Women and Diversity
In 2013 National Trout Unlimited decided to make a concerted effort to be more welcoming to women and people of diverse background into the world of Fly Fishing and Conservation. They started first with the W/I Women’s initiative. That same year a group of officers from the Pa Council of Trout Unlimited attended the TU National Convention in Wisconsin lead by their Vice President Charlie Charlesworth with the expressed desire of obtaining more information on how to get more women involved in Chapters.
NEPA Fly Girls
Going back to Pennsylvania and convincing many chapters to be more inclusive towards women was not and easy push for the status quo. In fact, it took too many years to develop. It was not until Charlesworth became president of PATU that he was able to convince then Fish and Boat Commission Executive Director John Arway to unite with TU to promote the Women’s Initiative by asking F&B employee Amidea Daniel to head both F&B and PATU’s Committee chairperson for Women and Diversity.
Daniel’s first act as Chairperson was to establish the PAWA (Pa Women Anglers) (link) and create a group in all six regions of PATU. The group from our Region became the NEPA Fly Girls.
For more information go to (link) or contact Rosangela Freitas Charlesworth at ffnepa@epix.net 570-586-3363.
