I think just about every riding pant I have ever owned has had hip protectors of some sort. My girlfriend is a beginner rider and is about to get new gear - and with lack of funds, she won't be shopping from the top shelves.

What we have found is that a lot of gear these days don't even have inside pockets to add protectors to later on - and very few of those that have such pockets actually supply the armor with the pant (you have to buy them separately, and sometimes from another vendor). This seems to be particular true for ladies pants. This might be because women have wider hips than men. With more diversified hip, waist and bum shape combinations among women than men, in addition to women pants often being more tailored to shape (more form fitted and tight) - the combo mat quickly lead to hip protectors becoming more uncomfortable to wear. In addition, ladies might be more concerned about their figure and how the extra padding makes them look? Or maybe it is just a matter of ladies pants often being a "pinked and shrinked mens pant - where hip protectors simply don't fit well? Whatever the reason - a lot of women pants don't offer the option of hip protectors.

How important are such protectors really? Relative to other protectors like: knee, elbow, shoulder, back, neck, toe, ankle, shin, heel, etc?

How concerned should she be about not having hip protectors?

She is a beginner rider, and her off road riding including gravel roads will be less than 10% of her riding (at least in the beginning). The more technical bits will be limited to a minimum, and everything off the pavement will be taken very carefully.

I am in particular interested to learn what our fellow women adventure riders think.

On my older riding jeans I had hip protectors, but they made the pants uncomfortable to ride in. In addition - the whole point of having such jeans in the first place was for them to look like normal pants when walking about - and with the pads in, they looked strange indeed. In addition, pulling down my pants road side - to take in/out knee and hip protectors - well it led to some odd looks. I ended up removing the hip protectors all together and only wearing knee/shin protectors - but on the outside.

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