By Kel and Hedge

Kel Glaister is an Ambassador for Parkour Earth. She works at Melbourne in Motion and makes art.

John ‘Hedge’ Hall is the Deputy CEO of Parkour Earth. He founded Access Parkour.

Parkour has an amazing potential for inclusion. Since its purpose is to physically challenge the practitioner, there’s no real reason why someone would need any particular physical abilities in order to start. Parkour is, after all, about human movement and all the radical variety and diversity that entails. Despite this, parkour (and freerunning, ADD and related disciplines like tricking or buildering) has a history dominated by young, strong (abled) men. While this demographic disbalance might seem a little odd, it makes a lot of sense when you look at the big picture.

We can probably boil the most relevant reasons for this male domination down to:

Parkour historically happens in public space. This means it’s more accessible to those who feel safe behaving oddly in public (ie, young men)
Parkour’s history has been male dominated. Making changes to any status quo is an uphill battle against perceptions and norms.

A woman hanging from the side of a building in an orange tshirt. She is doing parkour. — Image from Parkour Reporter

There are plenty of reasons why community leaders may want to encourage more women to get involved (A quick note: This post is specifically about women. We haven’t forgotten about non-binary and other non-male genders, they just deserve a post of their own). It could be because they recognise that diversity creates healthier communities, or that they value diversity in movement style and approaches to coaching. Or it could just be that they see women as an untapped income stream. Whatever the reason, there are many coaches and community leaders who want to get more women, girls and femme folk involved in the community. And those of us who have been around the block a few times have seen some pretty disastrous attempts to do just that (often followed by “But we tried it once, it didn’t work, no point in trying again.”)

We thought we’d take the time to frame the discussion a little better. In short, we’d like to move away from “How can we get more women into our community?”. Instead, let’s ask “How can we remove the barriers stopping women from joining our communities?”

Why change the question?

It's important to understand that people join communities because they like spending time there. They like the atmosphere, the people, the vibe; it makes them feel good about themselves. When the session ends, that community is one they want to go back to.

We need to understand what kind of place we have created, and then to look for barriers to inclusion that we may have inadvertently made or maintained. If our classes are full of homogenous young men who like big jumps; who all speak a weird language about ‘kongs’ and ‘pres’; if there are lots of in-jokes and crude banter; then you’ll no doubt find that the space doesn’t really attract, or retain, a more diverse crowd.

This can bubble up in an approach that sounds like: “We’re about the training. We’re not exclusionary. If you show up and do the training, you’ll be included and welcomed.” This is disingenuous, lazy, and ignores the systemic barriers to inclusion that so many people face (while also entrenching the status quo even further).

The second aspect to consider is that approaching ‘women’ as a demographic block doesn’t really work, for the same reason that ‘men’ isn’t a good demographic. We’re speaking about 51% of the adult population here. Differences inside the monolith of “All women” are huge, and any given individual within that group can have wildly different needs and wants.

That being said, there are some experiences that are, unfortunately, near universal. Nearly everywhere you look, women learn to avoid male dominated spaces as they feel unsafe in those spaces. This is especially true with spaces full of younger men. Women can feel out of place, objectified, condescended to, unfairly critiqued, even physically threatened. People often try to flirt with them, or openly attempt to make a big deal about how they aren’t flirting with them (this is also wrong). These are barriers; things that make it difficult or impossible to participate. Any given woman may have experienced some, all or none of these. And there are many, many more barriers, including some that are deeply entrenched in wider societies; like gendered differences in physical education, or expected behaviour, or parental and caring responsibilities.

Remember, it’s the barriers themselves that are bad. If we work to dismantle the barriers; even if it doesn’t mean an immediate increase in women’s participation in parkour; it’s still a good thing, with benefits for lots of people. It also shifts the focus of the problem away from ‘the women’ who aren’t at our classes, and onto ‘the barriers’ in their way. That reflects reality more accurately, and helps us identify actions that we can take.

So where do we start?

That depends on where you are now. We’ve listed some suggestions, as well as some common mistakes to avoid below. But perhaps the most powerful thing you can do is examine yourself and your community. Building a more diverse community isn’t something to be done ‘on the side’ while you get on with ‘real’ work. That sort of thinking builds up barriers when you want to be tearing them down. Improving women’s participation in particular, and diversity in general, won’t come from a simple trick, or a surface-level change. Just like with parkour, progress comes from genuine effort, and caring about the people you train with.

Diversity in Representation

It’s undeniable that a lack of representation is a barrier to participation. You gotta see it to be it. We all find it easier to empathise with photos of people that look like us, so the people that walk into your classes likely found it easy to imagine themselves in the media you share.

A woman performs a kong vault on a wooden box. She looks awesome. — Image from Parkour Reporter

Introduce more diverse representation when creating your marketing material, your social media feed, even in group chats. Dial down the fantastic shots of extreme flips and show the sort of movements that are occurring in your beginner classes. Be careful here; there’s a depressingly common sporting cliche where photos of men show them engaging in powerful, active shots while photos of women often show them smiling while doing more technical movements. Don’t fall into that trap. Women can do powerful jumps too.

Women-only Spaces

If your community is almost exclusively male, that can be a huge barrier. Creating supportive spaces is one way to improve women’s participation, as it provides a route around that barrier. You’ll need to support these classes or spaces to the hilt! You’ll no doubt get push back from some parts of the community who don’t believe they are necessary. Unwavering support from leadership, especially established male leadership, is vital.

Try establishing a women’s class, or jam. Ideally, these will be led by a woman but if there’s none available, it may need to be a more experienced male coach. That’s fine.

A photograph of four people barefoot balancing on a bar. You can only see their lower bodies. — Image from Donald Dalziel Media

As these classes or events grow, and develop a community around them, you’ll start to see what’s working. Depending on the make-up of your community, and the resources you have available, you might continue with women-only spaces, or support spaces that centre the experiences of women while also including allies and/or other gender minorities. Or some combination thereof. There’s not one right way to do it, and no way that suits everyone (you might be sensing a pattern…)

It’s vitally important to have clarity. Participants should always know what to expect. That means there may be a lot of difficult questions to ask and answer, like:

Do you need to define or have a policy on what ‘woman’ means?
Who is responsible for maintaining the boundary of the space?

It’s best to know the answers before you need to. Be clear and consistent. Be cautious using the term ‘safe space’ unless you can control every aspect of the class and who might watch or interrupt (which you can’t do in a public space.)

These classes and spaces might do really well, or might absolutely bomb. But the important thing is to begin the process of reaching out to a broader demographic. Remember, everyone is different; what has worked in other cities, countries, or decades, may not work for you.

Language Matters

How often do you think about the exact words you use and how those words are perceived? We signal a lot about what kind of community we are by the words we choose. Use of sexist language from a coach can cause subconscious doubt; just enough to damage someone’s trust in you. It doesn’t matter if it's a conscious or unconscious decision on your part: Women may lose trust and feel less comfortable if you use words, phrases or behaviours that show prejudice or perpetuate stereotypes, even when that’s not your intention.

Your language can become a barrier, as women become less likely to ask for a spot if they need it, less likely to bring a problem or injury to your attention, less likely to engage or return to your classes, and so on. We’re not trying to control your thoughts. Instead, we’re telling you that words have power, and you should learn to wield that power.

Aim to adopt a zero-tolerance for casual misogyny, including behind closed doors. There is no such thing as locker room talk.
Don’t tell sexist jokes. Period. Don’t pretend that because it’s a ‘joke’ that it’s not sexist.
Completely avoid sexist or demeaning terms for women, especially bitch. (Instead of “This conditioning exercise will be a bitch”, say brutal, or intense)
Offering pronouns is increasingly popular. Try and make it easy for students to tell you theirs and make sure you lead by example.
Some people argue that masculine terms like ‘guys’ or ‘the boys’ can refer to everyone. Others disagree. Avoid the discussion entirely by replacing those terms in your vocabulary with ‘Team’ or ‘Everyone’.
Avoid diminutive or condescending terms for a group of women (like ‘Ladies’, or ‘Girls’, unless self-chosen.) If you refer to male students as “ladies” to imply weakness (and so equate femininity with weakness) stop that and never do it again.

Be Aware of Safety Concerns

We should all be able to use public space for play and movement whenever we like. The sad truth is, though, that’s just not the case. Many people, particularly women, do not feel safe in public spaces. Take those concerns seriously.

If your classes are outdoors, make sure meeting places are well-lit and well populated at class times. Be sure that no one is in danger of being left behind, lost or stranded anywhere. Listen to your local community. If necessary, change class locations or times if a spot is a hazard to get to and from.

The Victorian parkour community actually includes info about this in their community parkour map. Could you do this?

Common mistakes

Now that we’ve got a good grounding of the basics, we thought we’d walk you through some of the more common mistakes made when you begin your diversity journey.

Minority Smooshing

Avoid smooshing ‘not young white men’ demographics together. A positive side effect of removing the barriers to participation that one group faces, is that some of those will also have been barriers to other demographics.

This doesn’t mean that all minorities have the same needs. Each demographic requires unique consideration. This article is focused on barriers that women face (and to be honest, it’s just scratching the surface. We haven’t addressed problems of transmisogyny, or how these barriers may intersect with ones of racism, ageism, classism or ableism at all.) Don't try to be all things to all people, and be responsive to your unique local situation to guide what you might want to research next.

‘Missing Stairs’

Most communities (of any kind) will have one or more ‘problematic men’, ranging from the guy who is a bit creepy, to a known rapist or abuser. Women in the community will warn each other quietly, because they know that doing so loudly is often pointless or even counter-productive. This is what’s known as a ‘Missing stair’; everyone warns others about the problem, but no one fixes it.

‘Missing stairs’ are the most dangerous when they are safely ensconced through leadership or popularity. There must be transparent ways for all community members to report inappropriate behaviour, ways to do so anonymously, and to independent third parties. Think about your own situation. How would someone make a complaint about you?

Pushing Women into Leadership Roles

You may, rightly, want your team to have female coaches. So the moment that you start seeing women coming along to your classes, you begin encouraging them to take on leadership roles to ‘empower’ them. This is a good intention, and recognises that having women in leadership is important. But it can be a bit of a trap too.

A woman vaults over a brick wall being badass. — Image from Parkour South Africa

Coaching and community organising is a big commitment of time: It is physical and emotional labour. Women taking on those roles will have to face misogyny and sexism on top of that. They deserve the time and space to decide if that’s something they want to do, or to focus on their own training if that’s what they prefer.

Remember, all women are different. Women that join male dominated spaces may not have an interest in creating women-only spaces. Make pathways to leadership clear, open and accessible, but don’t push. It’ll happen. And if you take your time, the right people eventually surface.

Masculine is not Default

There are lots of variations in human bodies that have an effect on how those bodies move. Weight distribution between the shoulders and hips affects the approach and shape of a cat pass/kong. Chest and breast shape affect the path of a climb up. Menstruation can mean higher variability in max power output over the course of a given month. An inability to do a jump that was easy last week or to make one that was impossible yesterday, could have physical or hormonal roots, even when it appears to be mental.

The problem is when we, usually unconsciously, assume that an abled male body is normal and compare other bodies to it. For much of parkour instruction (as well as physical education/ anatomy/ the sum total of Western knowledge), the experience of men is considered default or ideal, and the experiences of women are more likely to be devalued, or just ignored. This can be a barrier, as coaches can give less helpful, and therefore frustrating, instruction to women.

Again, the idea is not to take a blanket approach to all women, but to understand and be curious about differences between people.

And Finally

Listen

Woman and Men shake hands at the end of a training session. — Image from Parkour Reporter

Talk to women you know, listen to their ideas and action their suggestions. Another common trope is for a male leader to consult a woman, and nod strongly and claim he is listening, before explaining what he was planning to do in the first place and then arguing with her when she disagrees.
We’re not saying that every woman you talk to is going to be right about everything; we are saying that listening to the lived experience of the people facing barriers is the best place to start dismantling those barriers.

Be Patient.

You’re in this for the long haul. Some of the barriers are a result of thousands of years of cultural accumulation. Dismantling (or minimising) them, even within a small community, takes time, and effort. There is no ‘One Neat Trick’ for getting women into parkour.

That ‘One Neat Trick’ for getting women into parkour doesn’t exist