Women Hunters

Ashley Look
I have lately been wondering about us women who hunt. Perhaps it’s a self-discovery sort of thing considering I define myself as a hunter.
I am not concerned with the number of women that hunt as much as I am concerned with the way women hunt. Including myself. I think the ways women hunt is a major factor in the reasons for why a lower number of women hunt. If we get women to hunt differently, this could help increase the number of women hunters. However, this same strategy can ultimately decrease the number of women hunters.
Let me explain:
Think of the all of the people you know that hunt. Ask them how they got started if you haven’t already. Most or all will say their father, grandfather, or high school friends. No mothers or grandmothers are directly part of the socialization regarding hunting. Sure, they may support hunting and perhaps hunt themselves, but women are not taking an active role in introducing their loved ones to hunting. Several factors contribute to this, none of which I want to even begin talking about.
Now think of all of the women you know that hunt. Ask them how they got started. All of them will say their father, or in rare cases, their grandfather or husband. This says one thing about women hunters: they rely on a male partner to be introduced into hunting.
While superficially beneficial, this leads to two general categories of negative consequences:
1) Women tend to always rely on hunting with a male companion.
2) Women who do not have a male companion will not be introduced to hunting and those that already hunt will hunt much less or stop hunting altogether.
All of my personal experiences can be applied to my theories regarding women hunters. I consider myself considerably independent for a female hunter. However, the only true independence I had from any male partnership was when I turkey hunted spring of 2010. I packed my own gear, found my own place to hunt, paid for my own license and was prepared to harvest a turkey without the help or companionship of a male. I am the only female that I know of that has taken it this far. I know women throughout the U.S. do hunt on their own, but to my knowledge, none of my many female friends has hunted completely on her own.
In contrast, all of my other hunting experiences involved the help of a male partner. During the gun deer season, I take my sister out hunting. However, at the end of shooting hours, I go back to the cabin and tell the guys that the stand they set up for us “must be bad luck.” When I went out west to hunt mule deer and pronghorn in Wyoming, I spent the entire day hiking the backcountry on my own. But, when I needed help field dressing the pronghorn or sighting my rifle, I relied on my male friends to help me out.
This parallels the experiences of my female peers. In most or all cases, women depend on a male partner to be introduced to hunting and to maintain their identity as a hunter. Hunting is typically a social experience for both men and women, but it is clear that men tend to be more willing to experience hunting completely independent of hunting partners.
Perhaps it seems judgmental to say that women are not independent enough hunters. But I think that despite the social nature of hunting and of women, women need to begin to find a more wholly intrinsic reason to hunt. I think then we can find hunting a more liberating pastime if we truly can participate in hunting independent of other persons.