Male vs. Female teachers, acceptance, attitude of students, ability to make a living

Yoga Discussion General Yoga
#1

I did a little search and came up with this comment from Pandara in this thread here:

http://www.yogaforums.com/forums/f16/your-knowledge-and-input-would-be-appreciated-5778.html

““Speaking form a South African pov, it is really very difficult to make a living solely out of yoga. If you are fortunate enough to have a rich husband who can still support you while teaching yoga, then you would be one of the lucky ones. However, I gather from your posts you are not. Most yoga teachers I know both up in Gauteng and down in the Western Cape still have a day job and teach yoga part time. Cape Town is a very expensive city, so you really have to think carefully about how you want to go about it. [B]If you are male, making a living out of yoga can be to say the least extremely challenging in South Africa.[/B]””

I wanted to ask the far more knowledgeable and experienced yoga teachers and practitioners about the topic of differences between male and female teachers. Not so much on how they might teach differently but specifically how the yoga community at large sees male teachers, if at all differently.

I’m a guy thinking of doing a yoga teacher training, perhaps one day, almost a year from now if at all. I’d only go into teaching if:

I was passionate about yoga and believed in what it could do

Had a solid home practice supplemented by studio work with a teacher

felt I could be an effective communicator and enthusiastic teacher since being a student/practitioner is actually quite different from being a teacher and actually being able to impart that wisdom and knowledge onto your students.

didn’t feel like yoga would be my sole job, let’s face it, the market is crowded and 200hr certification doesn’t’ always mean much nowadays and is just a starting point

felt like I could take a studious and academic approach to my TTC and , quite frankly, be one of the better students in terms of knowledge and “ability” (again, b/c the market is crowded and I do feel you should be passionate, knowledgeable and above the crowd so to speak if only to ensure success as a teacher)

had a master plan to hopefully get a 500hr certification in the relative near future after obtaining my 200hr (and teaching experience to know that I did like teaching) as for me, this might be like the difference between a bachelors degree and masters, thus giving me even more credibility and more importantly more knowledge in yoga. We all can’t be 2,000 hr certified like some people on here!

I have trained and taught in my other jobs and liked it, although at times it can be exhausting, like I said, not everyone can be a teacher and I recognize this from the outset. I do feel I could be a good teacher if given the opportunity.

But I look around at gyms/YMCA’s and traditional yoga/wellness studios and there are precious few men teachers. Has [I]Yoga Journal[/I] ever had a man on it’s cover? if so , I’ve never seen it.

Yoga does indeed seem to be a woman’s world here in the West

I was just wondering is it harder for the typical male teacher in the West? Harder to obtain and keep students, harder for them to be taken seriously? harder to be accepted by female dominated classes? All things being equal, would most women choose a class with a woman instructor over a man assuming same style of class and teaching style and knowledge by the two instructors. It’s not uncommon for the ration to be 10:1 in most classes. I would like honest answers to these questions.

I’d also like to know about how much one could make, not as a way of getting the money spent on TTC back but rather, again, as a future supplement to my regular income. I was thinking it would be nice to have some other form of income that I could do , that would be enjoyable, that I could be passionate about, and of course it would be great to help others along the yoga path.

I have heard figures of $15-25/class at a gym/YMCA and I would of course assume more at a traditional yoga studio ($40/50?) but am not sure. Again, I don’t see it as getting my money back but just to see how much of a supplement it might be. Even if I thought being a teacher wouldn’t be right for me I still wouldn’t rule out taking a TTC if only for more knowledge in my private practice.

I’m sure some will be politically correct or say it’s a man’s world, always has been, always will be, but I do believe things have changed alot and for the better, but yoga is surly female dominated.

thanks for any help you can offer, but I do really wonder about the differences and attitudes towards male teachers in a what is most assuredly a woman’s yoga world. :slight_smile: (at least here in the west)

#2

I am unsure of how relevent my reply is, but I have been teaching yoga in Spas for several years now, and I know that male massage therapists have a tougher time than female. The majority of people who have any preference prefer female, some have no preference and very few request a male. I believe that it is all perception, but in that case, perception becomes reality. It is POSSIBLE that there is a similar perception in yoga. Rodney Yee might beg to differ.

#3

In my neck of the woods, male instructors are highly sought after. I would love to have a couple of male instructors in my studio, but because I live in a bedroom community town out of a large city, there are NO male instructors nearby. All live relatively close to the ‘hipper’ areas in the city and the commute is not really worth it.

Plus, because they are a valued commodity, many of the male instructors that I do know are very employed and are doing quite well. A lot of them are constantly turning down offers from studios trying to lure them over.

So, if you are male, well-trained, and a good knowledgeable instructor with charisma, you can write your own ticket.

#4

[QUOTE=FlexPenguin;68640]In my neck of the woods, male instructors are highly sought after. I would love to have a couple of male instructors in my studio, but because I live in a bedroom community town out of a large city, there are NO male instructors nearby. All live relatively close to the ‘hipper’ areas in the city and the commute is not really worth it.

Plus, because they are a valued commodity, many of the male instructors that I do know are very employed and are doing quite well. A lot of them are constantly turning down offers from studios trying to lure them over.

So, if you are male, well-trained, and a good knowledgeable instructor with charisma, you can write your own ticket.[/QUOTE]

thanks for your response, I’m wondering why this is?

If I recall, aren’t you from Canada?

#5

Yes. I’m in the Calgary region. Not sure that makes much of a difference really. I agree that the yoga industry is female-centric. 80%+ of my clients are women, but the percentages are more 65/35 in the downtown areas, probably because the denizens tend to be more ‘cosmopolitan’ than the suburban/rural areas, and there is the ‘office’ draw. I get more men in the evening class and almost always all women during the daytime (some exceptions). I would bet these metrics are similar in any North American or western city.

Here is how I see the instructor-sex issue play out: the younger, hipper tweens move out of home, go to university or college, and generally live in the urban belt. That’s where the hot clubs are, the art galleries, the yoga studios, the hangouts. They become yoga instructors and teach in the area. Some of the instructors get experience, travel, meet interesting people and learn from them, get more experienced. Some of the female instructors get married and in their mid-late thirties, move to the suburbs with hubby and child(ren). Now, the women are driving into downtown to teach a class or two, pay for parking, etc. Yoga studios (like mine) start popping up in the suburbs and bedroom communities lately and ‘Viola’ we have a good selection of experienced, mature female instructors who live nearby. The boys, on the other hand, move a bit differently. There are fewer of them to begin with, and by the time some of them are in their mid-thirties find they have to deal with the stigma of ‘finding a real job’. Or, they remain in the urban areas and continue to teach at studios nearby.

Now, I have just painted a picture with broad strokes of generalities here. I am not trying to be sexist and fully understand that there are many other dynamics at work. But, these generalities do occur.

So, the outlying studios (generally) have a difficult time recruiting good, talented, experienced male instructors, and would love to have a few in the ‘stable’, as it were ( I cringe as I see myself type this, but…).

If you plan to become an instructor, don’t bog yourself down with preconceptions. Accept that there are no guarantees - no guarantee you will fail, no guarantee you will succeed, no guarantee studios will want what you are selling. Rest in the confidence that you are fully qualified to teach, and you will make the lives of your clients better by making them feel better. Know there is a place for what you do in any studio, urban or rural. People select a class primarily because a) it fits their schedule, b) it’s a convenient location at the preferred time, c) they bond with the instructor - male or female. It only APPEARS that female instructors are selected over males because there are so many more female instructors. It is only so in reality in very few cases.

Good luck, breathe, and allow yourself the freedom to grow.

#6

In the West, my experience is that male instructors have a MUCH easier time of it than women.

To begin with, there are simply fewer of them. This does place them in higher demand as the previous poster stated.

I also hypothesize that there is also an unconscious response where both men and women prefer to learn from a man. For better or worse, the masculine side of us exerts more authority which makes the students feel safe. If you are reasonably masculine and good looking then you will also benefit from the tendency for female students to project upon you their notion of an ideal man - one who is both strong and sensitive.

That said, it takes a good long while of teaching to actually become good at teaching. So you may not achieve instant success (though it is likely to come more quickly than if you were female). But if you stick to it and persistently improve your teaching skills, you really can make a living from it eventually.

#7

it would seem to balance out the energy of the room having a male instructor

also most male instructors are in my opinion going to be better at teaching and also massage because its a female dominated industry and the males usually are in it because they enjoy it or have more of a passion fo it then women. who generally can be in it just because its hip or common for females to be doing it

so you generally get a better teacher or massuse going with a male.

#8

I find male instructors where I am at are highly sought after. If they are good, and there classes are packed.