We came across this article by Holly Heyser in Shotgun Life recently and it reminded us of something we kept running into when getting this blog off of the ground.
As a woman hunter, Holly writes that she was surprised to learn that there aren’t many women who go hunting alone or with other women. In “Women Duck Hunters: Growing in Number but Lagging in Independence?,” she writes that even when hunting with a guide, women are more likely to go hunting with a male companion.
This is not shocking to us. (But we are glad that a seasoned female hunter was shocked.)
Circling back to what this reminded us of.
We started this blog wanting to share tips and tricks, recipes and gear advice, sure. But we really wanted to share women’s stories.
Both working in conservation at the time, we brainstormed a long list of women we knew and admired who we could ask to contribute. We had a pretty unanimously positive response when we told these women about our project, but started to hear a common theme when we asked for a post to share.
“Oh, I’m no expert. I wouldn’t have anything to say.”
This was not always the response, mind you, but we heard it often enough to take note.
We were speaking to women who, to us at least, were knowledgable and awesome. However, they paused when we asked them to own that knowledge and share it publicly.
We’d love to hear some of your thoughts. What makes us hesitant to “own” the identity of hunter? At least in thinking that we may have something of use to share to interested parties.
And maybe more importantly, what can we do to encourage owning the hunter identity?
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