Recommendations for Increasing the Number of Women and Girls in Parkour

The need-to-know “Best Practices” for making parkour more attractive, welcoming, and inclusive for women and other under-represented groups; developed collectively by participants of Art of Retreat 2017 and the global parkour community.

North American Women’s Parkour Jam 2016 (Photo by Anya Chibis)

In a recent study, I estimated that 13.8% of parkour practitioners in the United States are women, which is consistent with estimates from research conducted in France in 2016 and lower than estimates from Austria in 2013.

Figure 1. Gender break-down of parkour practitioners in the United States, estimated from three different national and international jams over a five-year period (2012–2016).

Now that we have quantified the under-representation of women in parkour, the next step is to determine why there are so few women and how to increase diversity in the parkour community. While this particular initiative is focused on gender, creating a more welcoming and supportive culture in parkour will hopefully foster inclusion of other under-represented groups as well.

Why so few?

Setting aside the fact that some personality types will never be interested in trying parkour, there is nothing inherently “masculine” about the art of movement or overcoming obstacles. So why is it that only 1 out of 10 parkour practitioners are women, when we make up slightly more than half of the population? Members of under-represented groups in parkour face psychological (and sometimes physical barriers) to participate, despite a genuine interest or deep personal passion for the discipline.

At Art of Retreat this year, dozens of leaders and representatives from the parkour community participated in a two-day workshop series designed to develop Best Practices for Recruiting and Retaining Women in Parkour.

In the process of identifying these recommendations, we first highlighted major causes that likely contribute to women’s under-representation:

Stereotypes about women’s inherent capabilities (NOT parkour) and what parkour is perceived by the public to be about (big jumps and flips);

about women’s inherent capabilities (NOT parkour) and what parkour is perceived by the public to be about (big jumps and flips); Prejudice toward women and girls in parkour or physical activity settings;

toward women and girls in parkour or physical activity settings; Media & marketing that excludes diverse movement styles and personas;

that excludes diverse movement styles and personas; Lack of diverse role models and leadership, which compounds internalized prejudice and leaves members of under-represented groups feeling isolated, without a proper place or influence in community culture.

(Read more about these barriers and the ongoing fight to overcome them.)

Best Practices for Recruiting and Retaining Women in Parkour

The following “Best Practices” were developed by 200+ coaches, CEOs, gym owners, athletes and other parkour community members working collectively in person and responding to an online survey. To read more about who participated in the survey, click here or simply keep reading to the end.

Individuals who responded to the survey selected which ‘best practice’ from the list developed at Art of Retreat was most important, and many provided open-ended feedback that greatly informed the development process. The resulting list is ordered according to which recommendations received the most support from survey participants; the first being the most popular.

The community speaks for itself. Rather than go through each recommendation and explain what it means in my own words, it seemed more natural and powerful to use excerpts from real quotes from the community. They often provide key insights, nuanced perspectives, and details about the importance of this work and how it can/should be done.

Caitlin Pontrella: a long-time parkour practitioner and creator of Art of Retreat.

(1) Develop female leadership in parkour, including community leaders, coaches, mentors, judges, and sponsored athletes.

“A strong community with female leaders and individuals that show a variety of styles will be the biggest factor in retention.” “I find very often the strong movers (male and female) stick together, leaving others behind and making them feel less welcome. I think it’s important that women actively encourage other women to join in and to make sure they feel welcome and are not in the way or just spectators.” “Have at least one woman coach in the gym.” “High visibility examples of men valuing diversity could help change opinions and attitudes, which I think ultimately can help the sport recruit and retain more women.”

My two-year-old daughter doing a cat-traverse on a building (with help from Papa).

(2) Promote visibility of women and girls doing parkour, in addition to other diverse personas and movement styles.

“It is important to have more social media/video media presence of women doing parkour and related movement.” “Seeing online media of female athletes performing at a high level played a large part in me sticking with the parkour community.” “Videos including women will help change public perceptions that parkour is meant for men- and I think will be the biggest factor for female recruitment.” “The strategies that have personally helped, encouraged, and inspired me the most were 1) seeing videos of traceuses training together and loving movement regardless of ability level, and 2) seeing that there are fantastic, beastly female movers out there who coach and are part of the leadership/teaching part of the parkour community…deeply connected to a community and have a hand in raising the next generation of students.” “Somehow, a young, fit man telling people parkour is for everyone isn’t super convincing.” “People want to emulate what they see on youtube/instagram and right now I usually see all women or all men groups, rather than mixed gender groups. That fosters separation rather than inclusivity, so I think it would be cool to start an initiative where clips with both women and men [are shown practicing] together.”

The “Women” section of the American Parkour website features local women’s meet-ups, photos, and content geared toward female practitioners.

(3) Adopt and develop targeted approaches to increasing representation, including marketing, coaching strategies, classes, events, and scheduling.

“The pragmatic pieces of parkour are often overlooked for the flash…Most of the women that train with me want to be self sufficient, overcome obstacles, work toward self improvement. The personal journey really appeals to them.” “I don’t like being thought of as different than men as far as capability. I like training right alongside of men. But for trainers to be able to recognize and help women overcome physical differences that typically aren’t as much a problem for men would be encouraging.” “Movements requiring upper body strength may need to be taught differently to women…Also short women may need smaller obstacles. Keep your eyes open for male students obliviously monopolizing equipment.” “Create women-friendly classes and jams. Moms want to do Parkour too and class times, it seems, are weeknights geared toward kids and people who don’t have to do kid bedtimes or make dinner.” “In my experience (both my own and talking to other women/queer folks), the traditional open jam structure has been fairly alienating to people who fall outside of stereotypically masculine. I’d love to see a wider variety of events that are more community oriented than a regular class, but have more structure than an open jam to help avoid devolving into ‘let’s all watch those three guys do flips’.”

Flirting at a jam is fun when you’re in a parkour relationship (above). If you’re interested in meeting or getting to know someone better, but you’re not sure if the feeling is mutual, try to catch up with them after a session or online to start a conversation. Respecting women’s space to focus on their training is part of creating an inclusive and welcoming atmosphere. It will also show someone you really like that you support them as a parkour athlete, and may increase your chances (or not — but that needs to be okay, too).

(4) Foster inclusiveness in the parkour community for women/girls and all other minority groups such as under-represented (non-binary) gender identities, ethnicities, abilities, and skill levels.

“It’s hard to find an objective and keep working at it until you get it when there are 5 men trying to talk to you and give you pointers.” “Being in the gym, It does feel like a boys club. For someone just starting, they may perceive that only hardcore athletes can do this sort of stuff.” “It’s hard to feel included when, during jams, your spot gets taken over by these same guys, especially with cameras, who are seen/feel/act more important than what you were doing. Quite often they do this without realizing they were taking your spot though, which makes it hard.” “Communities that have made me feel included as a female practitioner aren’t just ones that are focus on including ‘women,’ but embrace people with diverse physical level and abilities, such as those who aren’t ‘optimally fit’.” “The biggest problem is the overall attitude towards women and the value we place on certain movements as opposed to others. I and several other girls started training alone or left the scene all together because with the disparity between men and women in the sport. Being one of two girls in a room of 20 guys, it’s almost guaranteed you will get hit on multiple times to the point where you almost can’t train because everyone is watching you or talking to you.”

Freedom in Motion Gym teaches a variety of movement styles in courses such as Flow, Adult Low-Impact, Speed, and Tumbling. Their website also features women and girls doing parkour, which is awesome. (Full disclosure: My fiancé is the CEO).

(5) Teach and value diverse movement styles in and outside the classroom.

“Driving safe, practical, movement that everyone can and should be practicing gives people of all ages more room to grow and shine rather than focusing on big jumps and flips… Then the conversation moves from how big your jumps are to how amazing your technique is.” “If there was more value placed on things women are good at, they would feel like more valuable members of the community and feel like their skills are worthwhile.” “Classes typically targeted toward women and/or older people tend to teach critical basics such as balance, quadrupedal movement, falls and rolls, precisions, cat hangs and leaps, traverses, wall runs, flow, and strength in an approachable way that really should be taught in every curriculum, to every student.” “Diversifying who is in the classroom can help remind coaches to focus on progressions and movement styles that are adaptable to all bodies.”

Attendees at Art of Retreat 2017, gathered for Caitlin Pontrella’s closing remarks. Education in the parkour community is key to spreading and sharing good ideas.

(6) Train coaches and educate peers about how to work with diverse groups, including fostering empathy and inclusion.

“What I found intimidating about the typical parkour demographic isn’t the fact that they’re all male; it’s that young, male practitioners tend to have a higher range of athletic ability that make it hard for people at a lower athletic level to keep up.” “It was really frustrating to have coaches who told me to “just go for it” all the time. Like, brah, I have ankles and knee cartilage, and I want to keep it that way — I’m not good enough to absorb that yet!” “They (women) love Parkour and still wish they could do it. But they feel uncomfortable with how they are treated during classes. They feel they are being watched more than others, and/or are being hit on.” “Gender non-conforming identities are quite frequently erased from conversations about inclusion in athletic spaces. I would recommended addressing the difficulties faced by other gender minorities as well as women and feminine read people in your future research.”

Noted.