How to get more women in your HEMA club
I get asked this question a lot, and it seems to be cropping up more and more lately: perhaps because more clubs are popping up or looking to recruit more members. HEMA is definitely growing. Here’s my top three tips:
1. Have only women in your advertising materials.
Yes, just women. And I’m not talking about sexy scantily clad models posing with swords, just regular women fencers, doing what they do or wearing their fencing gear. Why just women? The guys will come to your club no matter what you do, just the word “sword” will have them staggering like hungry zombies in your direction. Girls need to see, clearly, front and centre, that this is for them.
2. If you can, have women instructors or women assistants to help with any introduction classes.
Almost all of my female students have said that seeing a woman instructor made a big difference for them, it reassured them that they had made the right decision in choosing this activity. Women always seem to have nagging doubts at the back of their mind, whatever they do. In the case of HEMA that can sound like: “what am I doing here?”, “is this right for me?”, “am I too old/unfit for this?”, “shouldn’t I be doing Zumba or something?”. But that’s conditioned bullshit, they need to let that crap go.
3. Inspire them with a passion for the art.
This goes for all students of HEMA, but particularly for women students because they tend to fill out beginner groups and then drop off as their peers progress. You very rarely find advanced female students in a club. I’m not going to go into the details of why I think this happens, there are many social and economic and psychological factors play, however if you can continually sustain and inspire a love for HEMA, in whatever aspect drives each of your women students, give it your damned best shot. Find out what that is, remember it, give them your time and support them.
