Have you ever participated in a Becoming an Outdoors Woman class?If so, you have Dr. Christine Thomas to thank.For it was Dr. Thomas, currently a professor emeritus, who created BOW. She did so in 1991, one year after she hosted a conference titled Breaking Down Barriers. The purpose of the gathering was to determine why women did not hunt and fish as much as men.The event proved insightful.In fact, by the time the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point event was over, Dr. Thomas had pin-pointed 21 unique barriers. Fourteen related to women simply not knowing how to hunt or fish. These findings were the seeds that ultimately grew into a national program dedicated to teaching outdoor skills to women in a safe, supportive and friendly environment.Initially, Thomas believed BOW should offer a single hunting and fishing workshop. Yet after her first event she realized women wanted more opportunities.“The women learned to shoot and fish, but that is not what they talked about,” she recalled. “Instead, they talked about how learning outdoor skills had changed their lives by increasing self-esteem and confidence.” Dr. Thomas recalled that women also talked about “how much fun they had.”Based on this early feedback and on-going feedback in the years ahead, BOW perfected the model it uses today. That model, a three-day weekend workshop that includes fishing, hunting and outdoor skill classes, remains popular and effective. Thirty-seven states and six Canadian provinces offer BOW workshops.Today, 30 years after Dr. Thomas’s pioneering Breaking Down Barriers conference, thousands of women throughout North America are hunting, fishing and enjoying the outdoors in many other ways because they have participated in BOW.
