Women with hunting licenses: They shoot, and that’s a good thing

J Now women are also shooting around in the forest: the number of hunting license holders has risen to around 470,000, an absolute record – and there are increasingly women among them. That’s a good thing. Because it’s not a question of whether women, with their supposedly less aggressiveness and greater motherliness (oh, Bambi), shoot or not shoot here. Behind this is a generational and cultural change that is urgently needed. Women are an important part of this change.

The hunters were too many older men for far too long, often with noble titles and a lot of money. They vigorously defended their privileges: owning weapons, sitting on their perch in the morning, hunting for trophies, plastering living room walls with antlers. Anyone who wanted to get the complex hunting license – the so-called green Abitur – needed a lot of time and a lot of money.

What was and is being defended is a completely outdated system of decades-long leases and unreformed laws that protect one thing above all: a lot of game. But the urgently needed conversion of our forests to make them more climate resilient will not work without one appropriate hunting managementso less game. With the passing away of the old hunting patriarchs and the emancipation of younger hunting generations, the doors are finally opening for modern hunters. Women are cracking one of the last male-dominated areas here.

You can now get your hunting license in a short time, the effort is manageable, and so are the costs. This attracts young hunters, for example in the small Ecological Hunting Association (ÖJV). The club, which was led by a woman for a long time, is growing. The ÖJV hunts with a clear awareness that the Forest not just a backdrop for game, but rather an ecological service provider that needs to be developed and protected. If it is not possible to improve management through legislation, then it has to be done bottom-up: with more young hunters.