Mandy Claypoole spends her downtime bird watching with a group of female friends on her mother’s grain farm in Fennelton.
For Claypoole, a 27-year-old physician’s assistant who lives in Butler, one of America’s fastest-growing pastimes is as much about sisterhood as songbirds.
“I think women bond in the outdoors as much as men,” she said. “It just may not be as obvious.”
Claypoole was introduced to birding at a National Wild Turkey Federation Women in the Outdoors event three years ago. She plans to try her hand at spinning wool, birdhouse building, and beekeeping at this year’s program, April 19, at the Bullcreek Sportsmen’s Club in Tarentum. It is one of dozens of Women in the Outdoors events the federation is offering across the state in coming months, in an effort to attract future hunters and conservation stewards.
Shooting sports still top the agenda, but with just 6 percent of Pennsylvania women now hunting, the federation has broadened its appeal beyond bullets and bows.
“Although archery and shotguns are popular, not every woman is interested, so we offer a lot of other things like backpacking, kayaking and backyard habitat,” said national Women in the Outdoors coordinator Tammy Mowry of Butler. “Women come to learn, and they come for the camaraderie.”
Recruiting women to the outdoors, and ultimately to a conservation ethic, means recognizing their interests often differ from men’s, said Ted Lee Eubanks, whose Austin-based company Fermata Inc. has been helping the Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources develop ways to market state parks and other amenities.
“In some ways, there’s a real schism between what men and women enjoy,” he said. “The activities men rated highest were the least favored by women.”
Big game hunting was No. 1 with Pennsylvania men, followed in order by small game hunting, football, migratory bird hunting, fishing for migratory species, surfing, wind surfing, golf, and primitive camping.
For women, it was in-line skating, soccer, outdoors volleyball, caving, boat tours, watching and photographing birds, sailing, horseback riding, and wildflower photography, Eubanks said.
Some of those activities have a strong social component, which is a big draw with women, Eubanks said.
“I hate to make generalizations, but women are far more likely to enjoy the outdoors in a social group. Men do also — that’s one of the appeals of golf — although hunting is an activity a lot of men do alone.”
For women, safety is also a concern, said Eubanks. “Facilitated activities are appealing.”
Pennsylvania state parks officials have only recently begun to explore ways of attracting new users, including minorities and women. DCNR is about to release an outdoors recruitment study that first took shape at the Governor’s Outdoors Conference in State College a year ago.
“Historically, how you managed state parks is by serving whoever knocked on the door and it hasn’t been women,” said Eubanks. “But that doesn’t mean the need, the demand, isn’t there.”
Venture Outdoors, one of the region’s biggest recreation boosters, seems to already have figured that out.
Participation is overwhelmingly female in most of the 230 different activities Venture Outdoors offers and they quickly sell out, said program director Rob Walters.
“Some of the most popular are specialty hikes. They’re a nice couple of hours in the woods, followed by a treat, like wine and cheese or hot chocolate,” he said. “It’s an easy way to get outdoors, and a lot of people graduate to day treks or rock climbing.”
Aside from the social appeal, women are often more adventurous than men, Walters said. “It’s not like we’re taking them sky diving. But I think women are more willing to try new things, and they like the idea of making new friends.”
And while the bulk of Venture Outdoors participants are in their late 20s to early 40s, the region’s older population is also represented, shattering misperceptions about age.
“An 84-year-old woman came snow-shoeing with us this winter,” Walters said.
Although women are making strides in outdoors recreation, the gender divide remains stubbornly intact when it comes to Pennsylvania’s more traditional activities: hunting and fishing. Despite a modest increase in female hunter numbers in recent years, fewer than 10 percent of women fish or hunt in Pennsylvania, although they are an avid minority.
Lisa Diehl, 35, of Overbrook, became the first woman to compete with the Holiday Park Bassbusters and now is fishing the Women’s Bassmaster Tour. That means juggling a full-time job as an adult education counselor with the demands of a Southern tournament circuit.
“I wanted to take my fishing to a whole new level,” said Diehl. “I wanted to meet like-minded people and see and fish new places. The competitiveness was part of it.”
Diehl has tried to interest her female friends in fishing, but none has taken the bait. They don’t know what they’re missing, she said.
“Women are natural anglers. They have the patience and sensitivity for it. I do think it helps if kids are introduced to fishing at an early age. I learned to fish from my mother and an aunt.”
Heather Seitz of Allison Park would like to see more women on streams, too. As captain of the Pennsylvania U.S. Youth Fly Fishing Team, which competed against international youth anglers last summer in State College, Seitz, 19, wants to make fishing a career.
“I’d like to teach women and youths,” she said, “maybe get into guiding, maybe even putting together camps.
“Other women need to know this isn’t just a male sport and they can enjoy it very much,” said Seitz, a freshman at Pitt. “In fact, women are better casters, they’re more graceful.”
Ron Anderson of Butler taught his daughters to hunt when they were old enough to hold a rifle.
“The objective was to hit a paper plate from 50 yards with a .22,” said Anderson, who owns a tackle shop near Lake Arthur. “They’d get points for hitting targets and would compete with one another.”
Now in their 20s, both Jess and Jen hunt today.
“They’re not obsessed, but it’s a fun thing to do with dad a couple of days a year,” said Anderson.
“It’s a manly thing, hunting,” he said, tongue in cheek. “Nobody remembers Annie Oakley anymore.”
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