Katrina Arpin remembers what it was like to get dressed to go hunting 15 years ago, when she got her start in the wilds of Minnesota.
“I wore men’s boots, men’s pants that came up to my arm pits – we didn’t have ladies’ clothing,” she said. “Now, it’s so much easier for girls to go hunting. I love being able to wear women’s hunting clothes and to be able to shoot a lightweight bow. I think women are naturally better archery shots, because they’re steady and patient – if they get the right equipment.”
B.B. Gillen of the N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission’s Becoming an Outdoor Woman program said that there’s so many manufacturers recognizing the increase in women’s participation in hunting and putting the kind of gear on the shelves that will attract women’s attention.
“I’m just tickled to see it,” she said. “You’ve got more hunting clothes for women, more stuff available. I’ve always been a tomboy, but even the foo-foo girls are interested in it now.”
Sporting goods store owner Shannon Lyndon said many manufacturers are producing equipment and clothing for women that has a splash of pinks or purples that allows women to buy “something a little more personal – like a pink release aid, or a splash of pink on a bow.”
One of the big impacts of having more women in the hunting world, according to Lyndon, may be replacing a generation of hunters who are leaving.
“We have lost a lot of the older generation in hunting, and the 18- to 30-year-old crowd isn’t hunting as much,” he said. “If I can help put a woman in the woods, or maybe somebody from the younger generation, that helps our industry a lot.”
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