Often when I read though Shotokan websites and blogs there is no mention of women and their experiences as they are mostly written by men. It makes me wonder where are the women in karate and what are they doing? I have been training for a long time and rarely do I meet women who are talented and who have been training for awhile. I can name a hand full of them. When I do meet them it is very refreshing and inspiring as I have mostly trained with guys (not that I don't enjoy training with guys because really I do). It also means that I have people to train with who are on the same level. It is getting better now that I have travelled and lived in different places. I also think that it is getting better as I see more girls getting into karate which is awesome.
Growing up, I would travel 8 hours in a 16 passenger van with a bunch of guys who had nothing better to do but read Maxim and harass me for one fight. Or I would fight the same people every time and we would switch ranking every time depending on the day. Whereas, the guys would at least get 3 fights.
Anyways, my point is that I believe that there is an unexplored perspective still missing from debates within Shotokan Karate and that is the feminine perspective.
