Why We Need Women Hunters

If we want our sport to survive, it can't be an all-boys club

When I first started hunting (way back when you had to walk uphill and barefoot through the snow both ways to your treestand), my father’s hunt club wouldn’t let me use the bathroom in the clubhouse.

Because I was a girl.

Instead, I had to teeter precariously on a single two-by-four laid across an open hole out back, my Daddy with his back to me, keeping guard to make sure no one saw me as I stripped away layers so I could pee.

It was rough. While I’m a veritable pro at urinating outside now, as a shy, skinny 12-year-old girl, that first deer season was rough.

It isn’t the freezing weather, the long sits, or the sound of the deer dogs running hot on a trail that carved deep grooves in my memory.

It is that splintered plank.

It’s being relegated to a cold truck after the hunt while all the men warmed themselves inside.

It is that haunting feeling of being unwelcome and out of place.

I never set out to bust gender stereotypes, and I certainly never wanted to ruin anyone’s good time.

All I’ve ever wanted to do is hunt.

I wrote an essay for Field & Stream that ran this week as part of their Mother’s Day series called “Thanks, Mom.” It’s called “Mothers and Daughters Hunt, Too.”

The piece tells the story of my youngest daughter’s first Youth Day deer hunt. Everyone assumed she was going with her dad because how weird is it to hunt with your mom? We were gawked at in the woods. It was like two women hunting alone was some sort of circus sideshow.

I rarely read the comments section of my articles. It’s not a criticism I’m avoiding; it’s just that I don’t have time for the anti-hunting negativity that inevitably ends up on every outdoor website.

But this time, I made an exception. I hoped to find other women hunters posting about their experiences in the woods.

I wasn’t disappointed. Several women responded with a hearty “Yes, we do!” interspersed between some men posting photos of their wives and daughters with turkeys and deer.

As expected, commenters were calling me a “psychopath” and accusing me of “raising a whole family of sadistic people.”

Whatever. We eat well, and I sleep just fine at night, knowing my children have become some of the finest human beings I know.

But what disappointed me was the few comments that insinuated I needed to stay quiet and maybe just make a sandwich.

While I concede that I do indeed make a damn good sandwich, that doesn’t mean I don’t belong in the woods. That there are still men who would deprive me of doing something that brings me joy, the thing that makes me feel most alive, is a pretty shitty reality.

It makes me feel like I’m still sitting on that precariously-balanced piece of splintered wood out back.

We NEED Women Hunters

Since my lack of a Y chromosome has already stirred the pot, I’ll go ahead and stir it a little more. The hunting world shouldn’t just accept women hunters; they should seek us out.

Hunter recruitment and retention have steadily declined since the 1980’s. As stereotypical weathered and rugged outdoorsmen grow old and grey, they aren’t being replaced with new hunters. This country has seen a decline of over 70% of licensed hunters since I first hit the deer woods.

This is a big deal, whether you’re a hunter or not.

Hunting is without peer when it comes to generating revenue for conservation efforts. It is literally an economic force for conservation.

Through their state hunting licenses and fees alone, hunters contribute approximately $796 million a year to conservation programs.

But the funding doesn’t stop there.

In 1937, largely supported by outdoor sportsmen, the Federal Aid in Wildlife Restoration Act, more commonly known as the Pittman-Robertson Act, was passed. This foundational piece of legislation placed an 11% excise tax on firearms, ammunition, and archery equipment. Since its inception, the Pittman-Robertson Act has generated more than $14 billion specifically for conservation. The Act also funds the US Fish and Wildlife Service and state fish and game agencies nationwide, with more than $700 million annually.

As our Boomer parents age out of the sport, the dollars they spent on licenses and the taxes they paid on guns, gear, and ammo aren’t being replaced. That money almost exclusively funds this country’s conservation efforts.

Without that funding, many of our wild spaces and the wildlife that calls them home will disappear.

And as the number of hunters declines, so does our voice. There are strong anti-hunting forces at work in this country hellbent on destroying our right to hunt, and those forces like to play dirty. Hunters need voting power, and that power only comes with numbers.

We can’t afford to be picky about who replaces Grandpa in the woods and on the water. Women make up 51.1% of the population. That’s a massive pool of potential hunters.

The truth is, big, burly, macho men who think my place is in the kitchen, you need us to preserve your traditions. You need our dollars and our political support, or the sport you know and love goes bye-bye.

Plus, only women can be mothers. You can’t deny our influence in raising children. I raised mine to love the outdoors.

And while you may want to exclude my daughters, I’m here to make sure they get to pee in the clubhouse.

It’s high time we tossed out that splintery two-by-four.