Women of the Wild: Women, Outdoor Sport, and Changing Gender Roles Undergraduate
Abstract
Today, a quick Internet search will reveal that shooting,
hunting, fishing, mountain climbing, and camping are all
recreational activities that fall into the category of “outdoorsman”
sports. As the name “outdoorsman” suggests, people did and do
associate these activities with masculinity. In such sports, men
supposedly distance themselves from cities and homely comforts.
Some activities demand extreme physical exertion as well as the
exercise of violence and power. Despite such stereotypes, plenty of
women today enjoy these pastimes. Women’s involvement in
outdoorsman sports suggests a trend of women who defied gender
norms and associations and whose participation over time made the
idea of an “outdoorswoman” more commonplace. So when did
women become involved in these recreational activities? Who were
these trailblazers and how did they justify their participation in such
masculine pastimes? As it turns out, women have long participated
in these recreational activities. In some sports, such as mountain
climbing, women were involved from the inception of the sport in
the United States. As outdoorswomen, their actions challenged
Victorian gender ideals which emphasized domesticity for women.
The rise in popularity of women’s outdoor sports both reflected and
helped to develop a new gender ideal, the New Woman.
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