Recreation specialization and gender: a comparison of Massachusetts freshwater anglers

Recreation specialization describes the continuum of general to specific behavior of natural resource users and allows for the classification of these users into meaningful subgroups. While this theory has been used to study anglers, the majority of participants in recreational fishing are male. Therefore, more could be learned about how women at various specialization levels experience the activity. This analysis considers both specialization level and gender as predictors of five propositions. In general, male anglers were more specialized than female anglers. As expected, men fished more days per year and more years than women. Men also considered the experience of the catch to be more important. Contrary to expectations, women placed less importance on catching fish than men. Women also rated family recreation and experiencing new and different things as more important. Additionally, women were more supportive of one management item?restricted fishing areas.