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Hello,
Thank you to all those who have voted and shared your thoughts on our March 2021 question. The voting is now closed and here are the results. Please feel free to discuss about the March 2021 vote here.
アンケートにご協力いただきありがとうございました。アンケートは終了しました。以下は結果です。このトピックについてフォーラムを開始します。自由にご投稿ください。
Q3: Would you care to share how you overcame of dealt with the challenge of being discriminated? 上の質問で、はいと答えた方にお尋ねします。どうやって乗り越えたか、可能であればお答えください。
<NOTE>:
We summarised the answers for Q3 in the following four types although we had 19 responses. Many thanks for those who provided an answer.
以下はQ3への19の回答を4つのカテゴリーにまとめたものです。お答えいただい方、大変ありがとうございました。- With the help of dojo instructors and other peers.
- Stepped up and continue training.
- Ignored the event.
- I now became senior and make sure that this doesn’t happen to my students.
- 先生や先輩、同輩の皆が助けてくれた。
- 剣道を続けることによって乗り越えました。
- 無視しました。
- 現在自分がインストラクターとなり、自分の生徒達にはこのようなことが絶対に起こらないようにしています。
I’m glad that we’ve asked this question, it is good to hear from other kendoka about whether they’ve witnessed or experienced discrimination. It is a little unfortunate to see the alrge amount of discrimination and it is good to see that there are slow improvements for the future.
This is alarming – a total 77.5% people answered yes, combining yes experienced and yes experienced and witnessed and of which about half said that they had not overcome the experience. Would this figure echo in the workplace environment? Other sports? Or could kendo possibly attract more discriminative events? And is the current procedure for such events adequate? To speak about it is the first step and I hope more people reach out for help and are helped. Surely some more serious than other events but where the experience involves H&S it should not be tolerated. Thank you for sharing your experience and thoughts. This is possibly the tip of the iceberg and yet this is not a proper survey study in that there isn’t enough number of people answered the question and the geographical location is random. I can only refer to Independent Newspaper reporting more than 25% of UK workers experienced discrimination at work in 2018 More than 25% of UK workers say they have experienced workplace discrimination, survey claims | The Independent | The Independent
SMEloans also reports a ‘significant’ 26% of all workers in the UK polled felt they had previously been discriminated against on the grounds of their gender at work, according to survey in 2019. “Gender Discrimination In The Workplace Statistics 2021 (UK) (smeloans.co.uk)“
I’m honestly not surprised given the culture embodied in Kendo – it is still very traditional and japanese culture is very patriarchal, as pointed out in this article linked in the latest post of kenshi247.
I believe the numbers would fare a bit better in the workplace environment but that really depends on the country and type of work/company you work for.
One thing that always baffled me is how close minded Kendo culture can be. You are not allowed to question or challenge (in a constructive way) anything because there is an hierarchy and your opinion doesn’t matter unless you are a sensei (note: I don’t mean questioning during a kendo class where it can be disruptive and even disrespectful to the teacher).
Also if something goes against some sensei’s vision of how things should be then you are pretty much stuck with that vision no matter how outdated it can be. Of course this will depend on the kendo club but I don’t think it’s unique to a couple of places, the more you try to be “traditional” the more you can fall into this close-minded trap.
Just to be clear here: I have nothing against hierarchy or tradition itself, I respect that and to some point it makes sense. It’s when it becomes a block to new ideas and critical thinking because “this is the way it’s always been” that I have a problem with. And this is especially true when it comes to women in kendo and how they are treated.
With that said, I believe the new generations don’t have this vision so much and things will improve once the older senseis (the ones with this bias) retire and give way to the new generation. Also as the number of female practitioners increase, even if marginally, and become more ranked this will open the door to more inclusive dojo environments and more female practitioners.
So to me it is very important that we have more ranked female practitioners, they become involved in their clubs organization, try to become teachers/instructors, participate as much as possible in events. This is very challenging but with time, perseverance and with the support of communities like this one I’m sure we will see a rise in female kendo.
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