Frequently Asked Questions

We offer two memberships. Annual is $299 per year, renews annually, and you can cancel anytime. Lifetime is $1,499 one time — it never renews and your price is locked permanently. Both include everything below. You can compare them side by side at wgoaa.org/join.

Lifetime is $1,499, paid once. It never renews and the price is locked permanently — every future course we release is included for life at no extra charge. Lifetime members also receive a welcome package: the Signature WGOAA Bomber Jacket, a WGOAA T-shirt, and the WGOAA Surprise Box.

Everything, on both plans:

• All eight Armed Female Academy courses, a $2,999 value, each taught by a different female expert
• Live Tactical Talk training sessions with expert Q&A — at least twelve a year, sometimes two in a month
• The recorded archive of all past training, on demand
• Our online events at no extra cost
• The Powder Room, our private female-only community
• On-call certified female firearms instructors
• The WGOAA Dispatch, quarterly, in print and digital
• Invitations to in-person events when we host them
• WGOAA store discounts
• All future courses added at no extra charge

Everything in the annual membership, permanently — plus every future course free for life, a lifetime Dispatch subscription, priority access to new courses and events, and no price increases ever. Lifetime members also receive the welcome package: Signature WGOAA Bomber Jacket, WGOAA T-shirt, and the WGOAA Surprise Box. You’ll be prompted for your sizes after you purchase.

No. Annual at $299 or lifetime at $1,499 are the only two memberships we offer.

Yes. Klarna is available at checkout on the lifetime membership, which lets you split it into monthly payments. Choose Klarna when you pay. Klarna isn’t available on the annual membership.

Visa, American Express, Discover, Venmo and PayPal. Klarna is available on the lifetime membership only.

We don’t have discount codes. Our pricing is what you see at wgoaa.org/join — $299 for the year or $1,499 for life. We’d rather price it honestly once than run a sale you have to catch.

The Powder Room is our private, female-only community — members only, behind a firewall, uncensored. It’s where women ask the questions they’d never ask in a mixed room: what holster works with leggings, how to carry with a dress, whether it’s normal to feel scared the first time. Real answers from real women, usually within hours.

We’re women-only — built by women, for women. No bro gun culture, no in-your-face range attitude, no gun-encyclopedia trivia nobody needs. What we teach is awareness, safety, security, preparedness, and self-defense at every level, from women who understand what it’s actually like. We’re nationwide, so you’re not stuck training around whoever happens to be near you. And our community is private and uncensored, behind a firewall.

Eight full courses taught by eight different women — a criminal defense attorney, a tactical paramedic, a holster maker, and more. A $2,999 value for $297, paid once, with lifetime access and no subscription. Printable workbook and handouts included.

Eight courses, and you keep access to all of them for life:

• Safe Start — safe handling, manipulations, and real confidence before you ever touch a firearm. Amara Barnes
• Handgun Foundations — grip, stance, sight picture, trigger control, and dry fire drills you can do at home. Amara Barnes
• Picking The Right Gun For You — matching a handgun to your grip, your body, and your carry needs instead of a salesman’s advice. Lisa "Guns" Ludwig
• Carry Like A Woman™ — purse, thigh, belly band, dress and professional-attire carry, built for how women actually dress. Hannah Hannah
• Precision Carry — kydex holsters, wedges, wings and cant, and how to stop printing. Jessica Hazelaar
• Lawful Self-Defense — the legal reality of defending yourself, taught by a female criminal defense attorney. Rachel Moss
• Emergency Trauma Care — stop-the-bleed, building a trauma kit, gunshot wound response including self-aid. Jenn Foreman
• The Psychology of Predators & Victims — how predators pick targets, and how to become one they skip. TerryAnn Bowen

They’re not the same. The Academy is eight standalone courses — one payment, courses only. A membership includes the Academy and adds everything else: The Powder Room community, live Tactical Talks with Q&A, the recorded archive, online events at no extra cost, on-call instructors, the WGOAA Dispatch, and store discounts. You don’t get any of that with the Academy alone.

Think about what it would cost to get this piecemeal. An hour with a criminal defense attorney on self-defense law. Private range time with a certified instructor. A proper holster fitting from the woman who builds them. A trauma course taught by a working paramedic. Booking those eight women one at a time, plus the range time, is where the $2,999 comes from. We packaged it so you don’t have to find them, book them, or travel to them. $297, once, and it’s yours for life.

Straight answer, because you deserve one: our hands-on handgun courses are taught on semi-automatics. Grip, stance, sight alignment and trigger control transfer to any handgun you pick up — magazine loading, slide work and clearing malfunctions won’t apply to a revolver. But four of the eight courses don’t depend on what you carry at all: Lawful Self-Defense, Emergency Trauma Care, The Psychology of Predators & Victims, and Carry Like A Woman. And Picking The Right Gun For You is worth your time either way. If you’re staying with your revolver you’ll get real value but not the full course. If a semi-auto is anywhere in your future, this is built for exactly that.

You don’t. You can start today and learn before you ever buy — Picking The Right Gun For You exists so you walk into that store knowing what you want, instead of taking a salesman’s word for it. Most of the training does come alive once you own a handgun, so plan on getting there. But waiting to learn until after you’ve bought one is backwards, and it’s how women end up with a gun that doesn’t fit their hand.

Everything is online and on-demand — no live fire, nothing to travel to, nobody watching you. The drills are dry fire, done safely at home at your own pace. What you learn here is what you take to the range with you.

Here: wgoaa.org/armed-female-academy. One-time payment, lifetime access. If checkout gives you trouble, try opening the page in a private or incognito window — that clears up most of it.

Everything scheduled is on our calendar at wgoaa.org/calendar-events. If nothing new is posted there yet, it means we haven’t announced the next one. Every event goes out by email first, so joining our list is the fastest way to hear about it.

Our online events aren’t free — they’re included with membership, so members attend at no extra cost. From time to time we do open a class up for non-members to purchase a seat, so you can get a feel for what WGOAA is actually like before you join. When we do, it shows up on the calendar. In-person events are members-only, by invitation, when we host them.

At least twelve live Tactical Talk sessions a year, and sometimes two in a month depending on instructor availability. Every one is recorded and added to the archive, so missing a live session doesn’t mean missing the training.

The join link is in your registration confirmation email, and we send another one the day of the event. It’s worth checking your spam folder — it lands there sometimes.

We’re online and nationwide, so you can train from anywhere in the country — that’s most of what we do. In-person events happen occasionally and members get the invitation when they do. For something local, our directory lists women-friendly instructors, ranges and businesses across the country: wgoaa.org/wgoaa-directory.

We’re not chapter-based, so there aren’t local groups to join. Being nationwide and online means you’re not limited to whoever happens to be near you. When we host in-person events, members get invited.

Your courses are at member.wgoaa.org/courses. Everything you’ve purchased is in there, ready to watch, with lifetime access.

Go to member.wgoaa.org and choose "Log in with secure code." That emails you a one-time link, so there’s no password to remember, and it works the same way every time.

Try this in order:

• Clear your browsing history for at least the last 7 days — that clears the cache
• Go to member.wgoaa.org
• Choose "Log in with secure code," or use Google login if you have a Gmail address
• Check your email and follow the link

If it still won’t work, open the same page in a private or incognito window and try again. That fixes almost everything. Still stuck, open a ticket at wgoaa.org/support.

Every session is recorded and posted in your course area at member.wgoaa.org/courses. Recent ones can take a day or so to appear after they air.

Memberships are individual, and our services are for adults 18 and over. If she’s 18 or older, she’ll need her own account. If she’s under 18, we can’t host her information — but you’re welcome to watch and learn together under your own account.

Our programs are geared toward biological women. We don’t ask for the gender of any member when they sign up, and we ask that all of our members stay respectful of each other’s personal beliefs and privacy.

We don’t take photos of any member without her direct consent. The only photos we take are at WGOAA events, where everyone opts in and signs a photo release beforehand. Nothing gets used without that.

The Powder Room sits behind a firewall and is accessible only to members. It isn’t on social media, and it isn’t indexed or visible to the public. That’s the whole point — no Big Tech reading what you write, no trolls in the replies.

Open a ticket at wgoaa.org/support or email support@wgoaa.org and tell us what you need. We handle upgrades and cancellations by hand on purpose — it’s the only way to make sure nothing gets double-charged or missed. If you paid through PayPal, you’ll want to cancel on their side too, since the subscription lives there.

No. Our Lawful Self-Defense course is taught by a criminal defense attorney and members get legal content inside the portal, but that’s education, not advice about your situation. For anything specific to you, talk to a local attorney.

No. We’re education and community only — we don’t sell firearms, ammunition, or tactical gear. What we do have is a full course on choosing the right gun for you, taught by a woman, without anyone at a counter talking over your head.

Email support@wgoaa.org and our team will reach out to learn about your business. We have more than 100,000 followers across our online channels, and we offer joint-venture webinars, paid posts to our community, and email marketing to an audience that’s entirely women.

Not at this time. We’ve had enough people try to spam the community that it started pulling away from what we’re there for. We do offer paid endorsements and partnerships — email support@wgoaa.org if you’d like to hear about those.

Not at this time. What we do have is a national directory of women-friendly instructors, ranges and businesses, which is a good place to find training and connections: wgoaa.org/wgoaa-directory.

The directory is at wgoaa.org/wgoaa-directory and there’s an option there to add your listing.

Merchandise and apparel are at shop.wgoaa.org. Members get a store discount.

We do, and they're genuinely free — just your first name and email. First Time Handgun Buyer's Guide for Women covers what to look for, and what to look out for, when buying your first or next handgun, written by Amara Barnes: get it here. Poised & Prepared: The Calm & Capable Woman's First Steps is a non-tactical guide to owning your safety: get it here.

The First Time Handgun Buyer's Guide for Women is exactly that, and it's free: wgoaa.org handgun buyer's guide. Amara wrote it so you walk into the store knowing what to look for and what to look out for, instead of taking a salesman's word for it. If you want the full version, our Picking The Right Gun For You course goes deeper.

Start with Poised & Prepared — free, and written for exactly that: get it here. You're not the only one. A lot of women own one and have never really handled it, and there's nothing wrong with you for that. Nobody ever showed you.

Check your spam and promotions folders first — that's where it usually is. If it isn't there, request it again at the same page and it'll resend: Handgun Buyer's Guide or Poised & Prepared. If it still doesn't show up, open a ticket at wgoaa.org/support and our team will get it to you directly.