There’s a new holiday for some women in South Carolina. Here’s how and why it came to be

With less than a week until Thanksgiving, holiday season is in full swing, from the ceremonial lighting to festive food and drink arrivals.

This year, however, South Carolina will be celebrating an additional holiday before Thanksgiving. If you’re a woman who partakes in any sort of hunting or fishing in the Palmetto State, this Saturday is now a day to celebrate you.

Saturday, Nov. 18, is South Carolina’s first “Women in Hunting and Fishing Awareness Day,” which henceforth will occur on the third Saturday of every November.

The day, which came to life through a law passed in the last legislative session, was first introduced by state Rep. Heather Bauer, D-Richland. At the time, the freshman representative was the primary sponsor of the bill, but 13 other representatives signed on their support with her as well.

After learning about the demographics of hunters in South Carolina through her involvement on the House Natural Resources and Environmental Affairs Committee, Bauer presented the idea of creating a day to recognize and celebrate women in hunting, with the hope of getting more women of all ages involved in the sport.

“I know that hunting can can be kind of intimidating,” Bauer said. “You have the whole thing being outside in the woods, you have the gun. Being a woman in the woods alone, you have to learn a lot of different things.”

When she saw the statistic, Bauer said she knew South Carolina could do better.

“She hopes with her enthusiasm, she will get more women into hunting and fishing in our state,” said state Rep. Bill Hixon, R-Edgefield, who worked alongside Bauer and others to pass the bill.

Hixon is an avid hunter and is pushing for more people to become involved in the sport, he said.

“A little joke is if a woman wants to be with her husband and he’s going hunting, she needs to go hunting and fishing with him,” Hixon said. “It’s good family time you could spend together. It’s away from a phone, and it gives you some good quiet time, in most cases, and you’re just enjoying the natural resources of our state.”

Hunting has been a primarily male dominated sport in the greater U.S. and in South Carolina The Post and Courier reported earlier this year that women account for about one in five hunting and fishing license holders in the state.

The bill was supported across the aisle, with one caveat: Not everyone was ready to settle on it, not because they were opposed to recognizing women who hunted and fished, but because “women” needed to be defined.

The bill’s progress halted for two days after Freedom Caucus vice chairman state Rep. R.J. May, R-Lexington, proposed an amendment to include that the holiday applied to people “whose sex at birth was female.”

May argued that this bill was a waste of time compared to passing more hard-line legislation, but he saw an opportunity to codify into law “what a woman was,” he said.

“Sadly, in this day and age, no one can agree what a woman is,” May said in an interview with The State.

Bauer said she tried to stay out of the Republican riff but asked during discussion, “Do you want us to drop our trousers before we go in the woods?” in response to the addition.

The proposed amendment failed and the bill passed in both chambers unanimously.

Molly Kneece, a state wildlife biologist for the Department of Natural Resources, said she’s proud and honored to be able to partake in hunting and now able to celebrate it. Growing up, she wasn’t surrounded by too many women hunters and got inspiration from her aunt and mom. Hunting was something all the guys did, she said, but few women she knew growing up hunted.

“I think it’s a great opportunity that really brings more positive attention to hunting and fishing, and so many of the resources that are available to us here in South Carolina,” Kneece said.

Kneece said it’s been interesting to watch the landscape of hunting change over the last 10-15 years and watch more women get involved in the sport.

Kneece, however, won’t be hunting on Saturday. She’ll be running a test with her duck dog to simulate a duck hunt.

But she assured that she would be more than ready to celebrate the newly founded holiday late, on Monday, and planned to go duck hunting with her Labrador Retriever, Kate.