The percentage of female shooters in the Norwegian Shooting Association remains under eleven percent, despite a 72.3 percent increase in female members from 2005 to 2024. In contrast, the female percentage in the Hunter Register has more than doubled in the last 25 years, with women now comprising 17 percent of all registered hunters in Norway. Why the female percentage in the Norwegian Shooting Association has remained unchanged for 20 years despite the increase in female members is unclear.
Recent growth highlights this trend: one in ten hunters who paid the hunting fee for the 2025–2026 hunting season was a woman, compared to only one in twenty paying hunters 25 years ago. Over 12,000 people took the hunter's exam last year, an 11 percent increase from the year before, and among those who passed, the female percentage was 26 percent.
We want to increase that percentage.
To address gender disparities, the Norwegian Shooting Association has launched initiatives to increase the female percentage. Solveig Fia Fjordholm believes it can be safer to come to a 'sisterhood' where only women train together. Hanne Sogn, a gender researcher at the Norwegian School of Sport Sciences, says that shooting is often thought of as for boys and men, not for girls and women.
Broader interest trends show that interest in hunting is increasing especially among the young. Whether the increase in female hunters correlates with or influences female participation in shooting sports is not yet determined.
I have met quite a few women who have said that it is a bit scary to stand there among those guys who seemingly are so confident and tough.
I think it can be a lack of knowledge or information. That one does not know that such an offer exists, or that there is a club nearby that one can choose as a woman.