Yoga is Feminist: How yoga supports women
Around 80% of yoga practitioners and teachers worldwide are female. Even in India, where yoga originated, female students now outnumber males. Why, then, might yoga be more attractive to women, and in what way does yoga support women particularly?
A Listening Ear
Women are less listened to than men. Scholars of gender and linguistics have proven time and again that women are more frequently interrupted, expected to occupy less conversational airtime and ask more open questions.
Yoga supports women by inviting practitioners to listen, really listen, to themselves. Core aspects of yoga like meditation, pranayama and asana all share an underlying goal. Having students study their thoughts, feelings, egos and behaviours.
This can be a revelation for women. Frequently, students will tell me some variation of, “I thought I wanted a strong practise but as soon as we started I knew I wanted rest”. In a world where women are less often listened to, teaching them to listen to themselves can be transformative.
Self Care
Women account for 67% of the global health and social care workforce. They are also far more likely to performed unpaid, informal roles like caring for children or ill or elderly family members.
It is unsurprising, then, that women value yoga’s core practise of caring for the self. A good yoga class encourages students to prioritise experience, sensation, and care over performing shapes or obeying instructions throughout.
As a yoga teacher, students often tell me at the end of practise that they were moved, or cried, or fell asleep! These all speak to me of people who are looking and finding in yoga a path to deeper understanding and care of their mental and physical states. In a world where women more often care for others, yoga is, if only briefly, an opportunity to tend to the self. That’s another reason why yoga supports women.
Physical Care
That “yoga was designed for young male bodies” is a common criticism I hear of certain styles. While this may be true (and apparent!) of some types of yoga, there is so much that women can gain physically from yoga.
If you’ve ever attempted a chaturanga style press-up, you’ll be in no doubt that yoga necessitates both strength, range of motion and commitment. In a world which doesn’t always promote female strength, yoga supports women with developing a physique. This will serve them long-term, increasing bone density, muscle strength, balance, lung capacity and coordination.
Yoga is Feminist
We only have to look at global patriarchy, sexism and misogyny and compare it with yoga’s promotion of well-being and self-understanding to see why women come to the practice in such great numbers. It’s because yoga supports women.
Next time you come to your mat, you might take a look around and realise: in a sexist world, yoga is feminist.
