Lifting the stigma from women & strength training

Thanks to Hester Boyers, Sociology PhD student at Durham University, for putting this piece together. Scroll to the bottom of the page to find out a little more about Hester.

Once upon a time I was a total cardio bunny. The only squats I did were to reach food at the bottom the fridge and I was certain that if I so much as placed a toe in the weights room I would turn into Arnold Schwarzenegger. Today, not only is lifting my passion, but it’s also the subject of my PhD.

I’m fascinated by the social barriers that prevent women engaging with strength training, from the differing ways men and women use the gym to the stigma around female muscularity. Additionally, I’m interested in the impact of social media on breaking down some of these barriers.

Testimonials of the empowering potential of strength training for women are regularly published in the media and online, and popular hashtags #girlswholift and #strongnotskinny have over 32 million posts on Instagram combined 1234.  This points to the fact that online fitness communities are a potentially powerful tool for addressing stigma and motivating women to take up lifting. I want to share with you, from a research perspective, some of the social barriers that prevent women from taking up strength training, and the role of social media in empowering women to challenge the status quo.

But first, the bunny years…

My Fitness Journey

When I was at school, I never went near the weights room. There wasn’t an explicit rule that girls weren’t allowed in there, but there didn’t need to be. As you walked past you could hear the sound of metal slamming, thumping music, and the occasional sounds of boys grunting. Safe to say, I never felt a burning desire to see what I was missing.

As an undergraduate, I took up rowing and used my university gym to do extra cardio. Aside from being bored stiff by the repetitive pulling motion, the hours spent sweating it out on the rower didn’t make me any faster. I complained about my lack of progress to a teammate, who convinced me that lifting would help me improve my strength and overall fitness. Reluctantly I agreed to give weightlifting a go, on the condition that she came with me and showed me all the movements.

Even when accompanied by a friend, I was terrified of entering the weights room, desperately hoping that no one was watching me and fearing that I would humiliate myself by using a machine wrong. Looking back, it’s obvious why I felt this way. I thought of the weights room as a male dominated space- somewhere I didn’t belong. It’s been four years since I was first introduced to lifting and while I’ve grown to feel comfortable weightlifting in the gym, I often look around to find I’m the only woman in the room.

Gender & the gym

Much like in my school days, the weights room is perceived to be for men and the cardio machines and fitness suite tend to be thought of as female zones (5). This is partially due to the expectation that women work out for “weight loss”, whereas men go to the gym to “bulk up”- a message that is continually reinforced by health and fitness magazines (6). Crucially, this affects the kinds of activities men and women engage in, as well as their overall experience of the gym (7,8).

Recent research published in Social Science and Medicine indicates that spatially, some areas of the gym are perceived to be for men and others for women 9 . Researcher, Stephanie Coen, says, “gyms provide opportunities for physical activity participation and for health-enhancing behaviours. But at the same time, they often reinforce gender differences and disparities” (10).

But what exactly are the benefits of getting a few more men in Pilates and a few more women doing bicep curls?

The answer from a health perspective is quite simple. The NHS physical activity guidelines recommend that on a weekly basis, adults aged 19-65 should strength train on two or more days and complete 150 minutes of moderate aerobic activity 11. Which means the stigma preventing women from pumping iron is actually denying them the mental and physical benefits associated with strength training.

Of course, in addition to health inequalities, the social barriers that arise from this issue could have a huge impact on how women feel when they are in the gym. While women-only hours and even the emergence of some women-only gyms may offer a short term solution, this doesn’t get to the root of the issue.

Researcher Stephanie Coen believes “we need to think about how can we change gender relations in places like the gym that help make them more inclusive spaces… We have to be careful we don’t inadvertently stigmatise a group of people or blame a group of people. We all need change” (full blog post here).

Muscles are for men?

Although an important factor, gender divisions on the gym floor aren’t the only barrier preventing women from reaching for the dumbbells. The myth that muscles are for men is deeply embedded within mainstream culture. Female athletes in sports that require strength and muscularity (bodybuilding, wrestling, gymnastics etc) tend to offset the fact that their muscles are seen as masculine by presenting their bodies as overtly feminine- through their clothing choice, make-up, hair and so on 12 . In the social sciences this phenomenon is called the “feminine apologetic” 13 .

It’s no wonder women are hesitant to approach the barbell when there is still so much stigma around female muscularity.

In a 2003 study, Shari Dworkin interviewed female gym goers and found that three quarters of her sample were aware of a “glass ceiling” of female muscularity 14 . Significantly, many of the female lifters in this study reported to “hold back” when lifting weights, in order to avoid gaining too much muscle. Similar reports of a perceived “upper limit” to female muscularity have emerged from numerous other studies (1516171819).

The policing of female muscularity in the public domain no doubt sends a message to women that it is unfeminine to be “too muscular”. In response, women have developed a feminised language to talk about muscularity. Personal trainers will attest that women will talk about “toning up” or “body sculpting”, which is girl code for gaining muscle mass and reducing body fat.

When we’re even afraid to use the language of gaining muscle, how can we combat cultural myths that muscles are for men?1

#girlswholift

In today’s tech savvy society, people are increasingly going online to educate themselves about exercise and nutrition (20). Paving the way for free and accessible health information are individual influencers (shout out to Hazel!) as well as national organisations, such as Sport England and their This Girl Can campaign, which has a 540,000 woman strong social media community.

On social media, women are opening up conversations about the empowering potential of lifting weights. If you’re online and interested in fitness, you may have come across the hashtags #girlswholift, #girlgains, #strongissexy, #gainingweightiscool and you will probably know the significance of the peach emoji to the average fit chick! The more we see women online challenging the idea that muscles are for men, the more we are able to lift the stigma on women and strength training. And while further research is still needed to find out how effective online fitness communities are for improving health and wellbeing, the potential for online spaces to provide networks of support as well as accessible and engaging health information is really exciting.

With all that said, I can’t help but wonder… if I’d had access to Instagram when I was in school, would I have been swept up in the current online fitness movement? And if so, would this have inspired me to storm into the weights room, change the Eminem for some Taylor Swift, and commandeer the squat rack? I cannot say for sure… but I’d like to think so.

References

1. O’Shea, L. (2018, March 10) Large Butts, Big Thighs: how weightlifting empowers women. Retrieved from https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/mar/10/large-butts-big-thighs-weightlifting-empowering-women-feminism?CMP=share_btntw
2. Hosie, R. (2017, July 19) 6 Reasons Why Women Should Lift Weights. Retrieved from https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/why-women-should-lift-weights-6-reasons-exercise-fitness-confidence-strength-fat-loss-a7829436.html
3. Hallett, S. (2017, June 13) 9 Women on Why They Switched From Cardio to Weight Training. Retrieved from https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/cardio-to-weight-lifting_us_593b2cdce4b0c5a35c9fad80
4. Oaklander, M. (2017, July 17) How Strength Training Changes Your Body For Good. Retrieved from time.com/4824531/strength-training- women-exercise/
5. Johansson, T. (1996). Gendered spaces: The gym culture and the construction of gender. YOUNG, 4(3), 32–47.
6. Bazzini, D. G., Pepper, A., Swofford, R., & Cochran, K. (2015). How healthy are health magazines? A comparative content analysis of cover captions and images of Women’s and Men’s Health Magazine. Sex Roles, 72(5-6), 198-210.
7. Clark, A. (2018). Exploring Women’s Embodied Experiences of ‘The Gaze’ in a Mix-Gendered UK Gym. Societies, 8(1).
8. Coen, S. E., Rosenberg, M. W., & Davidson, J. (2018). “It’s gym, like g-y-m not J-i-m”: Exploring the role of place in the gendering of physical activity. Social Science & Medicine, 196, 29–36.
9. Ibid 
10. Wiseman, A. (2017, November 30) Study Explores How Gender Defines the Gym. Retrieved from http://news.westernu.ca/2017/11/study-explores-gender-defines-gym/?sf176777035=1
11. NHS (2015) Physical Activity Guidelines for Adults. Retrieved from https://www.nhs.uk/Livewell/fitness/Pages/physical-activity-guidelines-for-adults.aspx
12. Bennett, E. V., Scarlett, L., Clarke, L. H., & Crocker, P. R. E. (2017). Negotiating (athletic) femininity: the body and identity in elite female basketball players. Qualitative Research in Sport, Exercise and Health, 9(2).
13. Hardy, E. (2015). The female ‘apologetic’ behaviour within Canadian women’s rugby: athlete perceptions and media influences. Sport in Society, 18(2), 155–167.
14. Dworkin, S. L. (2001). “Holding Back”: Negotiating a Glass Ceiling on Women’s Muscular Strength. Sociological Perspectives, 44(3), 333–350.
15. Bennett, E. V., Scarlett, L., Clarke, L. H., & Crocker, P. R. E. (2017). Negotiating (athletic) femininity: the body and identity in elite female basketball players. Qualitative Research in Sport, Exercise and Health, 9(2).
16. Choi, P. Y. L. (2003). Muscle matters: maintaining visible differences between women and men. Sexualities, Evolution & Gender, 5(2), 71–81.
17. Howells, K., & Grogan, S. (2012). Body image and the female swimmer: muscularity but in moderation. Qualitative Research in Sport, Exercise and Health, 4(1), 98–116.
18. Krane, V., Choi, P. Y., Baird, S. M., Aimar, C. M., & Kauer, K. J. (2004). Living the paradox: Female athletes negotiate femininity and muscularity. Sex Roles, 50(5–6), 315–329.
19. Sisjord, M. K., & Kristiansen, E. (2009). Elite Women Wrestlers’ Muscles: Physical Strength and a Social Burden. International Review for the Sociology of Sport, 44(2–3), 231–246.
20. Jong, S. T., & Drummond, M. J. N. (2016). Exploring online fitness culture and young females. Leisure Studies, 35(6), 758–770.