Female-friendly Training Environment for Gender Balance in Aikido

Background Even though Aikido is non-competitive, the movements are soft, rational, and smooth, as found in nature, Aikido practice is a male-oriented communities. This is clearly reflected in the much lower numbers of female practitioners and female instructors, as well as in the disparity of women in the decision making bodies of Aikido organisations. Aikiodo can be practiced by women without concern so it is ideal to induce a change for the benefit of women by creating a different training culture. Objectives The main goal of the project was to make an overall impact on the Aikido community by proposing a set of tools for Aikido organisations and instructors with the purpose of facilitating the attraction of female newcomers as well as retention of female Aikido practitioners in the dojo and by creating a female-friendly training environment. Implementation The project focused on collecting data from practitioners of the the Romanian, the Dutch and the Slovenian aikido federations, including high level male and female instructors. First, a questionnaire was prepared to establish a database of common knowledge. Based on the result, measures to create female-friendly dojo were tested in the dojos of the three aikido federations. After 9 months of experience, the best practices Guidelines for creating female-friendly dojos were elaborated. Achievements The result is an online Guidelines on how to create female-friendly training environments in dojo. It is accessible for all practitioners and instructors and have been widely spread in the European Aikido Federation’s network, as well as in social media. The Guidelines contain targeted and tested measures which are easy to understand and implement. It targets both current and potential practitioners with the aim of retaining women in the dojo and attracting more female practitioners.