Women have participated in
kickboxing since the 1960s in Thailand. But there has been a superstition and prejudice women have often being prevented from participating in the major tournaments in Thailand.
The World’s Muay Thai Angels is one of the first organisations to be a place for women to participate in and the first tournament was won by
Chommanee Sor Taehiran.
Women's kickboxing in Australia has a small but devoted following. In the 1970s women in the United States took up kickboxing as they were prevented from taking part in
women's boxing
Although women have participated in boxing for almost as long as the sport has existed, female fights have been effectively outlawed for most of boxing's history until recently, with athletic commissioners refusing to sanction or issue licenses ...
.
In the UK kickboxing has a growing following according to the
WMC.
In May 2016 the kickboxing organisation
Glory announced the creation of a women's division built around
Tiffany van Soest
Tiffany Lynn van Soest (born March 20, 1989) is an American Muay Thai kickboxer who competes in the bantamweight division. She is the current Glory Super Bantamweight Champion. In 2019, Combat Press voted her the Female Fighter of the Year.
O ...
.
In 2021 the
Lumpinee Boxing Stadium
Lumpinee Boxing Stadium ( th, สนามเวทีมวยลุมพินี) is a sporting arena in Bangkok, Thailand. The stadium is named after Lumbini, the birthplace of the Buddha. Opened more than a decade later than Rajadamner ...
finally allowed women to compete in Muay Thai.
In popular culture
In
Stieg Larsson's book ''
The Girl Who Played with Fire
''The Girl Who Played with Fire'' ( sv, Flickan som lekte med elden) is the second novel in the best-selling ''Millennium'' series by Swedish writer Stieg Larsson. It was published posthumously in Swedish in 2006 and in English in January 2009. ...
'' (2006) and its
film adaptation,
Lisbeth Salander
Lisbeth Salander is a fictional character created by Swedish author and journalist Stieg Larsson in his award-winning ''Millennium'' series. She first appeared in the 2005 novel '' The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo'', as an asocial computer hacke ...
, her friend and lover Miriam Wu, and their friend Paolo are kickboxers. Lisbeth adopted her kickboxing ringname, "The Wasp", as her hacker handle and has a wasp tattoo on her neck.
See also
*
List of female kickboxers
This is a list of notable female kickboxers. This list shows kickboxers and professional competitors of other martial arts such as bama-lethwei (burmese boxing), kickboxing, pradal serey (khmer boxing), sanshou (sanda), savate boxing and shoot ...
*
Women's kickboxing in Australia
References
Bibliography
*''Global Perspectives on Women in Combat Sports:Women Warriors around the World'', Alex Channon, Palgrave Macmillan, August 2015,
{{Women's sports
Women's sports
Kickboxing
Women's martial arts