SquirrelGirl,
My wife Eileen Clarke has been beating her head against this for a LONG time. In fact she once dropped the F-bomb in the booth of a well-known manufacturer's booth at the annual Shooting, Hunting and Outdoor Trade (SHOT), when a booth guy about half a foot shorter and wider than she is, claimed she could shoot the same shotguns he did.
She's also come very close to that point in many sporting goods stores, when clerks told her the right socks would make a pair of men's boots fit just as well. Women (again on average) have higher arches and narrower heels than men, and Eileen used custom-made boots for years, until Kenetrek started making boots specifically designed for women's feet about a decade ago. Luckily, their headquarters are near us in Bozeman, Montana, where she could try 'em on. But they solved the problem of a good, well-fitting insulated boot.
