Yoga has been around in Ancient India since what feels like the beginning of time. Speculations go back to the fifth and sixth centuries BCE. There was a time in history where women were not allowed to be a part of yoga practice, but today in the modern world it has become a widespread phenomena led by mostly women. By empowering themselves through yoga, women have helped to make yoga inclusive. When it was brought to the western world in the 1970s, inspired by the Women’s Liberation Movement, yoga became a safe space for women to decompress from the stress and struggles of being a woman in the modern world. This haven for women within yoga practice continues in today’s contemporary world.

There was a time in Ancient India when women were welcomed to practice yoga. However in the early First Millennium, Brahmanism became very prominent in Indian Culture and Hinduism. Brahmanism excluded women completely from yoga practice. It also put them on a list of lavish things that yogis must sustain from such as elaborate foods, and material objects. Yoga became vey popular in the United States around the early 1970s, especially among women. One can land on the assumption that this interest from women was a result of the Women’s Liberation Movement of the 1960s and 70s.

The overwhelming stresses of gender oppression in the contemporary world, specifically the United States, were dragged out of the dark by the Women’s Liberation Movement and pushed into the spotlight in the 1960s. Studies today show that one in five women in America will be depressed. There are many benefits of yoga for women, both mental and physical. According to a recent study done by Yoga Journal, there are roughly 20.4 million people practicing and studying yoga in the United States. Out of those 20.4 million yogis, 82.2 oercent are women. Yoga is about meditating and being in sync with life’s natural cycles, what better way to address the anxieties that come from gender oppression.

In the 20th and 21st century, many health benefits for women from practicing yoga have been discovered, and research on these benefits continues on today. This first benefit has aspects of both mental and physical health. It is no secret that yoga is an amazing outlet to harvest energy and exercise. America is extremely obsessed with body image. There is a pressure on American women from the excessive amount of various forms of media telling women what their body should look like. Half of the women in America are on diets, 90 percent of Americans are dissatisfied with their physical looks and 25 million women are reported to have eating disorders in the United States. On the physical aspect, yoga encourages a healthy food diet to keep your body healthy without developing an eating disorder. On the mental benefit side of things, yoga promotes a body positive image of the self. There has even been a recent phenomenon of yoga for larger women. The poses are tailored for larger body types and it also creates a safe space for these women to talk about their inner and outer insecurities and struggles. To achieve your yoga practice, you must balance your inner self, only then can you gain control of your body.

There has also been extensive research on the mental and physical health benefits of yoga on female breast cancer patients. It is crucial to keep your immune system healthy and strong while fighting cancer. The physical acts in yoga, the poses, keep the blood flowing, and strengthen the muscles which both help keep your immune system strong. Your immune system and physical health can be heavily impacted by your mental health. Which is why it is so important to keep moral up when your immune system is in such a fragile state from cancer. In the documentary film YOGAWOMAN one of the breast cancer patients that is interviewed speaks about how empowering it feels to be in a room full of other women who are also fighting through cancer all without their wigs on and confidently discussing their fears and concerns. This is another safe space that yoga has created for women struggling with cancer to have a healthy dialogue and to lift the heaviness off by connecting through meditation.

There are increasingly successful benefits of yoga for the sexual health of women. Yoga practice syncs your natural cycles of life, which sync up a woman’s menstrual cycles as well. One long time yoga teacher that was focused on in the film YOGAWOMAN mentioned how at one of her first yoga classes when she was a student in the 1970s, the teacher was openly discussing her period and menstrual cycle with the students and how that gave her a sweet release out of oppression and into empowerment. It has also shown to heightened women’s libido. Women who practiced prenatal yoga have shown to have a healthier pregnancy, an easier birth, and a healthier baby. There are even hospitals that have implemented yoga into their prenatal unit. Yoga has also been proven to be beneficial for new mothers. Quieting the mind helps to stay positive and avoid postpartum depression. Women can confidently become sex positive by building optimism through the greater mind and body connection that comes along with the practice of yoga.

Accessibility of yoga for women in America has continued to grow over the past four decades. The PBS television broadcast of Lilias, Yoga and You that began its twenty-seven year reign in 1972, gave women the convenience of practicing yoga in their own living room. There are various outreach programs, charity groups, and nonprofit organizations across the country to bring general happiness and health to women and other minority groups. These groups include but are not limited to The Art of Yoga Project, which helps at risk youth and teen girls in the juvenile justice system through the teaching of yoga practice. There is also Africa Yoga Project which brings the physical and mental aspects of yoga to underprivileged communities in East Africa. The highly successful nonprofit organization Off the Mat Into the World's mission declares that they are “dedicated to bridging yoga and activism.” OTM travels around the world to different at risk communities and uses yoga and meditation as a tool for sustainable changes. Today in the United States and various places around the world, there are yoga classes everywhere from park districts and community centers, to corporations, to schools, to freestanding studios.

The woman of the modern world is over stimulated, overwhelmed and oppressed. Women have used yoga to create a safe space to share common concerns, and release the anxieties of sexism. By empowering themselves through yoga, women have helped to make yoga inclusive. By practicing yoga with a feminine approach, women have created a space that allows for women to see themselves as more than just a victim of gender oppression.