Women Of The Gun: How We’ve Changed

Today, women are accepted and even celebrated in the shooting sports. Women occupy upper-level management positions in many companies and run retail stores. This has not always been the case. As recently as the mid-1990s, one major firearms manufacturer specifically banned women from attending its annual gun writers’ seminar.

Fortunately for the industry, times have changed. The inclusion of women has brought not only them, but also their families, into shooting, hunting and greater participation in the industry. Walk the aisles of the SHOT Show and you’ll see many retailers in their 30s and 40s, instead of just the 50-and-up crowd we saw 20 years ago.

The change in acceptance of women in our industry reflects the changes in American society as a whole. Just as women struggled to be recognized as an integral part of other industries, they also had to overcome prejudice in the firearms industry. It’s worth looking back a little from the point of view of some of the women who lived it to see how times have changed.

“I Felt Like I Had A Target On My Back.”

Linda Powell is the director of media relations at O.F. Mossberg & Sons, a position she has held since 2010. She is well-respected in the industry and is passionate about mentoring young hunters, both male and female.

Powell began her career in this industry when she was in her mid-30s. She had been working in the medical field, then took a job with a hardware manufacturer in the marketing department. In mid-1996, Powell was hired as an administrative assistant in Remington’s marketing department.

“I really didn’t know anything about the gun industry at that point,” Powell recalled. “There were two male managers at the time, and my job was to be in the office to support them; I replaced a lady who had been doing it for 20 years.”

As it happened, the two male managers left the company for different reasons and Remington was without a PR manager.

“So, as the relatively new and not very knowledgeable administrative assistant, I actually ran the department for a year. We had the annual Remington seminar, I went to the SHOT Show and did the press conference and obviously, after I’d been doing it for a year, I felt like I had a good chance of being promoted. But then they hired a man and brought him in as the manager. He lasted a year, so by the time I’d been there four years, I got promoted to manager of the department and stayed for just over 14 years.”

Powell got a lot of pushback when she was promoted.

“Internally at that time, Remington had a network entirely of men,” she said. “I actually had someone pull me aside and say, ‘You know, some people are having a hard time having a female in this position and you being out and being the face of the company. It’s not everybody, but you need to know.’ I felt like I had a target on my back.”

What was interesting, she stated, was she was receiving a lot of recognition externally.

“I had so many cheerleaders within my network,” Powell noted. “I had leading media and PR people within the industry who were all encouraging me to not give up. It’s what kept me going in those early years. People knew I was capable and was doing the job; I was willing to learn and I was responsive. It took a little time, but I did see the tide start to change.”

Once during the early 2000s, when Powell was the PR manager and Eddie Stevenson [who now serves as president of Driftwood Media] was the assistant manager, the two of them went to visit a hunting operation in eastern North Carolina to see about hosting a hunt there. 

“From the minute we got there, the gentleman who ran the operation pretty much talked exclusively to Eddie and ignored me,” she said. “The gentleman finally asked, ‘Is she coming to cook in camp?’ I answered, ‘No, actually, I’m the one who’s going to decide whether we come here to hunt or not.’” 

One of the things she learned, Powell shared, was a woman coming into a male-dominated field needed to be aware of how to conduct herself. 

“I was told from the start I needed to remember I would be held to a higher standard,” she explained. “Being nice and friendly is one thing; being flirtatious is another. There’s no question women were scrutinized more.”

Even with all her struggles in the early years, Powell is grateful to be a part of the shooting industry.

“It’s been an incredible journey for me, and I am so thankful for the opportunities,” she concluded. “My life has changed in ways I never envisioned and it’s all due to this industry and the opportunities it’s given me.”

“If You Want The Information On It, You’ll Have To Ask Her.”

Sherry Kerr is the director of communications at the National Skeet Shooting Association (NSSA) and the National Sporting Clays Association (NSCA). Part of her responsibility is serving as publisher and editorial director of Clay Target Nation Magazine. 

For 30+ years prior to her tenure at the magazine, she owned and was president of Outdoor Media Resources, a PR and marketing company serving manufacturers such as Simmons Optics and Thompson/Center Arms. Like Powell, Kerr met resistance early in her career from some facets of the industry.

“I used to have writers call me about Simmons or T/C, and sometimes one would ask me to ask my husband something,” she stated. “Once, a particular writer called and was asking about a scope and I was telling him the information, and he asked, ‘Well, would you ask your husband?’ I answered, ‘I will if you really want me to, but he doesn’t know anything about it.’ And he asked again, ‘Could I maybe speak to him?’ So, I got my husband on the phone and the guy asked his question and my husband told the writer ‘I don’t know anything about that. This is her business, and I don’t know anything about it. If you want the information on it, you’ll have to ask her.”

While it would be nice to think this kind of prejudice is a thing of the past, it’s not necessarily the case. Kerr became the editorial director of Clay Target Nation Magazine about 10 years ago when the publication replaced two separate magazines published by NSSA and NSCA. Her advertising director for the magazine also is a woman, a fact that wasn’t lost on some of the old-time male clays shooters.

“On some of the old forums of shotgunners, there was a guy who was complaining because we closed the two old magazines,” she shared. “He said, ‘That new magazine is just run by a bunch of gyno-Americans.’”

To Kerr, it’s an amusing label.

“We have enjoyed it so much,” she said. “We take a lot of pride in saying we’re gyno-Americans, but that sort of thing is a lot less common now than it used to be. And it’s been a long, long time since anyone has asked me to ask my husband.”

“It All Came Down To You Knowing Your Product.”

Becky Bowen is an icon in the industry. She went to work for Dixie Gun Works in Union City, Tenn., right of out high school in the mid-1960s. From there, she would go to B. E. Hodgdon and the Hodgdon Powder Company, and from there to American Arms. 

“My best job ever was working with Barbara Mellman at Bushnell Optics when it was in Overland Park, Kan.,” she shared. “At the time, Bushnell had just bought the HOLOsight and was promoting it. She needed help because she was doing all the advertising and promotion for everything else Bushnell was doing. One of the things we did was sponsor a shooting team, which was the HOLOsight Shooting Team, and I got to manage it. It was the best job and the most fun I had in the industry.”

During the early years she was in the industry, Bowen said, sometimes she faced what today would be considered sexual harassment.

“You didn’t get offended or make a big deal out of it, you just found out how to put people in their place,” she asserted. “If you gave it any sort of importance, you lost your importance.”

At the end of the day, Bowen noted, the way women overcame prejudice was to know their products and know what they were talking about. 

“You couldn’t just go in there and fake it and be a cute little thing,” she said. “It all came down to you knowing your product. You weren’t just some flaky little airhead who the boss had put in as eye candy. And we had to counteract it. Most of us did it with a lot of dignity and a lot of humor.”

We want to hear from you! What other trailblazing women have made a lasting impact in the firearms industry? Help us shine a light on those who paved the way for others. Share your stories with us: comments@shootingindustry.com.

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