Wisconsin Trails Feb 2010 : Page 45Women Taking a Walk on the Wild Side BY MARY BERGIN Jean Zemke of Sheboygan wth her catch at a 2008 BOW Learn to Hunt work- shop (this page). In 1933, Ruth L. Brissee (opposite), age 15, was the youngest huntress in Dane County. T he workshop choices are unlike any mix that I’ve seen: Gut a pheasant or build a birdhouse. Shoot a rifle or design a wreath. Ice fish or dogsled. Camp or cook. I choose one indoor (bird- house) and one outdoor (dogsledding) activity. When instruction begins, no question seems too elementary – and no one who arrives clueless about how to handle a bow and arrow, sewing machine or power drill faces ridicule. The goals are to try, tinker, relax and go your own way. Every course has this in common: Some aspect will heighten our in- terest, awareness or connection to the outdoors. The students have this in common: They are all women. You could call it a girls’ weekend, but these three days together seem far more like a campout or pajama party than a pampered escape with plush surroundings. About 100 of us happily sleep in bunks, share bathrooms and eat cafeteria food when we’re not in one of the 20 classes that are offered. Before bedtime one night, most students end up in the same place: standing silent on frozen marshland, hoping to hear an owl hoot. Some- thing beyond the falling temperature makes this feel very cool. At a 1991 conference of conservation and state agency leaders, it was suggested that women didn’t hunt, fish or otherwise get involved with the outdoors because they didn’t know how.Would that change if women had a way to learn? Those conversations led to the creation of Becoming anOutdoors Woman (BOW, rhymes with “snow”), a program offered through the University of Wisconsin–Stevens Point College of Natural Resources. Since the beginning, the courses were a great success, and today BOW has programs in 41 states, six Canadian provinces and New Zealand. “Growing up inMichigan, I knew how to fish and shoot because my JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2010 | 45 wisconsintrails.com Publication List |
