Celebrating Women And Hunting In Alaska

When I told a girlfriend I had gone duck hunting, she asked, “Why?”

At the time, my reason for going was to learn. The idea of hunting – not the reality – appealed to me as someone who eats meat and had not born any of the hands-on responsibility of obtaining it. I was also accustomed to sterile environments at work and at home. Everything on the duck flats was an affront to cleanliness and comfort. Yet, I fell in love with it. …

… It may be worth noting that women have been hunters for a very long time, and hunting has nothing to do with gender. Depending on why we hunt, our focus and our obligations change, and it’s less important how we identify ourselves than how we stay true to the reasons why we hunt.