Women in a Mans World

Being a woman in a predominantly male industry means we sometimes have to work harder at proving ourselves. Things are slowly getting better, but in my experience the men don’t expect very much from me when they meet me. I am a woman after all, how much could i possibly know about things related to guns?

Recently, I was on the range teaching a male student in a private lesson. The gentleman in the lane next to us told me he was having a problem with his gun and was letting me know he had to leave the loaded gun on the bench while he summoned the range safety officer. I asked, “ Would you like me to take a look at if for you?” “ Sure,” He answered. I walked up to the bench and took a look at the gun. I could tell it was ever so slightly “out of battery”. I realized this would be a good teaching moment for my student so I called him over to join us. I pointed out that the gun was out of battery and explained how the gun would not fire in that condition. The man told me he tried racking it, but the slide would not budge. He didn’t know what else he could do. I knew exactly what to do! For some reason many people don’t know how to get their gun operating again when the gun seems to be “locked up”. This is when i get to show off my skills, kind of like a bar trick! A chance to impress! I showed the men how to hold the gun firmly in their non dominant hand and use their dominant hand to sort of punch into the grip. Sometimes it takes a couple punches to un lodge the defective round. I punched one time, two times… uh oh, don’t fail me now!! On my 3rd punch, the round popped out! Success!. I turned to the men who appeared visibly impressed and said, “ See? you didn’t need the range safety officer after all, You just needed a woman! “

It’s things like this that can make a woman feel good. We get a chance to prove ourselves. Not knowing everything there is about a subject is not a reason to feel inferior. No, I certainly don’t know everything and I have much to learn but I’m making progress! I will always be a student, continually learning from others along the way. It’s a life long journey of which I am happily on board!

“You are always a student, never a master. You have to keep moving forward.”

~ Conrad Hall