In order to examine the issue of women in martial arts, I think the first factor we have to examine is how martial arts is marketed towards women.
After a lot of googling, I saw martial arts are often marketed very differently to women in three ways, which all impede training. This isn’t true of all schools but I saw it enough to convince me it’s a big factor.
One: Instead of being marketed as a discipline to practice and compete in, women are marketed on the idea that martial arts are a fun way to keep ourselves slim. While it is true that martial arts are an incredible way to lose weight and build muscle, that’s only a very small part of the discipline, focus, camaraderie, and skills you gain on the journey. Martial arts is about developing confidence.
From what I’ve seen of advertisement towards men, it doesn’t talk about how well they will look in a bathing suit in the summer.
So if women miss out on the higher aspects of the art of martial arts, they aren’t likely to put in the time required and will drop the practice if another intense cardio activity becomes more convenient.
Two: Women are often marketed with the idea of martial arts seminars as a way to keep us from being attacked. Instead of being encouraged to develop a deep understanding of the art, women are inundated with short seminars that aim to teach us the x number of easy ways to keep ourselves safe in daily life.
Some are more practical than others, but all of them are based on short term training. “A three-hour seminar, with all you need to know.” Many of what these seminars teach are often deeply impractical and would get me killed if I tried them in a real fight. Why would I ever attempt an arm-bar, when I can claw at a guy’s eyes? What saddens me is that it is usually a bunch of eager women and a single male instructor using scare tactics and building false confidence.
Even the better ones have a fundamental mistake. Yes, some training is better than nothing, and a lot can be prevented with a good course on situational awareness and confidence, but when it comes to actual skillset, three hours isn’t enough time.
What many seminars don’t tell women is that it’s a lot different throwing off a choke in a fun exercise on the mat, and having a real attacker put their hands on you to kill you. Everyone freezes, and it takes a lot of practice to break out of the freeze mode and have the confidence to use the skills you learned.
Realistic training is not easy, and it takes time for those who are untrained to do enough repetition to be comfortable to reach any real sense of stress. This is even more true for trauma victims, who may start crying at a simple wrist grab and need weeks to be able to handle a full choke without melting down.
Unless women take the time to focus on breaking out of freeze mode, and learning how to snap into fighting, they’re not very likely to even remember what the seminar said, let alone put it into use.
There’s also seems to be very little emphasis on women continuing on and training for the long-term, and forming a deep bond with martial arts. It’s not a hobby to be practiced, it’s not a team of people who help you grow, it’s not a sport for competition. It’s a short term education in ways to stay alive under attack. There is no incentive for women to invest their time. They are just learning the few skills needed and move on.
Three: Even when women do long-term martial arts training, we still have another obstacle to contend with. The very idea of women’s martial arts classes needs to be examined. After googling, I can’t seem to find any concept of men’s martial arts, it’s just marketed as the discipline itself.
Women’s martial arts is often framed as being lighter and more accessible, which creates the impression that women couldn’t handle regular training, and need to be mommy-tracked.
While many places I respect have women-only classes, I still think the very idea of them sets up the understanding that real martial arts are something the men practice. If women are told right off the bat that they are already seen as remedial, why are gyms surprised when they don’t feel welcome?
One challenge was, why would all-male classes be considered sexist, but an all-female class is acceptable? The answer was depressing.
The all-male class would be presumed that the advanced class and women would want to be included. On the other hand, men aren’t exactly eager to join the women’s classes, because no matter how rigorous they can be made to be, it’s still seen as the junior leagues.
Also, women’s classes tend to stress female-centered problems such as rape prevention. Rape happens to both men and women. Making it into a specifically female problem not only normalizes the idea of the burden being on women to prevent rape, It also normalizes the idea that men don’t get raped, further isolating male victims who are ignored by society.
Of course, we also have the reality that many women request women-only classes. Some cited fear of injury or past trauma. Other women brought up issues of modesty and feeling comfortable working out in a sports bra, without being leered at by male students. This is especially true of religious students who may also have issues touching members of the opposite gender, outside of family or marriage. Those requests are legitimate and they should be allowed to train in an environment that suits their needs.
And yes, there is the idea of a safe space where women can be vulnerable and discuss issues of harassment and assault without judgment or feel like they need to toughen up. One friend compared it to having LGBT bars, creating a safe and open space for women, to feel more comfortable. She said she’d actually prefer an all-female environment, which made me realize how complex this issue is.
I don’t really have an answer for how to have those women-only classes, without making them seem lower-tier. I think one way is to try and encourage as many women to try regular classes as possible, but that won’t work for everyone. A safe space for women may be the only answer, but it comes at the price:
- Women’s classes are seen as less equal than regular classes.
- Segregating women puts a glass ceiling on women rising up in the ranks, both in competition and becoming teachers.
- It makes training less realistic, as our attackers will almost certainly be men, and very few women can imitate that level of threat.
Of course, maybe this problem stems from a larger societal issue, of how women are socialized. I’ll address that in my next article.
Editor’s note: To delve deeper into this topic, you can read Contributor Elke Weiss’ previous article Fighting Like a Girl: 10 Reasons Why It Matters!
Off the mat, Elke is a real estate attorney and blogger, with degrees in urban planning, law, and history. She has worked in both the non-profit and profit sectors, has been awarded numerous fellowships, including serving as the Biodiversity Fellow at the Israeli Ministry of Environmental Protection. She’s proud to serve on the Board of Debate for Peace, which she insists counts as verbal sparring practice.
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As a woman who works at a martial arts studio and has trained for years, I have to say I disagree with nearly every word of this. I absolutely respect where you’re coming from, but I feel that a lot of these ideas are actually rooted in the same outdated misogynistic mindset that you claim makes women feel uncomfortable in training. Some of it is also factually iffy.
I agree that marketing for women can be very problematic. I don’t agree, however, with the implication that women form their opinions of activities based entirely on marketing. If a woman chooses to train in a martial art, she won’t “drop the practice if another intense cardio activity becomes more convenient.” Some women do martial arts for fitness, and we firstly cannot discredit that as a perfectly reasonable motivation. I don’t mind my six-pack. But aside from that, it’s dangerous to say that women can’t form their own opinions about an activity even after they have become involved.
To address your second point, it seems very specific to self-defense although you address it as if the issue applies to all martial arts. I agree wholeheartedly that a woman will not be able to defend herself after just a few hours, but most of those seminars are actually put forth as gateways to introduce women to a new studio. More problematic, though, is your focus on “real attackers” trying to kill you. Not all martial arts are Krav Maga. You say, “it’s not a sport for competition,” when in fact many martial arts are specifically sports for competition. Self-defense is not the only acceptable reason for training, contrary to what you imply multiple times.
The issue I disagree most strongly with is the matter addressed in your third point: women’s only classes. You almost got it – women need these classes because of trauma or comfort or rampant sexism or religion. It would have been better if you had stopped there.
The biggest issue is your assumption that women’s classes are weaker or “remedial.” As a woman in martial arts, you should know well that women fight much harder than men of equal level because of our struggle to be taken seriously on the mat. I’d much prefer to fight a man than a woman, to be honest – I find the men much less intense and terrifying. Assuming that women’s-only classes are lesser than men’s classes comes exactly from that sexist mindset you’re pretending to argue against.
Thank you for this amazing comment, and for taking the time to engage with me on it. I apologize, I’m swamped at work, but I’ll respond to your excellent points within 48 hours. But I’m really grateful to it, and actually, my own teacher will be responding to this as well, with strong disagreement. So I definitely have a lot to learn.
Hi Elke! I have been eagerly awaiting your response and would still love your input 🙂