Gender Equality in Muaythai comes on in Leaps and Bounds
Female muaythai has come a long way over the past few years especially in the motherland of the sport, Thailand. For many female fighters it is an everyday struggle to be taken seriously in the sport with the top 2 stadiums Lumphinee and Ratchadamnoen not even allowing female athletes to touch the ring nethermind fight in it. Many other stadiums have an under the rope policy for females and over the ropes for male demonstrating the imbalance between sexes.
Female ambassador of the sport Sylvie von Duuglas-Ittu in a recent documentary based on her last 5 years fighting professionally in Thailand discusses these topics from her personal experience https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FPkHg7QPkdg. Sylvie has become an example to many and has had 205 fights in Thailand over the past few years not only helping inspire females all over the world to come to Thailand and compete professionally but also for promoters to understand the value of female fighters and to put them on shows.
Recently the tide has begun to turn with shows such as Angel fight promoting all female competitions. Even Thai Fight has added female fights to the show as well as Lethwai the Burmese event.
The muaythai scene in the north of Thailand is now heavily female influenced as Chiang Mai has become a powerhouse for female muaythai and even boasts an all-female gym in Mae Rim called Pettonpung.
Who knows what the future holds, perhaps in a few years females will be fighting in Lumphinee and Rajadamnoen but for now we can say that things are definitely moving in the right direction.
