Women and Hunting in North America
“It is not in women that the pioneer spirit sitrs; the horizon does not beckon them; hills and rivers are to them a barrier, not an invitation to explore. It was the men only who pressed on across the great plains; the women had little more to say than the horses who drew the wagons in which they sat.” -- (Anonymous 1930, quoted in Stange 2001)
Abstract
In this paper we briefly examine how the women's rights movement in North America and Canada evolved during the early 20th century. Then, we explain how this movement and the growing number of female hunters are interconnected and how they stimulated one another. Finally, we give examples of exceptional huntresses from the past and present, and end with a suggestion for how to participate in this empowerment.
Suffragists in North America
In the late 19th and early 20th century, two main arguments were put forward by feminists to secure greater civil and political rights, and to achieve influence in North American civil society. One was premised on the common humanity that men and women share, and hence, that women should be able to attend university, to vote and have equal employment rights, as a matter of natural justice. The other emphasized women's differences from men. In particular, their universal role as mothers which, according to the suffragists, specifically equipped them to participate in a wide range of reform and political campaigns. North America's, and specifically Canada's earliest efforts to bring about women's rights were led by a movement of diverse women and men across the country. Beginning in the 1870s', the early suffragists campaigned for women's right to vote on equal terms as men, beginning with local government. The federal voting right wasn't granted until 1918, marking a significant step toward Canada's acceptance of what is now considered a self-evident right. Many North Americans insisted that women stayed behind the scene, where they were supposed to look after the family. Despite this, and the many other restrictions women faced, a growing number of women entered the paid workforce; confronting governments, writing petitions and organizing parades. Although these strategies brought early successes in North America, the road to full enfranchisement was a long struggle.
Women & Work
The possibilities that women had, and the social constructs built around them, depended on the region and their status. Up until the early 20th century, married women lost their property to their husbands, and the husbands were legally the only one responsible for supporting the family. For unmarried women and widows, there were several ways to provide themselves with an income. The only profession for women that built up a pension was teaching. However, purchasing, lending and reselling land was also a common way to earn money for urban women, and studies have shown that women contributed to the booming housing market around WWI (Patterson 2001). In more rural areas it was common for unmarried women to own small farming businesses. But in the early 20th century, parallel to the rise of the suffragists movement, a growing number of women in rural areas broke the social constructs by participating in activities that were, and still are, male-dominated: hunting.
Women and Hunting
Although some women hunted for the necessity of supporting themselves and had little interest in women's political equality, others saw a direct connection between "bullets and ballots", as Mary Zeiss Stange states (Stange 2005). Amongst many other examples like the famous Annie Oakley and Alberta Clair, Stange refers to Grace Gallatin Seton-Thompson (1872-1959), who wrote A Women Tenderfoot (1900). In this book, Thompson writes about the empowering experiences she had when she joined her husband on a hunting trip, and she gives advice to other women. "This Book Is A Tribute To The West. I can only add that the events related really happened in the rocky mountains of the United States and Canada; and this is why, being a woman, I wanted to tell about them, in the hope that some going-to-Europe-in-the-summer-woman may be tempted to go West instead." After her experiences on this trip she became a well-known suffragist and fought for women's independence, carrying her gun around wherever she went.
The Present: Gerry Bracewell
Following these empowered, independent women of the past, Gerry Bracewell left her Alberta home in the 1930s' when she was sixteen years old to live in the mountains. Gerry became the first licensed female hunting guide (1945) in British Colombia. Nowadays, more and more women enter the Wilderness field, symbolizing change in a male-dominated society. BCTMO Conservation Club, tucked away in the BC wilderness and founded by Gerry's son Kevan Bracewell, has been empowering individuals since 1990, to break through any social and cultural limitations to achieve high-level personal development. Guide schools, wilderness trips on horseback, and internships enable many women from all over the world to join this movement and follow the steps of these remarkable Outdoorswomen from the past. Read about their transformational experiences in the blog and see how you can join the movement yourself.
