Women have taken up arms and started shooting animals: the number of female hunters is rapidly growing.

I openly oppose trophy hunting and, generally, any paid-killing industry where the last inhabitants of the wilderness become objects of human entertainment. My position is objective: according to scientific data, the world is undergoing the sixth mass extinction of species. Whereas previous extinctions were caused by natural cataclysms, the current one is provoked by human activity. In terms of geological time, we have literally annihilated wildlife in an instant and are now finishing off the last survivors! In just the past 50 years (since the 1970s) animal populations have declined by an average of 73%.

At the same time, trophy sport hunting is one of the leading factors in the destruction of animals, because “trophy hunting” means tracking down the best, strongest and genetically fittest individuals in populations. Thus people not only reduce animal numbers but, above all, deliberately wipe out their genetic heritage!

There can be no “sport” in exterminating animals. Killing cannot be a sport! Killing is simply killing.

Now then. Among people who do not support hunting there is a common belief that a sport hunter is usually a man, moreover an uneducated one who only knows how to shoot.

And it is precisely the complete misunderstanding of what we are facing that poses the main danger in our struggle for Life: people simply underestimate the critical nature of the problem.

• The paid-killing industry is rapidly growing right now across the globe; we are literally witnessing a “hunting fever” surrounding the extermination of the last animals.

  
  

• More and more women put on hunting gear and set out for trophies. And we are not talking about a handful of enthusiasts: in developed countries, the female audience has become the fastest-growing group among hunters.

  
  
• The bulk of “trophy hunters” are adults with high incomes and higher education.

From rare exception to new norm

Historically, women’s participation in hunting had long been insignificant. In the first nationwide U.S. hunting statistics of 1955 it was reported that only about 4 % of hunters were women. In the following decades the situation did not change. But starting in the 1980s a sharp turnaround occurred: the number of female trophy hunters rose steeply, although in absolute terms the growth was modest — the total did not even reach 10 %.

This period coincided with an era of social change: cultural attitudes shifted and women increasingly took part in “men’s” activities. It was becoming the norm!

I will use the United States of America for analysis because Americans now lead the world in trophy hunting, killing animals on every continent. In addition, various studies are actively conducted in the States; we simply have no statistical data — no one deals with this here.

In the USA from 2006 to 2011 the number of female hunters grew by 25 % (from 9 to 11 %) of the country’s total hunting community. According to official government estimates today they make up to 17 %, and among newcomers to hunting — that is, those who are just joining in — women account for about 33 %. In simple terms, every third new hunter today is a woman.

However, just as in our country, I would not trust official data from the authorities: they always either understate or overstate figures depending on the context convenient for them.

Let us turn to independent estimates. The major analytics project Zippia conducted its own investigation of all hunters in the USA as a professional group. According to their data, the number of women soared by 2025 to 44 % — almost complete parity with men.

The analysts used statistical data from all available sources as well as their own control survey of a large number of people, so the figures are far more reliable than those drawn by officials!

But even if we take strictly official data, it turns out that in the United States alone there are roughly 2 – 2.5 million female hunters. Moreover, as mentioned, among newcomers entering hunting the share of women is even higher — about one third. There are also intermediate estimates indicating 22 % of the total number of female hunters in 2022 — data from WCBU (a joint project of Bradley University and Illinois State University). These data were also separately confirmed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

And taking into account the growth of newcomers to hunting, where one third are women, we roughly obtain confirmation of the Zippia data — 44.3