Overall, there’s a wide variety of reasons anybody begins to train, and women are no exception.
I will start this series off by saying I do not speak on behalf of all women, or all martial arts for that matter. These are my opinions and thoughts I’ve pondered over throughout my years observing and training so far.
From their beginnings, martial arts were always seen as a more male-dominated activity. In fact, for a long time women were not allowed to formally train in the same ways men were, if at all. Thankfully, over time women have been celebrated and embraced in martial arts, and now have the freedom to train in virtually any system they desire!
So what are the main reasons women train in martial arts? A lot of people immediately guess women join for self defense, and while this certainly is valid, it’s not fair to assume it’s the case for every woman. Some women really enjoy fighting, or the stress-relieving workout, or even the history that comes with studying and participating in the martial art. Even just simply because they love action movies is a great reason to train!
In media, we’re often shown male martial artists or male characters achieving incredible heroic feats. Most people, especially kids, like superheroes or some sort of action character, but usually the target audiences are clearly defined and created by society. From our youngest ages, we’re thrown into gender roles and cultural expectations. For example, when I see kids come into karate class, I notice both boys and girls wear spiderman and Batman shirts. However only the girls wear Wonder Woman. The lack of women martial artist (or protagonist for that matter) representation is still a prevalent issue even in our current seemingly progressive culture; it subtly discourages women to try and achieve the same success in martial arts or physical activity as men.
Overall, there’s a wide variety of reasons anybody begins to train, and women are no exception. Please don’t be discouraged to try a martial art if you’re a woman! For any reason you want; if you actually do want self defense, a full body workout, more confidence, or are just genuinely curious, any reason is a great reason to start. You can succeed in all the same ways anyone else can.
For me, I joined karate to fulfill my superhero fantasy; growing up I always wanted to be spiderman. 🙂
