Meaningful travel for women
Social impact, economic empowerment, and authentic connection for women all over the world.
Our Why
Sororal’s mission is to use the power of travel to advance gender equality and fight gender-based violence all over the world. In an industry where women make up more than half of the workforce but are drastically underrepresented in its leadership, we know that gender equality in travel and tourism is crucial for effective social change and a sustainable future.
By partnering and consulting with women entrepreneurs, rights advocates, and thought leaders in every destination, we take small groups of women on trips of a lifetime that are designed to prioritize the security, economic independence, and elevation of women in all aspects of our operations. Our trip itineraries are crafted specifically around giving our travel dollars to women-owned or led businesses in all of our destinations, and to making a financial contribution of $1,000 per trip to a local nonprofit working to end violence against women on the ground.
We started this company because we believe in the infinite power of meaningful travel to build connections between and among women, open minds, highlight new perspectives, heal souls, and create a community in a way that supports our sisters all over the world in leading secure and self-determined lives.
Our Travel Ethos
Sororal strives to provide safe spaces for women to build authentic connections, safely explore extraordinary places, and support the economic independence of women-led businesses and nonprofits at every destination. With mindful cultural exchange, fair compensation, and the community at the heart of our experiences, Sororal seeks to change the conversation around what effective, equitable support looks like in tourism – and put the future of success for women directly into women’s hands.
Regenerative travel is a bedrock of our travel ethos. Not just a buzzword (!), this is a holistic approach to travel that goes beyond sustainable tourism and aims to actively restore and rejuvenate the destinations we visit. We understand and implement this concept in our work through a multi-textured approach that includes an expanded focus on gender equity and cultural considerations in addition to the environment. We are guided in this by the United Nations’ 17 Sustainable Development Goals and, in particular, the Fifth UN SDG: To achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls.
As tourism takes off again, we are all-in for setting new travel standards and rebuilding meaningful opportunities for women in this industry around the world.
Come #TravelLikeASister with us and let’s use travel as a catalyst for social change!
Our approach to philanthropy
“Philanthropy does have a role in advancing gender equality, of course, but that is not a leading role. Feminist movements lead, and philanthropy must follow.”
Françoise Moudouthe
African Women’s Development Fund
Sororal’s commitment to mindful travel includes our commitment to listen and learn from others and their experiences. This extends to our work in supporting and implementing feminist approaches to philanthropy, which incorporate principles of trust, accountability, participation, and collaboration. In striving to work collaboratively and respectfully with local nonprofit partners, we are incorporating these guideposts into a framework for our philanthropic work:
Commit to embracing feminist principles of egalitarianism, collaboration, inclusiveness, trust and accountability, care, and respect of agency and autonomy.
Understand the role and place of philanthropy; specifically, that feminist movements lead, and philanthropy plays a supporting role.
Focus on shifting power to feminist movements by lifting their voice, standing in solidarity with them, and taking their direction for how we can best advocate for their work.
In every destination, we partner with local nonprofit organizations working on the ground in the fight to end gender-based violence; to every extent possible, we seek to support organizations that are grassroots-led and serve local women and children. Sororal makes a financial contribution of $1,000 per trip to our local nonprofit partner in each destination, and we offer our support to advocate alongside them through ongoing dialogue and sharing of stories and resources.
We believe in a commitment to feminist leadership that uses all available resources, power, and skills in an inclusive and non-oppressive manner to bring others together toward a collective goal, whether it be ending violence against women or gender equality more broadly. In every exchange, we take our direction from our nonprofit partner – we are here to support their needs, not our own.
Our Founders
Megan Ryder-Burbidge
Co-Founder
Megan has brought an understanding of policy and business to roles all over the world, from providing specialized Higher Education training programs in Singapore, to working at the Canadian Embassy in Cairo, to supporting the Canadian High Commission in New Delhi. Megan has devoted her (limited) spare time to supporting advocacy initiatives that address and support gender equality and violence against women, including serving as past Chair on the Board of Directors of the Lanark County Interval House and Community Support. She’s passionate about seeing and understanding as much of the world as humanly possible.
Linsey Sherman-Zekulin
Co-Founder
Linsey’s background is in law and nonprofit work, with a focus on family justice systems and children’s mental health. She has a law degree from the University of Ottawa and a Master’s in Nonprofit Management from Columbia University. Linsey is the past Co-Chair on the Board of Directors of the Lanark County Interval House and Community Support. She’s passionate about protecting strong family systems and the role that feminist enterprises like SORORAL play on both a micro and macro level.
Are you interested in travelling with us, becoming a local partner, or introducing your nonprofit organization to Sororal? We’d love to hear from you!