Outdoor Women: Thinking about Gender, Self, and Environment through Outdoor Enskillment Programs

Jodie Asselin

doi:10.3138/anth.2017-0016

Authors

Jodie Asselin Department of Anthropology, University of Lethbridge. Lethbridge, Alberta, Canada

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.3138/anth.2017-0016

Keywords:

enskillment, hunting, gender, environment, participation, BOW

Abstract

Becoming an Outdoors-Woman (BOW) is a North American program that focuses on developing hunting, fishing and wilderness skills among women. BOW participant engagement offers a window onto gendered responses to environmental uncertainty, an awareness of the constraints of illegitimate peripheral participation, and multifaceted self-expression. Through their own bodily engagement and dialogues, participants disassembled the dualisms inherent in single-gender-dominated activities such as hunting. The contrasting desires, incentives and apprehensions of BOW participants were shared through an active process of self-reflection and reveal the ways in which this group of women navigated the tensions that are part of their daily lives.

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