Women in Yoga: an exploration

Each week I will discuss distinct topics and consider how they relate to the overall theme of how women have participated in, and impacted, yoga.

In weeks 1 and 2 I will look at pre-modern yoga and weeks 3 and 4, modern yoga. I’ll also discuss how these periods are linked.

Week 1:

Introduction and course overview.

Representations of women in pre-modern yoga texts

Where can we find women in hatha texts? What were the expected roles for women in yoga and the quest for liberation?

Week 2:

Looking beyond hatha sources.

I will discuss images, Buddhist and tantric sources to widen our search for women in yoga.

We will consider divine representations of women - yoginis - and the relationship this has to the bodies of real women.

Week 3:

Is there room for women in the lineage of living hatha yogis today?

We will look at ethnographic research and ask whether things different for white women and Indian women.

Social movements and powerful women in modern yoga. (part 1)

Who where the powerful women in yoga and what did they do? I will discuss figures like Indra Devi, Helena Blavatsky, Geeta Iyengar, Yogini Sunita. This week will focus on the late 1800s and early 1900s.

Week 4:

Social movements and powerful women in modern yoga. (part 2)

Why are there so many women doing yoga today?

We will move our discussion to more contemporary times (late 20th century/early 21st century) and consider yoga in relation to feminism and differing ideas of liberation, modern beauty standards, the #metoo movement and moving beyond traditional lineages.

There will be space for discussion every week but in week 4 - particularly - we are looking at the yoga industry as it is today so there will be time to reflect on our own practices and sense of lineage or place within tradition.

The sessions will be delivered live, online as lectures.

There will be discussion break out rooms (depending on the size of the group) and all-group discussions and plenty of time to ask questions.

We will take time at the start and maybe throughout each session to do some brief centring practices (breathing, moving for 5-10 minutes).

The live online sessions will be on Zoom.

The recordings and readings will be uploaded to a Google Classroom each week - this is super easy to use.

There are 2 reduced cost bursary places.

You can purchase these on the booking page - choose the bursary option when booking. First come, first served.

This bursary will be given in good faith (i.e. you won’t have to prove low income) and on the understanding that you will be able to join the course live for at least 3 of the 4 sessions (if not all 4).

The same terms and conditions apply to the bursary place as to other places on the course - once a purchase has been made the cost is non-refundable.

I will record the course and you can watch it back in your own time.

The replay will be available for 30 days after the end of the course.

Yes!

This course is for people who are enthusiastic about learning more about yoga.

You don’t have to be a qualified yoga teacher to take part. Some knowledge of yoga and it’s history will be helpful.

I have a list of suggested readings - some of these I will share to you as PDFs, others are available online and I’ll share links - but none of it is compulsory.

It’s super interesting and you’ll have access to the resources to read in your own time, beyond the life of the course.

Yes! This course is ABOUT women and not exclusively for women. The role of women is an important part of yoga’s history that should be acknowledged by all.

Great question! I have an MA from SOAS in the Traditions of Yoga and Meditation and I wrote my dissertation on the roles and representations of women in pre-modern yoga.

It was tricky - not much has been written about this but I collated and analysed as much of it as I could find.

I’m now doing a PhD in modern yoga and my project is a feminist endeavour.

There are very few people with this level of expertise on the topic of women in yoga in general, and fewer with expertise in both pre-modern and modern settings, but I’m one of them!

Part of the course will be interactive, with breakout rooms for small group discussion, and also whole-group discussions. During these times, it would be great if you had your camera on, so we all know who we’re talking to.

For part of each session I will give a lecture with slides - during this bit it is not essential that your camera is on but again, it’s nice for me to see people’s faces!

If it’s not possible to have your camera on throughout I would appreciate it if you had it on as you joined, to say hello, before you turn it off again.

This is for safety and general sense of good vibes.

Maybe? But unlikely.

This is not the aim of the course or within my remit as a yoga teacher.

There are a lot of courses out there that are about empowering your inner divine feminine but this course is not that.

I am more interested in the lives of real women, what we know about them, historically speaking, and how women engage with contemporary yoga today.

I will talk about yoginis and divine representations of women in texts and how this may related to real women’s involvement in yoga.

Knowledge and being in community can be empowering - this course offers both of these things.

It depends!

If you are a member of the British Wheel of Yoga you can count it as part of your CPD points. I’ve emailed the BWY to confirm this - you, the student, gets to decide what counts as your CPD points.

This course is not registered with Yoga Alliance (USA/international) or Yoga Alliance Professionals (UK). As a very small business this is currently out of my scope.