The Kano Society

Bulletin no 15 January 2006

The Bulletin - Editor’s comment

SPECIAL OPPORTUNITY!  If you attend one of our courses or events this year - you can join the Kano Society on the day and get free entry to the event. - Don't miss out - come to Epsom or Bath - or both!  Second and subsequent events are at reduced members rate with first event free!

Discrimination and Sexual Harassment in Judo Herve Lemarechal

Discrimination and Sexual Harassment in Judo (from its initiation up to 1960)

The process of emancipation of women has, at least in the West, reached maturity. This process has encompassed several aspects – equality in political rights; access to the work place; exercise of electoral rights; freedom over one’s body in terms of fertility control, sexuality, choice of  dress and involvement in sport.

15 – First types of discrimination

 With the general advancement of female judo we begin to see the first signs of sexual discrimination some of which persist today.

The accounts provided here stem from first hand accounts of participants.

 Here are the most noted forms of discrimination which female judoka have had to put up with in the fifties and sixties. Such prejudice seems to have resulted from preconceived ideas. Such rigid opinions are expressed in articles written by the teachers of the day. Here are the main ones:-

The social role of a woman is that of keeping house and bringing up children

Judo is a sport which is too violent for a woman and could prevent her from having children;

Judo compromises femininity, it is not the role of a woman to do judo;

Females are not sufficiently serious minded or disciplined to participate in judo.

151 – Barring from competition.  The first form of discrimination is the exclusion of women from competition. Deprived of all evaluation, female judo was not recognised as a serious activity and seemed barely credible. Instructors insisted on the beauty of movements, the aesthetics of the kata,  rather than on their efficacy. To quote J Liberman French revues, and gossip columns included jokes and ironical comments on female judoka.; women were afraid of falls, it became a private activity. 

Female judo Female Judo was therefore not taken seriously. Eventually a female Judo championship was held in Paris in May 1950. This championship, open to all women of orange belt or over, took place on the fringe of the European championships and was refereed by Kawaishi himself. All techniques were allowed including strangles.

The scores which were given were somewhat restrained, most of the competitors lacked techniques and used excess aggression.

 Nevertheless this competition was not without importance since all the finalists became black belts within a few years. The second ranked (vice champion) Mme Levannier obtained her black belt the following year. We must wait until 1968 before Great Britain was to stage her first female judo championship won by Elaine Birch, JC Tipton. 

152 - A female judo differing from male judo. Another form of discrimination, which stems from the preceding, is the adaptation of the teaching methods for females pupils. In consideration of the danger to the female body, judo had to be adapted to the female form.  Let us remember that female participants were nearly all adult women or adolescents, child players were unusual. The teaching of female Judo was not uniform. One finds as many different teaching methods as there were teachers. However nearly all the instructors were convinced that judo was dangerous for women and needed to be adapted.  Indeed all the techniques were generally taught but here and there, certain instructors avoided teaching sutemi or strangles, and in fact armlocks which were deemed too dangerous. The teaching of the kata was generally favoured. Randori was the only form of fighting allowed. Female judo tended to become a gymnastic exercise rather than a combat sport.

153 – Discrimination in the organisation of classes. The classes were sometimes mixed and sometimes segregated. The first female instructors did not appear in France until the fifties. In the sixties we see more or less all over a veritable explosion of classes exclusively for women. There were also female clubs but their existence was merely fleeting.

 Even in the mixed lessons, practice remained strictly separated the female pupils were segregated. At least at first, mixed randori were the exception. In fact the men balked at practicing with a woman and preferred to train among themselves. In the fifties, men who accepted being thrown to the mat by a female partner were rare! On the other hand differences in morphology and training resulted that at least in France, mixed practice became almost an impossibility.  We have to wait until the sixties before these obstacles were overcome. In fact the largely male Judo community resisted the integration of women. In addition the almost impossibility of females being able to practice with male partners compromised the standard of their technique at least at the level of self defence.

     A French Book Cover in 1963

Female Celebrities in Action

 154 – Specific female grades.  Naturally discrimination extended to the award of grades. A female belt could not have the same value as a male belt, female belts were in general distinguished with a white stripe along their length. Even nowadays this discrimination is seen in Japan. At the time many females considered this detail truly discriminating.

 As far as the black belt was concerned it was limited by quota in order to guarantee the value of the grade. According to some the level required to obtain a black belt was deemed more rigorous for a woman than a man. In the fifties in France, the grading for women for their black belt was mixed. The first candidates were not in sufficient numbers to be able to fight amongst themselves and they therefore had to confront other male opponents. The number of candidates for black belt rose rapidly and the gradings rapidly became non mixed.

  The acquisition of a black belt was therefore very difficult for the French at least until the seventies. In July 1966 the magazine ‘Traditional Judo’ gave the names of 52 French holders of the black belt. The same publication also named the fourth dan males 41 As regards the number of female Judoka the estimate given by the publication ‘ Formidable No 5’ was ‘more than 10,000 in 1965.

 155 – The attitude of male judoka. We understand that at the time females met serious obstacles in entering the judo community. In fact female judo was generally not taken seriously. The aim of instructors is to produce black belts and competitors in order to establish a fully fledged federation. On the other hand many accounts remarked on the lack of courtesy of male partners who refused to fall or refused to train with female partners. Equally, some of them were also lacking in their cleanliness.  There were also inappropriate and crude suggestions.

 The place of women in the Judo world reflected their place in society in general, under the domination of males  It was to take several more years before they would be fully accepted. A sixth dan instructor, presently deceased, Mr Birnbaum told me that Judo was not designed for women. However he did not find a way of excluding women from class.

 Female pupils also upset other things. It should be understood that there was a rapid turnover of female participants, many misled by adverse publicity were rapidly discouraged.

 Despite all these forms of discrimination of which some continue to exist at the present time, certain observations can be made which contradict the marginalisation of female judo – for example:

 Another point is the big appeal of female judo in promoting  efficacy . Newspapers extol the efficacy of judo in portraying women apparently practicing with ease. Instances of successful self defence are widely reported. Numerous female personalities are publicised practising judo.     (To be continued

Bulletin 15 Part 2