Why don’t more women compete?
Written by Vicky Beckett, 21st May 2024
I didn’t need to be hip thrown by a woman 30kg heavier than me, before she sat on my chest to simultaneously triangle choke and arm bar me to make me realise there was an issue with women’s weight categories, but it helped. With only a handful of women signing up to my first sub-only competition, the organisers decided to put us in two categories: under and over 60kg. At 61kg, this was never going to be pretty.
It begs the question, why weren’t there more women my size? Why don’t more girls compete? At my gym, a third of the class or more are often female but time and time again competition brackets lie empty. Of course, you don’t have to compete to enjoy jujitsu, but there is plenty to gain from testing yourself out against someone the same size, age and skill level to help you find the gaps in your game.
Many women say the lack of other girls entering meant that the cost just wasn’t worth it. Shivali Sood, a 34-year-old blue belt, took part in her competition this year but only had one other person to fight in gi and no gi. She said: “One of the main drivers for me to compete was getting the opportunity to test myself against lots of women my size and belt. I would compete again but I would want to see more girls in my bracket before I signed up.”
“Studies suggest there is a correlation between testosterone and competitive social challenges”
Solutions to this aren’t hard to come by. A few Instagram accounts are doing a great job of advertising empty brackets. Competitions could do more to subsidise brackets that don’t offer much chance to fight too. Alternatively, AllStars Europeans, hosted in London this March, had some of the fullest female line-ups I’ve seen. I understand this is partly thanks to the event offering free competition entry to female gold medallists for a full year after they’ve won.
Are gender norms holding us back?
There might be more primitive, anthropological reasons for empty female brackets too. Women are often not given as much kudos for strength and athletic ability, so have less social status to gain from a podium spot. There are plenty of studies that suggest there is a correlation between testosterone and competitive social challenges, possibly making men more inclined to enjoy competing (although, I find this hard to reconcile with my own comp obsession).
“Preparing for a competition requires a degree of commitment, which is difficult to reconcile with my personal and professional life”
Aga, a brown belt at Elevate Richmond, has only competed once and at white belt level. While she really enjoyed the experience, she said: “The adrenalin and joy from the matches didn’t make up for my nerves beforehand. That’s probably the main reason I haven’t competed since. Preparing for a competition also requires a degree of commitment, which is difficult to reconcile with my personal and professional life.”
Women often – not always – face a higher burden when it comes to childcare than men. This makes committing to an aggressive training schedule difficult, let alone the day itself. Athletes need to be at least a bit selfish, from making sure you’re getting enough sleep, eating and training well to being able to take time to get into the right headspace on the day. That’s not easy for a working mum.
This is issue is harder to solve. However, competition organisers could make life easier for parents. For example, they could include what facilities will be on site for children. Just as you ask for a coach’s pass, parents could apply for someone to sit with their kids while they compete and warm up.
Traditionally male gym culture may be partly responsible too. Take it from me – whether you’re single or in a relationship, asking a male coach to travel four hours each way to Newcastle and stay the night in a hotel with you to corner your fight isn’t always a straightforward request. When I was considering an MMA fight a few years ago, I was almost universally dissuaded from it, whether I was being warned against “damaging my face” or “turning into a muscle woman” – a personal favourite.
Female coaches, role models and champions play a part in answering all of these challenges. By agreeing to corner women at a lower belt level than yourself, you might be allowing someone to achieve things she never would have been able to otherwise. Even if you can’t corner someone, just having a friend there to hold your water, film your matches and cheer you on can make all the difference. Celebrating other women’s competition success is key too. These are things we can all do. It makes the competing experience more rewarding, easier to justify the sacrifices to loved ones and overcomes some of the difficulties of the gender divide in gyms. It gives girls the confidence boost they need to do things they might be scared of. It also supports your female friendships in jujitsu. So, what’s to lose?
Hacking your hormones
Then of course there’s the issue of weight. The jury seems to be out on how much water weight you can gain on your period, but stats vary between 0.4 – 2.5kg. Many of us who grew up with Heat magazine shaming celebrity bodies every week may not be comfortable being publicly weighed, categorised and potentially disqualified for weight gain.
“Competing is a skills express train, giving you direct feedback on what is and isn’t working for you”
What can be done here? Period-tracking apps can helpful when planning for competitions, but only if your cycle is regular. The weigh staff could be asked to be more lenient to women on the scales who say they’re on their period, but this is something that could be manipulated and may not be information you want to share. Perhaps one answer is to allow women to move into a higher weight category much closer to the actual event.
All of these things rack up against us, and yet there’s so much to gain. The personal development from being able to conquer your fears and the confidence boost that winning gives you helps you level up in ways you’d never expect. Competing is a skills express train, giving you direct feedback on what is and isn’t working for you. You also gain recognition from coaches and the wider jujitsu community. You meet incredible athletes you might have never have done otherwise.
So, what’s holding you back? And what solutions have we missed? We’d love to hear your views on this topic in the comments.
References:
“How does testosterone relate to competitiveness?” SciWorthy, December 2021, https://sciworthy.com/how-does-testosterone-relate-to-competitiveness/
Really great article. more women will only compete when more women compete!
And encourage each other to do so.
I think often the reason a bracket is empty is because so many people think like your example Shivali, that they will only sign up if they see people already signed up! If everyone thinks like that then you get an empty bracket. I always check the refund policy and if I know I’ll get a refund if no one else signs up then I’ll happily be first to sign up, to encourage others to, and that’s what I tell my students too. I believe most comps on Smoothcomp will allow you to sign up without paying, so at least you show in the bracket before even committing money.
Another reason I think less women compete is risk of injury and how dealing with an injury will affect their daily life, especially if they have kids. I’d like to see statistics but I would guess the risk of injury at a comp might only be very slightly higher than usual training and still mostly minor, but when you watch competition it can look more injurious to the uninitiated!
However, in my opinion the biggest reason is one you mentioned, the time commitment to training and the day of competition itself. I’m so busy all the time and I don’t even have kids!!!!