MONTPELIER, Vermont — More women are taking up the largely male-dominated sport of hunting to stock their freezers with local foods and as cultural influences, including movie heroines and marketers, make it more socially acceptable.
Many of the new female hunters did not grow up hunting and are joining spouses or boyfriends in the sport, researchers say. Hunting outfitters are tapping into that. Movies like “The Hunger Games,” ”The Hobbit,” and “Brave,” which feature skilled female archers, have driven more girls and women to the sport, researchers say.
According to the most recent data from the National Survey of Fishing, Hunting, and Wildlife-Associated Recreation, the number of female hunters rose from 1.2 million in 2006 to 1.5 million in 2011, a 25 percent increase. From 2001 to 2011, the percentage of hunters who were female rose from 9 percent to 11 percent.
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One of them is Tammy Miller, 46, of Fairfax, Vermont, a bow hunter who last week got a 931-pound bull moose, setting an archery record in Vermont, after scouting the area for weeks.
She got interested in hunting more than 10 years ago after divorcing and becoming a single parent trying to make ends meet. She then met the man who is now her husband, an avid hunter who taught her and bought her first bow.
“Once I started, the experience of being quiet in nature and being able to provide for my family, I was hooked,” Miller said.
For fellow hunter Cheryl Frank Sullivan, 34, of Underhill, Vermont, hunting provides a sense of empowerment to be able to be self-sufficient.
Now more women are joining in the sport, and researchers say marketers are helping to lure them in.
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