293 feet or 1,918 metres) several times.

After both Fanny's and William's fathers died, leaving them enormous estates, the couple embarked on their first major European trip, a tour of Scandinavia and Germany.

[15] Less than a year had gone by since Siegfried's birth when the two children were entrusted to nurses, allowing both parents to embark on a series of journeys on a safety bicycle, a recently popular invention.

[16] As a feminist, Fanny considered herself an example of the idea that women could equal and excel over men in the arduous life,[16] and embodied the New Woman ethos of the day.

She completely disregarded societal expectations of the traditional wife committed to family life.Instead, she aimed at a different identity, one that freed her from conventional female responsibilities and that also allowed her to pursue her own ambitions.

[4] Moreover, as Miller points out in her book about women explorers, since the ideal family of the time was a large one and information about birth control was not easily available, William's medical knowledge must have been invaluable.

After his death, according to Pauly, Workman, through her bicycle tours, "aggressively pursued an alternative identity, one that liberated her from the conventional responsibilities of wife and mother and allowed for her interests and ambitions".

[22] Their mountaineering narratives said little about the culture of those remote and sparsely inhabited regions; they included both lyrical descriptions of the sunset, for example, for their popular audience and detailed explanations of geographical features, such as glaciers, for their scientific readership.

[29] Fanny opted not to write a book about her journey to Egypt, likely because she recognised that she could not rely on her bicycle to spark curiosity in the country's saturated touris attractions.

[4] The Workmans' trip to India, Burma, Ceylon, and Java lasted two and a half years, beginning in November 1897, and covered 14,000 miles (23,000 km).

They carried minimal supplies, including tea, sugar, biscuits, cheese, tinned meats, water, pillows, a blanket for each of them, writing materials, and medical and repair kits.

[31] Mrs Workman mentions in "My Asiatic Wanderings" about India "I have wheeled through much enchanting scenery, in the palm and banyan grooves of Orissa, Over the green and scarlet slopes of the Terai...

They hired 45 porters, outfitted them for basic mountain travel, and bought provisions, but costs skyrocketed as news of wealthy Americans circulated in the villages.

[34] Three days into their journey the Workmans reached snow and the porters rebelled; they refused to work in such cold conditions and forced the entire party to return to Darjeeling.

"[37] Labor problems beset all of their expeditions because, as Miller puts it, "Almost alone of Victorian travellers, the Workmans had absolutely no sympathy or even common-sense understanding of the local people, into whose poor and remote villages they burst with trains of followers demanding service and supplies.

Pauly writes, "propelled to the summit by adrenalin and desperation, the foursome lingered only long enough for their instruments to assess that the temperature was ten degrees Fahrenheit [−12 °C] and their elevation was 21,000 feet.

As Isserman, Weaver and Molenaar point out, the fact that she "climbed the mountain at all, without benefit of modern equipment and encumbered by her voluminous skirts, speaks to both her ability and resolve".

[60] Workman was so competitive that she paid a team of French surveyors from the Service Géographique de l'Armée US$13,000 to measure the elevation of the mountain, which was actually 22,205 feet (6,768 m), confirming her record.

[11][61] Pauly explains, "Ironically, her determination to prove herself the equal of any man at lofty elevations culminated with a withering attack on an American woman who tried to surpass her".

Pauly concludes, "If Fanny Workman ever receives the recognition she deserves for her feminist determination to excel at this then-male sport, she will surely be remembered as much for her insistence upon accurate record-keeping as for the elevations she achieved.

When, later, woman occupies her acknowledged position as an individual worker in all fields, as well as those of exploration, no such emphasis of her work will be needed; but that day has not fully arrived, and at present it behooves women, for the benefit of their sex, to put what they do, at least, on record.

[76] No other women, however, climbed in the Himalaya until well after World War I, by which time improvements in equipment and organization had shifted that nature of risks and difficulties of expeditions.

[67] She demonstrated that women were strong enough to thrive outside the home by showing how easy it was for her to endure strenuous physical activities like bicycling long distances in hot, humid places or mountaineering in cold temperatures and high altitudes.

[78] The author of the piece added: "it is possible that some unconscious feeling let us say of the novelty of a woman's intrusion into the domain of exploration so long reserved to man, may in some quarters have existed ... there tended to arise ... an atmosphere shall we say of aloofness?

Colley states, "Away from such petty opinion emanating from society pressures, up high, above the snow line or in distant regions, women climbers could more fully experience equality and power ...

[80] Bryn Mawr established a Fanny Bullock Workman Traveling Fellowship, which is awarded to Ph.D candidates in Archaeology or Art History when funds permit.

[82] One assessment states that although the Workmans excelled at describing meteorological conditions, glaciology, and how high altitudes affected human health and fitness, they were poor topographers.

[83] According to Isserman, Weaver and Molenaar, "that the Workmans were intrepid explorers and climbers none could possibly doubt, but they were also aggressive self-promoters who in their eagerness for recognition and honors sometimes exaggerated the originality and significance of what they had done.

"[47] In their final assessment, Isserman, Weaver and Molenaar say "they had logged more miles and climbed more peaks than anyone to date; they had produced five sumptuously illustrated and widely read expedition volumes; and by simple virtue of her sex Fanny of course had set an invaluable Himalayan precedent.