Last week we discussed the modern beginnings of women's sport, but also the systematic difficulties that women have always faced, in sport. It was, and still is, a tedious path for women to shatter stereotypes, break traditions and change the status quo in order to finally be an inclusive, fully respected and involved part of society. Through the 20th century women gradually gained access to sporting activities, and were allowed to compete, but it was only in recent decades that they were able to become involved in the decision-making process in sport bodies and organisations. Yet, involved doesn't always mean being included and respected. That's the challenge for women in sports of the 21st century and still in progress.

The slow development post WWII

The school system in most countries of the world played its part in manifesting and reinforcing stereotypes. This held true even between the two World Wars.

In the U.S. the quest for true equality for women’s sports started in 1943, in the midst of World War II; and sports there were already seen differently than in Europe. At the time, baseball was the most popular sport. In the absence of most men - who were away at war - to keep the nation’s professional baseball league rolling, the first ever professional female sports league known as the All-American Girls Baseball League was born. The league kept going for more than a decade, with attendance reaching over 900,000 fans by the late 1940s. 

After the Second World War, economic factors forced women back into the home to release jobs for men, and the ideologies of family and of gender difference were reasserted in secondary education. Women were no longer expected to play sports, but to run the household, take care of children, and essentially emulate the stereotypical housewife. And thus, also the All-American Baseball League closed. 

The Crowther Report (1945) was explicit about what was expected from girls and women: ‚The incentive for girls to equip themselves for marriage and home-making is genetic’. So, women again had to fight stereotypes that men pushed them into. In other parts of the world governments made sure women would not participate in ‘male’ sports. In Brazil for example, it was illegal for women to play soccer between 1941 and 1979. 

In spite of fundamental changes in educational philosophies with the inception of comprehensive education from the 1950s onwards, girls and boys in secondary schools had distinctly different PE curricula in content, teaching methods and attitudes. Teachers had stereotyped concepts about the different abilities of girls and boys, based on the ideologies of motherhood and sexuality. 

When I was still at school in the 1990s, boys were permitted to play football outside, while the girls were allowed to play volleyball or do gymnastics indoors, as this was considered less exhausting and not ‘so tough’. Sometimes there were exceptions, such as in my case, girls were also allowed to play with the boys. Today I regularly ask my daughter what they do in sports to make sure that this separation of girls and boys does not occur anymore. 

The light wind of change 

Things changed slowly. Some important turning points since the 1950s included the sexual revolution, the women's movement, contraception etc., which enforced new gender arrangements. 

However, the issue of what is feminine in appearance and behaviour has coloured opinions about women and sports for centuries. Athletics were long the domain of men - proving grounds for their masculine skills and traits. To avoid the risk of being ridiculed and criticised, many women stayed away from sports, thinking it was unfeminine to compete, behave aggressively, or try hard to win. 

The 1960s, an increasingly liberal time, were a transitional period for women in sport, and women’s sport entered a dramatically new era with tremendous gains and even higher hopes for women athletes. It allowed them to become more active in sports and be accepted in sports clubs, high school sports and even college level sport. As gender roles were constantly being moulded, women were now encouraged to play sports that demonstrated their femininity and new attitudes evolved about which sports were considered feminine. Sports were viewed as a valuable tool for women to maintain an attractive figure. It could be argued that girls were socialised to behave in ‘feminine-appropriate’ ways, yet it smelled like change. 

Governments paved a way

Liberalism is based upon the belief that by implementing legal and social reforms, society upholds the principles of democracy, which embodies the philosophy of equality between the sexes. Equality of opportunity in sports is influenced by the generalised effects of government legislation and by more specific strategies aimed at sports. 

The big breakthrough for girls’ and women’s sports in the U.S. came with Title IX, which President Nixon signed and Congress passed as part of a broader Education Amendment in 1972. Title IX required high schools and colleges to provide equal opportunities for all students. "No person in the United States shall, on basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subject to discrimination under any education program or activities receiving financial assistance." One of the most significant implications of the law was the mandate to fund men’s and women’s sport programmes equally. This way also paved the way for more athletics scholarships for young women and their participation in high-school sports rose 500% between early 1960s and early 1980s.

Sports liberalism is associated with the roles of organisations which hold power in the provision of sports resources— for example, the central government and other public bodies, such as local authorities; and sports organisations, such as the governing bodies. 

In the UK the 1975 Sex Discrimination Act intended something similar, to protect women from discrimination on the grounds of sex or marital status. It also established the Equal Opportunities Commission (EOC) whose main duties were to work towards the elimination of discrimination, to promote equality of opportunity between sexes. 

Girls' participation in sports activities increased thereafter, and it was the women of that era that really turned the tables. Hopefully, the trend will continue, because those women are the ones now that are encouraging their daughters to play sports. According to research, women who participate in sporting activities at school have a 76% chance or remaining interested in sport for the rest of their lives. 

In international sport, female Olympians gained unprecedented popularity, like U.S. sprinter Wilma Rudolph in 1960 or Romanian gymnast Nadia Comaneci in the 1970s.

Thus, today’s mothers who were the flag bearers of women’s sport then, are the first role models for today’s young women and girls to continue on this path. 

Next week I will shed light on those extraordinary role models that have paved the way for many sportswomen and also had a lasting influence on politics. Which again, tried to move things forward.

Further resources

Hargreaves, Jennifer: Sporting Females: Critical Issues in the History and Sociology of Women's Sport 1994, 152-153