men - women ratio in MA?

[sweeper]

anyone know the ratio of men - women that practice martial arts? and the ratio of instructors?

also has there been any real research on this or is it something of a guess?

I know in the class I take there are roughly 10% women.

[Danny]

Sure my school has to be somewhere around 50%.

[Rob_Broad]

Why don't we start a poll to see what they numbers are like.

[Eraser]

Hey all...

At the schoo where im at.. in the adult classes.. there are maybe like 10 that i know of... and there are twice as many guys.. but hey... that's how this girl likes it... heheheheh :D

[karatekid1975]

My school is around 50/50 for the adults. I donno about the kids.

[Kirk]

We have 2 females. It's pretty sad. With the violence of todays
world, more should see that they can do their best to defend
themselves.

[Dronak]

Exactly, I'm not sure. It's a little hard to tell when not everyone shows up for every single class. Let's see, we have a club mailing list on Yahoo. The member list has 29 people on it, but one is our teacher. That leaves 28 students. I'm assuming that all our (semi-)regular students are on the list. Only 1 is explictly listed as female, but not everyone has Yahoo profiles and/or has theirs filled in. She doesn't come anymore, but she's on the list so I'll count her. I know there are two other women who usually show up, so that would make 3 women total and 25 men for a male:female ratio of about 8:1.

As a sort of aside related to Kirk's comment, I believe that there is some sort of women's self defense course on campus here. I've heard something about one existing, but that's about all I know. If there is some course designed specifically for female self defense, chances are most of the women are going there rather than to a more traditional martial arts class.

[Chiduce]

I had 2 females; they wanted quick results for problems of weight etc,. Well they left and one is coming back next week. She found out that the training was doing what it should have for her along with her self defense. My, brown belt whom has a black belt in TKD has 10 adult women in his class. He also includes aerobic kick boxing in his classes. Sincerely, In Humility; Chiduce!

[DWright]

In the class that I teach there are 8 people who attend regularly. All are male. I have one female student who attends occasionally.

In the class that I am attending there are 3 women and 5 men.

[girlychuks]

About three months ago, we were 35% women/girls and 65% Men/boys.

Now in the pst few month, two girls have signed up !! Joy!! We are now 40/60. In favor of the men still, but we do have classes, that by chance, end up all women. THose can be fun!!!

[LanceWildcat1]

men - women ratio in MA?

In our hall, it is approximately 30% women, but it is getting higher. When I first started, it was only about 5%-10% women, so more women are getting involved. I don't see a problem with that! ;) ;)

[KenpoTess]

We have about equal females to males at our studio.. at the college it seems we have more females than males at the beginning of each semester. By the middle of the semester there are more males. I think women in college think they either 'should take self defense' or it will be an easy Phys Ed Grade. which the guys tend to think also.

I wish we could get some of the parents involved.. they come to watch their kids and I would love to see them out participating in the adult class.

Tess

[KenpoTess]

*Moved to WMA*

Older thread thought would be interesting to revive :)

[Gemini]

We run about 50/50 adults and kids. Males used to dominate about 60/40, but those days are over.

[Eternal Beginner]

Karate class it is probably 70% men to 30% women. BJJ it is 99% men and 1% women.

[Henderson]

On any given night, our adult class is usually 30-50% female.
The kids class always has more girls than boys, though.

[Eternal Beginner]

On any given night, our adult class is usually 30-50% female.
The kids class always has more girls than boys, though.

I replied earlier but when you mentioned the kids classes I thought about the ones in my clubs. You are right, far more girls than boys. In karate it is probably 65/35 for the girls and in BJJ it is easily 70/30 for the girls. The girls also have less turnover than the boys, until teenagerhood hits.

[Jade Tigress]

We have a pretty good ratio at my particular school. In addition to myself, there are 3 other females in my class. Counting sister schools, from what I've seen, I would estimate it 85-90% male...

[still learning]

Hello, We have been pretty lucky to get even amount of men and women.

Yes it would be nice to see more women get some kind of self-defense training.

Too many men do not know how to behave and treat women.

What can we do to get more women to learn some kind of self-defense?


In the real world - learning self-defense should be simple and easy to learn! One day someone will make it simple to teach and learn...is it possible?

How many years does it take one to learn how to poke someone in the eyes? Two? one for each side? ...................................Aloha

[Slippery_Pete]

At my college, we have TKD, until this semester there were 3 guys to about 10 or so of us girls...now there are more guys....some days it was just BigNick and a whole lotta girls

[bignick]

At my college, we have TKD, until this semester there were 3 guys to about 10 or so of us girls...now there are more guys....some days it was just BigNick and a whole lotta girls

It's a hard knock life...

[Shirt Ripper]

It's a hard knock life...

Heh. I haven't taken a count but I would say that the majority of my aikido class is young women.

[arnisador]

Only when I was in Tai Chi was it more women than men, and almost everyone in the class was a senior citizen.

[TigerWoman]

When I joined TKD at our school it was all teenagers and one other mother. Now it is about 50/50 depending on who comes to class. Sometimes we out number the guys sometimes not. TW

[RachelK]

As far as I can tell, Systema is less than 5% female. At last year's summer training camp, there were around 93 men and 5 women. But camp isn't necessarily the best measure. In our night classes we generally have 6-8 men and 1-2 women.
I don't know why more women aren't attracted to Systema, it's a very good art for women as it does not rely on strength. I guess the military background could be a turnoff.
Best,
Rachel

[evenflow1121]

Both schools I attended had about 20 guys and 2 girls.

[KenpoSterre]

we have a ration of about 5-10 boys for every girl. It differs on what day you are taking the class on.

[TILMom]

I am the mother of a young female martial artist. She has stayed in martial arts long past the boys that started with her, I believe largely due to the fact that she has a fantastic female instructor. Our system has quite a few female black belts, and I find that typically those girls that keep with it, are very successful in our system. Now that my daughter is assistant teaching (she is a jr black belt 14 yrs old training since 6.5 yrs old) the young girls coming into class for the first time are very drawn to her, and her to them. Its a pleasure to see her passing on her knowledge and learning so much from them as well. At our last while belt test, there were 6 females and 4 males. Pretty amazing stuff. My husband also trains - he is outranked by our daughter - and that makes for interesting tests in respect on both their parts.

[annie]

Right now in the beg-int adults 2 women(myself and best friend) and probally 8 men.
In the Advanced adults 0 women- till we get there in about 2 months!

[KenpoSterre]

Wow. Several women blackbelts AND a women instructor? My stsyem has only one out of the many teachers. Lucky duck. I haven't even met a female blackbelt of any sort yet-only men. :(

[Kacey]

My class is about 1/3 female (the one I teach, I mean), and I am female also.

My instructor's class is about 1/4 female.

[yumeiko]

when I joined my current martial arts class there were 3 other girls that started at the same time. within a couple weeks i was the only girl white belt, sensei's wife was there as well, but I was often the only girl, and there were about 8 guys. Kinda cool but at the same time rather daunting. I started asking friends of mine to go to call outs and just talk to others about the class. Right now it is still me and sensei's wife most of the time, but at the beginner cycle class we have about three that show up most of the time ^_^ so times are changing!!!

^_^

[shellie]

I'm hearing it depends on where you are located.

[Tiberius]

At my Judo class I started out with 9 girls and 3 guys, now I am the only guy.

[Stac3y]

The adult class I teach has 3 men and 1 woman; the adult classes I attend have 6 women/1 man in one and 4 women/1 man. My junior class has 17 boys and 9 girls.

[Becca]

That makes us pretty interesting then. In our "regulars" there are more women than men. I'm in a college club so at the beginning of each year there are more women, as people leave there are more men on our mailing list but always more women in class actually training. It's quite interesting actually. I wonder does it depend any on the art. I do TKD, anyone else any insights??

[Tiberius]

That makes us pretty interesting then. In our "regulars" there are more women than men. I'm in a college club so at the beginning of each year there are more women, as people leave there are more men on our mailing list but always more women in class actually training. It's quite interesting actually. I wonder does it depend any on the art. I do TKD, anyone else any insights??

I do Judo and am the only guy in my class. Its my first class, but the girls who are almost all a black belt or better told me that in the other classes they have been before there were always more girls than guys. I dont think my class is representative though. 3 more guys joined up with me this semester, but I guess they got tired of being tied into a pretzel by a girl.

From what I heard in most schools the gender ratio is usually from 50-50 to 75 - 25 in the favor of girls.

[harlan]

The popularity of TKD in the USA aside, it does seem that every TKD school/club I run into has a higher proportion of female to male membership. I think it comes down to accessibility (sp?). It's a well-marketed art, appeals to women on various levels, and is basically 'inclusive' (variety of aspects) which promotes student retention.

In the Goju and kobudo study group I'm in, I'm the only female. Some nights that makes it 1:1, and some nights 1:6.


That makes us pretty interesting then. In our "regulars" there are more women than men. I'm in a college club so at the beginning of each year there are more women, as people leave there are more men on our mailing list but always more women in class actually training. It's quite interesting actually. I wonder does it depend any on the art. I do TKD, anyone else any insights??

[Tiberius]

The popularity of TKD in the USA aside, it does seem that every TKD school/club I run into has a higher proportion of female to male membership. I think it comes down to accessibility (sp?). It's a well-marketed art, appeals to women on various levels, and is basically 'inclusive' (variety of aspects) which promotes student retention.

In the Goju and kobudo study group I'm in, I'm the only female. Some nights that makes it 1:1, and some nights 1:6.

Thats funny, when I look into taekwondo classes, or kickboxing and boxing classes its like 10 guys and 3 girls, sometimes no girl.

It seems grappling is here either very popular with girls or unpopular with boys, while arts that revolve around striking seem to be very popular with girls elsewhere, or unpopular with boys.

[girlbug2]

In the entry level 1 classes (Krav Maga), the ratio seems consistent at about one third female to two thirds male. However, as the students progress into the higher levels, the females drop out at higher rates. In my level 4 classes it is only about 10 percent female (in fact at times I am the only female in a class of a dozen or so). By the time you are talking level 6 (brown belt), there is only one female in our school, and thus far no female black belts at all:(. Hopefully that will be rectified within the next year when our female bb passes her test, and in two years there will be half a dozen of us females as brown belts due to rise up in the ranks.

My theory is that since Krav is a very good reality based self defense system, women will readily enter with the intention of getting some good basic SD skills, which are covered well at Levels 1 and 2. Passing a Level 1 and/or 2 test, a student has a good set of skills to defend against common street attacks by a presumably large and strong, but unskilled, attacker (think "common thug"). This serves to alleviate universal fears for women as it includes rape prevention techs and variations. But all too often they are not seriously intending to follow through with the higher levels of training all the way up to black belt--involving more complicated groundfighting, defenses against more sophisticated attacks, weapons defense and even weapons training. I happen to eat that sort of thing up, but perhaps I am unusual in that regard as a woman?

[Tez3]

Still just me :)

[Tiberius]

Still just me :)

That good or bad?

[Tez3]

That good or bad?

Well it's not a problem as long as they do as I tell them :whip1:


It would be nice to get some more women in though, tbh my daughter pops in now and again to train but shes not a regular due to her job taking away. Women tend to think MMA is a men only thing but it isn't and we try to be friendly to everyone to encourage people in.

I'm the only instructor in tonight so they had better work hard lol!

[Tiberius]

Well it's not a problem as long as they do as I tell them :whip1:


It would be nice to get some more women in though, tbh my daughter pops in now and again to train but shes not a regular due to her job taking away. Women tend to think MMA is a men only thing but it isn't and we try to be friendly to everyone to encourage people in.

I'm the only instructor in tonight so they had better work hard lol!

Its weird to see what are mens and womens sports around the world. The most obvious example would be football (soccer). From what I heard there are not that many women in boxing and kickboxing here and while me being the only guy in the judo class is an extreme thats what the trend is, while Americans said there are not that many women in grappling related classes and a lot of women in classes like taekwondo.