Women vs. Men in Martial Arts

I recently read a forum post that is for women where one comment, taken away from the context, gives me a discussion or post. The comment was on strength, mens vs. women's, in training. I began to wonder why and have this theory that maybe the training is geared toward development of strength. The woman stated that when she looked around she noticed the other women in the hall struggling. The epiphany for this person was the discovery that karate, martial arts, is not about strength yet it appears that the competitive atmosphere was unconsciously pushing the women to compete with the strength of the men.

Why is this? I suspect, my theory, that it speaks to the western culture of sport and competition. I also might step into the danger zone by saying it may be due to the movement where we speak of equality. I agree with equality but with the differences of the person's as an intricate part of that maxim. Don't go flaming me out because I am not being a sexiest.

Women and men are different yet should be viewed as equals. It is not a bad thing to provide training suited to the individual be they male, female, large, small, strong or not so strong. It comes down to training and practicing the traditional martial arts where strength is not paramount and of considerable focus. The focus should be teaching and practicing with the individuals strengths and weaknesses, a whole person concept where strength and how it is applied are governed by martial systems fundamental principles, not strength alone or as a dominant feature.

Men rely heavily on strength and women don't. Women, truthfully, have the advantage here and we can learn from them to attain true budo proficiency in applying all the martial principles. After all, most men quit when the age and strength diminishes thinking they don't have it anymore but those who do have it wholeheartedly can keep on going until late in their winter years.

I see it as an advantage for women to gear their training and practice toward utilizing the full spectrum that is the fundamental principles of the martial systems where strength is not an issue but the mind-body principles are applied.

It speaks to why some smaller and not so strong antagonists can and do defeat the protagonists in conflicts and/or sparring, etc. They learned to apply the principles of martial systems as a whole and let go of the ego driven desire and need to be "strong." Take it as a strength of a different type that does not rely exclusively on muscles, size and aggressive attitudes that males seem to naturally drift toward in life.

In closing, if this seems sexist it is not my intent but if you feel this post could improve to remove any misunderstandings let me know in the comments.

Focus on the fundamental principles in practice and training and forget gender; forget strength; forget not so strong; forget size; forget weight both large and small - focus grasshopper!