redneck wrote:So as some in this thread have suggested, I am starting a new youth hiking group in my community. We had our first meeting last night. All girls. Apparently it's harder to get boys to get out into the mountains to enjoy the wilderness.
I'm also doing things to get youths into the wild. The key audience is people who have always wanted to experience camping/hiking/climbing/whatever but did not have any friends, families or youth groups to serve them. So you can have a real impact by providing that key experience.
Like your group, redneck, mine have been disproportionately female. Also, the women are more likely to be minority than the community as a whole, but the men less likely.
My working guesses to explain the patterns:
1) Scouting still reaches some guys; Girl Scouts don't get them outdoors.
2) Having outdoor dads is key, but dad & son are more likely to go outdoors than dad & daughter.
3) Guys don't want to admit they lack outdoor skills but gals don't mind being novices.
4) Urban African-American men are really hard to reach for lots of reasons, but see these good people:
http://www.bigcitymountaineers.org/