53. Where did All the Women Come from?
Yoga Studies in Five Minutes - Theodora Wildcroft
Suzanne Newcombe [+]
Open University and Inform, King's College London
Suzanne Newcombe is a senior lecturer in religious studies at the Open University and honorary director of the charity Inform, based in theology and religious studies at King’s College London. From 2015 to 2020, she was part of the European Research Council– funded project “Ayuryog: Entangled Histories of Yoga, Ayurveda and Alchemy” in South Asia, which examined the histories of yoga, Ayurveda, and rasaśāstra (Indian alchemy and iatrochemistry) from the tenth century to the present, focusing on the disciplines’ health, rejuvenation, and longevity practices. She is the coeditor of The Routledge Handbook of Yoga and Meditation Studies (Routledge, 2021) and the author of Yoga in Britain: Stretching Spirituality and Educating Yogis (Equinox Publishing Ltd., 2019).
Description
Gendered forms of physical culture in European cultures meant that the physical aspects of yoga teaching looked similar to the kinds of exercise which were socially acceptable for middle-class women. By the mid-20th century, many women were attracted to yoga as a source of greater connections outside of their home, psychological freedom and greater economic autonomy.