To a modern reader, living on “raw meat” communicates great hardship. However, Nephi’s purpose is to explain that they became accustomed to this new life and thrived. Nor need we visualize them gnawing at a freshly cut bloody haunch. The Arabs today still eat a spicy, raw, partially dried meat called “bastern” (lit., “raw meat”). Probably Lehi’s band consumed something similar on their journey.
Because women are mentioned so rarely in the Book of Mormon, Nephi obviously meant his description of the women becoming strong “like unto the men” to be reassuring. It may mean that the women “caught up” with the men, who were already accustomed to this strenuous outdoor life, or it may mean that both the women and the men became simultaneously accustomed to their journeyings. After all, the men in the Lehite party were also wealthy urbanites. Possibly they were caravaneers, as Nibley hypothesizes (see commentary accompanying 1 Nephi 2:4), but for commercial journeys, they would have stayed in well-traveled areas, carried more provisions, and been unencumbered by women and children. These arduous years would have been difficult for both the men and women.