Yoga teachers launch campaign to shine light on endemic sexual harassment in yoga industry

The Yoga Teachers Union, IWGB are launching their first national campaign, fighting to protect yoga teachers from sexual harassment, ensure their safety and dignity at work and demand action from the nation’s yoga governing bodies and membership organisations to protect the workers essential to bringing yoga to village halls, communities and studios up and down the country.

A yoga studio or class is perceived as a space of sanctuary to focus physical and mental wellbeing. For yoga teachers, that sadly isn’t the case. Severe sexual harassment, fear of speaking up, feeling unsafe, potential of losing work and being ‘blacklisted’ are being reported widely.

Since forming as part of the IWGB in Oct, 2020, The Yoga Teachers Union have taken 39 disclosures of sexual harassment, with 80% of the casework the Union is currently undertaking involving active sexual harassment cases drawn from the membership, which is  91% Women or Non Binary.

Sexual harassment is a huge societal issue in the UK, with 1 in 2 women experiencing sexual harassment in the workplace. Only 1 in 5 report to their managers, with 1% reporting to their union reps.

“Every yoga teacher has a raft of stories on sexual harassment, with solicitation and constant sexualisation of yoga teachers happening on a daily basis” says Femke Gow, Independent Yoga Teacher. “I’ve personally arrived at scheduled 1:1 yoga lessons to find nowhere to put mats and the student has no intention of doing yoga. This is deeply uncomfortable and I don’t feel safe going to do my job.”

Abuse under the guise of ideas from yoga philosophy or a guru’s teachings also takes place in large studios and yoga centres, where questioning or raising concerns is stamped out through coercive control, dependency and fear of exclusion.

Yoga Teachers form part of the gig economy, with this sector growing to 7.25 million workers by the end of 2022. Most yoga teachers work on a freelance basis for multiple studios, gyms and often run their own independent classes, with employed opportunities and protections few and far between.

These conditions create a perfect storm for abuse to go unchecked and unreported; precarious working conditions, inadequate reporting mechanisms, and a general lack of accountability for perpetrators mean teachers are at high risk of sexual violence, with many fearing loss of work if they do speak out.

The yoga industry is unregulated in the UK, and there are a number of bodies or member organisations for yoga teachers, teacher trainers and schools to register with on a voluntary basis. This means there is no single route for reporting, teachers attempting to file reports and then being deflected away and different bodies and organisations policies and processes on sexual harassment and reporting varies wildly.

The Yoga Teachers Union have drawn up three clear, simple demands to move towards ending this culture of harassment and harm, and provide yoga teachers with safety and dignity at work:

• Every yoga venue has a sexual harassment policy that is clearly visible and accessible to teachers and students
• Governing bodies and membership organisations implement clear and appropriate reporting and escalation policies for teachers and students
• Awarding bodies make modules on sexual harassment consent, power dynamics and duty of care mandatory in all foundational teacher training awards.

Hayley Johns, Secretary of the Yoga Teachers Union (IWGB), says: “Yoga teachers face the threat of sexual harassment on a daily basis, like women across the gig-economy. This is an issue we’ve all known about for years and many of us have had personal experiences with it. Since coming together in the union, we’ve seen just how widespread and endemic harassment really is - evidenced by the volume of disclosures and active cases we’ve had reported to us. In the yoga industry, teachers often work alone in private settings and without regulation or adequate structures, we have nowhere to turn when we are harassed at work. But when we come together as a union, we are no longer alone. Together, we can demand action from those in positions of power to improve safety and conditions for yoga teachers and students across the UK.”

Click here to access the campaign resources including model policies, signposting and ways to support the campaign.

For more information, please contact:

Jake Thomas, Press Officer
press@iwgb.co.uk / +44 7446 625784