Women’s impressions on the female presence in capoeira

Abstract

This article aims to raise subsidies for rule, discuss and interpret the problems that still exist with regard to female participation in the universe of Capoeira, as well as identify which is the place that women held in this modality nowadays. The study was based on quantitative and qualitative research, using document analysis and semi-open questionnaire addressed to the protagonists of this story – female capoeiristas who evaluate and expose fragments of their experiences in all aspects of Capoeira. In conclusion, the article points out that are still many obstacles and limitations to women's participation in Capoeira. Many of them are built by themselves through self-prejudice and self-underestimation. Usually these factors come from the lack of support or motivation of their masters, workplaces and society in general; or because they think they should not practice and learn a martial art or self-defense, thinking that it could make them less feminine.