Companies are making holsters designed for bras and skirts, and pistols small enough to go unnoticed. And where you live has a lot to do with how many might be in use.

About one in six concealed weapon holders in Michigan is a woman, according to state police records kept since a new law 10 years ago made it easier to carry concealed guns.

But just as a Booth Michigan analysis found there are wide differences among counties in the number of license holders per capita, so too are there disparities among the sexes.

In Wayne County, 22 percent of licensing actions involved women, the vast majority of those approvals. Barry County came in second at 19 percent

Ottawa and Presque Isle counties were at the opposite extreme, where just 11 percent of permit holders were likely to be women. The state average is 17 percent.

Wherever they are, the women’s reasons for wanting concealed weapons are similar.

“I think we all need a gun for personal and home protection, just because of the way the world is today,” said Sherri Zandbergen, of Ottawa County’s Robinson Township. The legal receptionist owns a Glock 9 mm and received her concealed license permit in May.

“If I needed to, I could use it to shoot an intruder or someone attacking me. I just hope I don’t have to,” she said.

Pam Kittredge got her license from the same gun board that day. She owns a Ruger LCP, a small, light handgun that weighs about 10 ounces.

“This economy is going to get a lot worse before it gets better. I can see bread selling for $10 a loaf and people out of work breaking into houses for food,” said Kittredge, of Nunica, who works as a satellite system salesperson.

“I’ll tell you, I’m not going to let anybody come in my house and take everything that I’ve worked so hard for.”

Most women would not have thought to carry a gun even five years ago, said Andrea Durhal. When she became a National Rifle Association certified instructor eight years ago, her classes were mostly men. Recently, women have started to fill her classes.

It took a few years for women to get over a fear of guns and take responsibility for their protection, she said.

“We’re being victimized; we’re being raped. The crimes are getting higher and the police departments are less and less,” she said. “People are realizing now that they need to be their own security.”

Durhal, who lives in Farmington Hills and teaches courses to mostly people from suburban Detroit, has carried a concealed weapon for 10 years. She now carries two pistols. An attempted robbery eight years ago prompted her to become an instructor and start a company, Hidden Pistol, focused on women.

Gun manufacturers and companies making accessories have also started to focus on women.

Roger Winter, a gun salesman at Schupbach’s Sporting Goods in Jackson, said women typically buy small revolvers, such as a .38-caliber snub nose and .380-caliber semi-automatic pistols. The Ruger .380 and Smith & Wesson .380 are some of the store’s top sellers.

SERIES

• Complete coverage

“I think women are being thought of now when they’re manufacturing weapons,” Winter said. “They are specializing in smaller guns for smaller people. They realize that not everyone has big mitts.”

Hand size aside, women match their male counterparts in the classroom and on the range, said Harry Akers, a concealed weapons instructor in Lapeer County. He and other instructors say they teach the courses to women the same as to men.

Akers, however, does start classes with an apology to women.

“I call everyone guys,” he said.

-- Grand Rapids Press reporter John Agar contributed to this report.