Meninas e meninos são educados para agirem de formas opostas em diversos campos. A maioria dos meninos aprende a gostar de atividades agressivas e competitivas, ao passo que elas aprendem a gostar de atividades rítmicas ou relacionadas às tarefas domésticas, atividades estas que pouco se assemelham às lutas. Com o intuito de identificar os sujeitos e as instituições que influenciam a vida das lutadoras, realizaram-se entrevistas com cinco lutadoras que foram campeãs mundiais ao menos uma vez em sua modalidade. A análise dos dados foi por meio da dialética. Na infância, as lutadoras brincavam juntamente com os meninos, mas não deixaram de participar de brincadeiras socialmente classificadas como femininas. Não foram estigmatizadas nas aulas de Educação Física por serem habilidosas, mas o foram fora dessas aulas. Ao ingressarem na modalidade, elas não foram cobradas por resultados. Por serem grandes lutadoras, não tiveram dificuldades em serem aceitas em um ambiente de treino predominantemente masculino; assim, elas disputam o espaço entre eles, embora os homens se esforcem para manter a superioridade masculina. Algumas federações, confederações e organizadores de campeonatos premiam as mulheres de forma inferior em relação aos homens, o que caracteriza discriminação de gênero

Girls and boys have been taught by society in order to behave and act in opposite ways within many social situations. Since very young most of the boys learn how to enjoy aggressive and competitive activities like martial arts, while girls are socialized to perform activities more connected to dance and household tasks those which have no relationship to the world of competitiveness, sports and martial arts. Considering these issues, in this thesis I have searched for the sports life of high performance sports women who practice martial arts. My aim was to identify people and institutions which have influenced these fighter's life. I did indepth interviews with five fighters who were world championships at least once in their kind of martial arts and combat sports, such as boxing, Brazilian jiu-jitsu, karate and taekwondo. The data collected within the interviews were analyzed using the dialectics method. The data have revealed that these fighters played with boys in their childhood; however, they also played games considered by the society as girls games. Their good physical skills have pushed many prejudice against them, however the prejudice have never shown up during their Physical Education classes in their schools. When they started to perform martial arts, there were no pressure for good outcomes. As they were very talented, these athletes have not faced too many obstacles inside the masculine world of the martial arts, its practices and social environment. However, men fighters have always tried to display their masculine power and superiority while practicing with these women. The data also revealed that National and local Federations discriminate women athletes by paying lesser rewards to them than to the men athletes at the end of the competitions