In this episode I am speaking with Ruth Westoby. Ruth is a doctoral researcher in yoga and an Ashtanga practitioner. As well as offering workshops and lectures at studios and conferences, Ruth teaches on some of the principal Yoga teacher training programmes in the UK and beyond. Ruth received an MA in Indian Religions from SOAS in 2010.

Her website is enigmatic.yoga
You can listen to her Wise Studies course Women In Yoga here.

The topics we discuss are:

• Common polarities in yogic texts
• Female representations or lack thereof in Hatha Yoga
• If female voices were more predominant in the past would that have changed the goal of yoga?
• The predominance of female hatha yoga practitioners today
• Gender essentialism
• Are historical practices relevant today?
• Evaluating historical time periods on their own terms