Woman head instructors: Where Are They?

[pressureguy]

Woman head instructors: where are they?

 

In the state of South Carolina, I can only casually name one school headed by a woman and one school headed by a husband and wife team who got their black belts independently from one another.

 

In Georgia, I can name only one or two.

 

In contrast, in Augusta, Georgia alone, there are about 25 schools all headed by men. In the whole state of Georgia, there must be several hundred to a thousand schools all run by men.

 

Please note that I am not talking about schools with women in their teaching staff; most would qualify in that way. I am talking about schools that have one woman who is considered the head instructor and runs the school.

 

Why is this? Why don't more women try to do run their own schools? It would seem that statistically more men have higher ranks than women. Open up any martial arts magazine and you will see it full of men in their uniforms and belts boasting their upper degree ranks in their respective style, but it is rare to see a woman doing that.

 

Is it a cultural thing? Is it something that men desire more than woman for some reason? Any ideas?

 

pressureguy

 

http://www.backyardmartialarts.org

[pineapple]

I've often asked my friends this same question. I do see a lot of women training in martial arts but rarely do I see them continue to the upper levels. Most women that I know take martial arts as a hobby while many men commit themselves to martial arts as a way of life.

 

I would like to hear responses from the women out there as I do train women and would like to know how to bring out the best in them.

[sweetpea0525]

It may just be a manner of experience, the owners of most good schools, and the men you see in the magazines, have many years of experience in the martial arts under them. However, few females have 20-30 years of experience. Hopefully, in the future, since more and more women are joining, and at least in my area, more and more are achieving higher levels of rank, that you will eventually see more women owners. However, there is also a bias in our society and many people, including some women, do not believe that women can teach martial arts or self-defense.

 

I don't know if there is one thing that brings out the best in female students, but the rule in my school is that women are treated no differently than the males. In class, we are all karateka.

[pineapple]

Sweetpea0525,

 

I assume that you are a female? If so, tell me what are your future plans in the martial arts. Is having your own school a part of your plans?

 

[busling]

The head instructor in my school is a man. He runs the school with his wife. His other business kept him very busy last year and consequently his wife was the "head" teacher and manager for that year.

 

He has over 20 years experience and his wife has less then 10 years.

 

I suggest that it is in our nature for men to be the dominate warriors of our society. I imagine that most women who are highly ranked want to be the best woman fighter they know; they don't want to be the best fighter. Where as men would like to be the best of the best. This is just my take on the situation and could be wrong.

[SloMo]

It's funny that my first TKD instructor was a man, but his instructor was a woman.

 

The instructor who took me to black belt is a woman.

 

The instructor who took me to my 2nd dan is a woman.

 

I guess this is unusual. Looking into the future though, she is the only active female black belt. We have a few woman black belts but they all quit not too long after getting their black belts for various reasons.

 

It may just be a matter of percentages. More men do MA than women, generally speaking, so I guess you should expect that percentage to carry into instructors as well. Also, more women are doing martial arts today than in the past so I would expect ( and hope ) that the number of female instructors shoudl increase as well.

[AngelaG]

I suspect numbers will go up, remember 20-30 years ago it wasn't the done thing for young ladies to do martial arts.

 

Also take into consideration that if a woman wants babies she has to take a longer break. It is always hard for women who also want families to juggle a full time business and their home lives - If that business is their own the pressure will increase.

 

Still - one day I hope to own my own dojo. We shall see!

[TangSooGuy]

I run my school together with my wife, and I know several oher instructors who do the same.

 

I also know several women instructors who run their own schools, and several women who are masters.

 

Just briefly looking through my association's registered studio listings I found 32 female studio owners....

 

My current youth class is approximately 50% girls, and several of them have expressed the desire to teach at their own school one day.

Edited January 14, 2005 by TangSooGuy

[pineapple]

In Hawaii, there are many outstanding female assistant instructors but seeing one as the owner of her own school is a rarity. I do not see any difference in capabilities between a male and a female, in fact I have found many females that learned the techniques faster than the men.

 

I always suspected that the only reason that there are less women owning their own schools is that there are less women that set this as one of their goals. (due to other priorities)

 

Again I would like to hear from the women out there about having their own school as one of their goals

[karatekid1975]

A good friend of mine plans to open her on dojang. She has almost 30 years experience in MA (I believe). She'll correct me if I'm wrong And she asked me to help. We are both females. She is an awsome technique buff, to boot! She will make a great school owner!