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Like most combat sports, boxing is thought of as a male-dominated activity. But in Milwaukee’s Silver City, there’s one gym providing women with a space to build strength, confidence and discipline.
Many who step through the door at SheWolf have no prior experience and might not be all that interested in the fighting aspect of boxing. Still, going to the gym quickly becomes part of their daily routine for other reasons.
“This is just a period of time in society, but then also personally in my life as a middle-aged woman doing a lot of different things, that I just want to feel strong,” said Trudy Watt, a member of the gym who started boxing not just for the physical benefit, but also the community aspect.
“I just passed my hundredth class a couple weeks ago,” she added. “If you just stick with it, it's really astonishing how in less than a year, you'll see your own strength and ability grow in really noticeable ways.”
There are stories like Watt’s throughout SheWolf, including its owner, Donna Gallardo. The gym is built on her passion for boxing and for introducing women to the sport. But her boxing journey began at just 12 years old, when she was being bullied at school and wanted to build confidence.
“Women were gravitating towards my teaching style and how I came across with the instruction,” Gallardo explained, “and that's kind of where I developed a love for working with women and exposing them to the sport.”
In its earliest days back in 2021, Gallardo pursued that mission by borrowing space in other gyms. Three years later, SheWolf found a home in Silver City and now offers classes like traditional boxing, strength and conditioning, jiu jitsu, youth classes and self-defense.
“As a woman, you always feel like you have to prove yourself to your peers — the men around you, that you belong here, that you’re athletic and competent in your athletic area,” said Karley Marcelina Vega, who was hesitant to join a boxing-specific gym at first. But the women-centered environment provided the comfort level she was looking for.
“When I went to college, I played college softball at an all-women's college,” she said. “That's where I learned the empowerment of being in a woman's space, and how easy it is to thrive and that fear of your peers, how you look, needing to prove yourself is non-existent. Because in a women's space, you're able to uplift each other and really support each other.”
That support comes in different forms. For Christine Rosa, it’s a special bond with the gym’s other members — something she hadn’t yet found in other spaces.
“Last week, I had a good experience where one of my co-athletes and I were talking about the idea of perimenopause, and … this isn’t really something that I've talked about before,” she said. “It just feels good to know that you have a lot of people around you who might be experiencing similar health things, or just watching other people's journeys.”
It’s not always a smooth road for those who take up the sport. But gym members like Karley Marcelina appreciate the difficulty required to build strength of all kinds, as well as the empowering environment SheWolf provides to help make that happen.
“Boxing, it challenges you, makes you uncomfortable,” Marcelina shared. “But this is such a great space to learn a new sport and be OK with making mistakes. I think it brings women who wouldn't even traditionally be at boxing gyms — women of all ages, all body shapes, life experiences — it gives them a space to call home.”
