heathererandolph

I think it's a good issue to discuss. Even though there are gender differences, the human condition is much the same. I don't think everything can be summed up by biology. It might be a good idea to discuss the issue with some actual women. Having women in the dojo does change things. Women are hoping to be treated fairly, but men may or may not be treating all students the same.

As to why there are fewer women than men, it could be that martial arts is still seen by many as a male domain. I haven't seen much on television about female martial artists. A long while back there was something on television about a girl and a father who went into Karate together and she ended up winning a lot of competitions. That was the first thing that inspired me to think about martial arts.

I think having role models is important to women. For women, it is a very different world than we, and our mothers grew up in, and women can do a lot in today's world that they could not do before. Since it's not what we grew up with, the difference between knowing you can do "anything" and actually doing it can be based on having a role model, someone who's actually doing it one can identify with .That's why having role models is so important. I have noticed that men I know who had female instructors are able to picture a woman as capable of being a strong martial artist and therefore more likely to inspire female students of their own to succeed. It is a worthwhile pursuit to inspire women to try Aikido.