Celebrating International Women’s Month: Empowerment, Equality, and Consent for All

This Women’s Month, we’re honouring the women who hold so much of the world together — mums, teachers, carers, mentors, aunties, grandmothers, leaders, and everyday quiet changemakers. You give so much. This is our way of giving something back, and making it easier for more women to grow their skills and bring yoga, wellbeing, and connection to children and families.

If this resonates, please share this offer with your friends, family, students, and community — especially women who you know are ready to step into something meaningful.

And while you’re here, I really encourage you to read (and share) this Women’s Month class plan/article — it’s filled with powerful ideas around girl power, equality, respect, and consent, and it’s designed to be practical and easy to bring into your teaching:

 

This is not only about celebrating girls and women, although that is deeply important. It is also about asking what kind of world we want to help create. Do we want a world where girls grow up feeling safe, valued, strong, and free to be fully themselves? Do we want boys to grow up knowing how to listen, respect boundaries, honour feelings, and relate with kindness? Do we want the next generation to live with more dignity, more balance, and more mutual respect than many people have experienced in the past?

International Women’s Month gives us a beautiful opportunity to celebrate the brilliance, resilience, creativity, tenderness, courage, and leadership of women. But it is also a time to be honest. The world still has a long way to go. Equality is not yet fully lived. Respect is not yet fully embodied. Consent is not yet fully understood. And far too many girls and women are still growing up in environments where their voices, bodies, choices, and leadership are not honoured as they should be. 

The truth is that this is not just a “women’s issue.” This is a human issue. A relationship issue. A family issue. A school issue. A cultural issue. It starts at home, continues in the playground, is reinforced or challenged in the classroom, and then shows up later in friendships, work, leadership, media, politics, and intimate relationships. So if we want a better world, we have to teach better ways of being together from early on.

And this is one reason I feel yoga can be such a powerful part of the solution.

 

In yoga, we are not just talking about values as abstract ideas. We are practising them. We are feeling them in the body. We are learning to pause, to listen, to notice, to breathe before reacting, to become aware of ourselves and of others. We are learning how to take up space without crushing someone else’s space. We are learning how to connect without controlling. We are learning how to be powerful without becoming forceful. And this is exactly the kind of embodied education our world needs more of.

When children learn respect only as a word, it can remain theoretical. But when they feel what it is like to ask permission, to hear no, to say no, to change their mind, to be listened to, and to be treated kindly either way, then respect starts becoming real.

That is why, in this class, I chose to focus not only on girl power, but also on consent.

Consent is one of the most important life skills we can teach, yet many adults today were not clearly taught it themselves. Many of us grew up in cultures where boundaries were assumed, mixed up, ignored, or only spoken about when something had already gone wrong. So part of our work now is to help the next generation become clearer, kinder, and more conscious than the generations before them. Not through fear. Not through shame. But through awareness, communication, empathy, and practice.

And yes, this is urgently needed.

 

Around the world, nearly 1 in 3 women — about 30% — have experienced physical and/or sexual violence. In 2023, an estimated 51,100 women and girls were killed by an intimate partner or family member. Less than 40% of women who experience violence seek help of any kind. Women and girls also remain the majority of detected trafficking victims worldwide, making up 61% of the total in the latest UNODC global report.

The picture starts even earlier in life. UNICEF reports that 1 in 5 young women aged 20–24 were married before the age of 18, and more than 230 million girls and women alive today have undergone female genital mutilation. UNESCO has also reported that more than 30% of students worldwide have experienced bullying, reminding us that disrespect, coercion, exclusion, and humiliation often begin long before adulthood.

Now, of course, human behaviour is complex. Harm is not done only by men, and life is more nuanced than simple slogans. But even allowing for complexity, very few people would argue that the world has already reached a place of deep mutual respect and equality. We still have a lot to heal, a lot to learn, and a lot to model more clearly for our children.

That is why this class is not about blame. It is about growth.

It is about helping girls feel strong, seen, and celebrated.

It is about helping boys feel that respect, gentleness, emotional intelligence, and consent are not weaknesses but strengths.

It is about helping all children understand that every person deserves dignity, that “no” can be spoken and heard without drama, that “yes” should be real and alive, and that healthy connection always includes choice.

And it is about helping us, as teachers and parents, become part of the culture shift we want to see.

Because if popular culture is not consistently teaching these values well, then we need to. If children are getting mixed messages from the world around them, then we can offer clearer ones. If society is still confused, then our classes can become tiny laboratories of a better future.

I also love that yoga gives us a way to teach these things without becoming dry or preachy. We can explore them through play. Through movement. Through partner work. Through silliness. Through imagination. Through body language. Through pauses. Through laughter. Through noticing what feels good and what does not. Through learning that there is a difference between pressure and invitation, between shutting down and choosing, between performing and truly agreeing.

That is the spirit of this class.

I have tried to create simple, practical, embodied experiences that help children understand consent not only with their minds, but with their whole being. My hope is that these experiences will help the message sink in more deeply and become part of how they move through life, friendship, family, and eventually the wider world.

If you have other ideas for teaching equality, respect, and consent in meaningful ways, I would truly love to hear them. Please share in the comments or reply to our newsletter. We are all learning together, and the more wisdom we gather, the more we can offer the children.

Thanks, my Rainbow sisters and brothers.

To Bring: 

Would You Like A Cup Of Tea?

Sit in a circle (or in Zoom) and maybe after a short age-appropriate introduction about the International Women’s Day ask each participant “what does Consent means to you?”

Consent is a bit more than “yes means yes, and no means no” and we are going to watch this short video by Amaze.org that gives uses the simple example of having a cup of tea to illustrate what consent means in increasingly more complex situations. You can watch together here this famous “Tea and Consent” video.

This is also their video for young ones.

5-10 Minutes

Girl Power Sun Dance

Because it is International Women’s Day week, we are going to let the AWESOME girls in the class lead our Sun Dance today.

To the sound of the Girl Power songs I put in this playlist, have all the girls that are willing to step up lead the Sun Dance for everyone to follow (everyone will mirror the person leading).

Tell them that they are doing it not just for themselves, but as a gesture for all girls and women in the world to stand up and shine as the awesome people they are!

After each turn applies the ladies enthusiastically maybe even chanting together “girl power, girl power, girl power… !”

In an in-person class, it will be in a circle, and if using Zoom you can use the Spotlight feature that will make the leading girl visible to all participants as the main screen.

5-10 Minutes

The Yogi Says That You Are You

Students play a variation of Simon Says that highlights their similarities and differences.

We are defined by a lot more than being a boy or a girl and here students will explore their similarities and differences and learn about tolerance and acceptance.

In this version of Simon Says or the Yogi Says only some students will respond to each command.

Tell students that they must watch carefully as they play the game because at the end, each student must tell one new thing they learned about a classmate.

Here are some directions for The Yogi to say in this unique game:

• The Yogi says "Everyone that identifies as a girl, stand in Warrior 2 Pose”
• The Yogi says "Everyone that identifies as a boy, stand in Tree Pose”
• The Yogi says "Everyone that identifies as something else, come into Warrior 3 (Airplane) Pose”
• The Yogi says "Everyone with brown eyes, do a Standing Forward Fold"
• The Yogi says "Everyone who has a dog as a family member, come into the Downward Facing Dog Pose"
• The Yogi says "Everyone whose favourite sport is soccer, do a Frog Pose"
• The Yogi says "Everyone who speaks more than one language, come into the Dancer Pose"

 

...And so on, choosing categories appropriate for your students.

If you do not fall into the category instructed simply stay in Mountain Pose.

After a couple of minutes, let students lead as well. Encourage them to use a wide variety of cues and poses.

At the end of the game, have students ask each student to name one way in which he or she and another student are alike. The trait they share must be something they didn't know before playing the game. Students might say, for example, "I didn't know that Gopala spoke Spanish" or "I didn't know that Angel was left-handed."

Easy to play on Zoom.

5-10 Minutes

Yes No Questions

As part of our diving into learning more about consent, we are going to learn and be more and more comfortable with Yes and with No.

One of the students, the teacher will demonstrate first, comes into a new pose that was never seen or heard of before, a pose they invent on the spot.

All the other players need to question him/her until they discover which pose it is or what the poses symbolizes.

If it is an older group you can even have a theme of making up poses that represent powerful women (Wonder Woman, Frida Kalo, Hillary Clinton, Golda Meir…), or concepts relating to the class topic.

The questions can only have yes or no answers. For example: “Is it green?” “Does it fly?” “Does it live underground?”

The leader can ONLY answer YES or NO. No other answers are allowed.

The player that guesses correctly gets the next turn!

Easy to do the same on Zoom.

5-10 Minutes

2 Yeses and 3 Nos

Divide into pairs by asking the children to find someone with a different hairstyle than them.

If on Zoom you can use the Breakout Rooms feature for that and let the program divide the children randomly, after your instructions.

In this exercise, in a very simple way, we will practice saying “YES” and even more importantly saying “NO”. 

AND, we will also practice hearing those 2 words and accepting no graciously.

So here one person will ask the other to do 5 yoga poses to do and for each their partner will need to say a simple verbal “yes” or “no”.

The responder will need to say “yes” to 2 and “no” to 3.

The person asking will also practice acceptance.

Brainstorm together a few “staying cool” ways to respond to a “no”:

• “Sure thing, not a problem”
• “Thank you for considering”
• “Of course, I understand”
• “No worries, I respect your decision”
• “Oh, I didn’t realize it. Well, I feel disappointed, but I understand”

Sitch roles, and then play a few times switching partners. Keep giving different cues to partner “partner with someone who has ________ similar/different than you”.

5-10 Minutes

The Yoga Consent Game

We need to go much further than just teaching “No means no” and “Yes means yes”. Young people know the definition of consent, but too often they have very little idea about what consent looks, feels and sounds like.

So here we will learn that "(an enthusiastic) Yes (but also a body language full-body yes) Means Yes. _______ (many things) Means NO."

This is from a Law Book: "Affirmative consent means affirmative, conscious, and voluntary agreement to engage in an activity. It is the responsibility of each person involved in the activity to ensure that he or she has the affirmative consent of the other or others to engage in the activity.”

• Lack of protest or resistance does not mean consent
• Silence does not mean consent
• Affirmative consent must be ongoing throughout the activity and can be revoked at any time
• The existence of a dating relationship between the persons involved, or the fact of past relations between them, should never by itself be assumed to be an indicator of consent
• Consent under pressure - psychological, physical or social - is not consent
• Consent when not in a coherent state of mind (such as when drunk) is not consent

But… Asking verbally for consent at every turn can kill romance and maybe risk the future of humankind almost as much as not asking for consent at all. 

Did you see the letter from Catherine Deneuve questioning if #MeToo had gone too far? 

We shouldn’t equate every terrible clumsy attempt at seduction with rape and sexual assault. After all, how are people supposed to flirt in this environment? Is it possible to teach our kids consent without throwing a wet blanket on their romance?

First Round: With everyone sitting in the circle, or on Zoom, explain that each person will need at their turn to say the name of another person and ask them to do a yoga pose. If the other person agrees, they say ‘yes’ and does the pose, then it becomes their turn to ask someone else. If the person being asked does not agree to do the yoga pose, they say ‘no’ and the person who asked is free to ask someone else. 

It feels really stupid and makes kids laugh, but demonstrates that verbal communication is the clearest and easiest to understand, especially if people don’t know each other very well.

Second Round: No one is allowed to talk. Now, you have to “seduce” (or you can use the word “convince” if it feels better) another to do a certain agreed pose, let’s say Warrior Pose, with facial expressions, eye contact, and body language, including gestures. 

This will also make kids laugh because everyone will look ridiculous. It also illustrates that we use our bodies to send consensual signals to one another, but they’re sometimes harder to understand than verbal words. Essentially, you are teaching your students how to read the non-verbal information that someone may read before they went in for that kiss.  

Third Round: No one is allowed to talk, gesture, or otherwise communicate with their bodies, except for eye contact. Request a person to do an agreed yoga pose only with eye contact. 

This will be very hard, illustrating the difference between eye contact with no context, and the non-verbal communication in the second round. Once everyone is laughing or frustrated and you’ve gotten the point across, the game ends. 

Easy to do the same on Zoom.

10-15 Minutes

Consent Massage

In pairs, and again give cues to pair randomly, lying down or sitting, one partner will be the giver and the other the receiver.

The giver asks the receiver “would you like me to massage your feet/hands/head, calves, arms, back, shoulders, neck, tummy?” and the receiver says a simple “yes” or “no”. The Giver needs to comply.

You can also add to it for the giver to ask “would you like me to massage that area harder or softer” and again comply with the directives from the receiver.

Sitch roles of giver and receiver after a few minutes.

On Zoom, you can do the same with pairs while the giver is saying the parts to be massaged, and if the receiver says “yes” the receiver proceeds to do a self-massage on that area.

If it becomes necessary, ask the pairs to (obviously) avoid asking to massage sensitive or private areas in this exercise.

5-10 Minutes

 

 

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