Prior to the 20th century women were not encouraged to exert themselves physically as the medical professional portrayed the female form as anatomically inferior to men (Lopiano, 2000). Publications at this time made unfounded statements such as “both muscular and brain labor must be reduced [for women] at the onset of menstruation” (Bell, 2008, p. 1) and “[the female] lack of aerobic capabilities [is] caused by their smaller hearts, lungs, and circulatory capacities” (Lopiano, 2000); the later comment would influence the first Olympic women’s 800m running event being dropped from the Olympic program for the next 30 years (Lopiano, 2000). 

In 1874 higher education for women was becoming more accessible, but opportunities were largely limited to informal and recreational physical activities that lacked structure, formal rules and competitiveness (Bell, 2008; Schmidt, 2015).
 
 

In the early 1900’s women began to form informal athletic clubs, and female participatory rates in collegiate sport rose (Bell, 2008). At this time the Committee of Women’s Athletics (CWA) and the American Physical Education Association (APEA) advocated for increased sporting opportunities and programs for women but faced criticism that athletics should be “[given] back to boys” (ibid). As opportunities in competitive sport increased, opposition grew twice and fast, and in the early 1900’s these budding sporting opportunities for women were disintegrated (Bell, 2008; Schmidt, 2015).

The passing of the Nineteenth Amendment in 1920 due mainly to the women’s suffrage movement granted women the right to vote and reinvigorated aspirations for women’s social and political freedoms (ibid). However, by the 1930’s the Great Depression undermined any progress women had made toward emancipation, as work outside of the home became limited, and dominant powers believed this work should be reserved for men (Bell, 2008). This constrained women once again to domestic and traditional roles and any momentum that had been gained to the psychological and physiological benefits of competitive physical activity for women was overshadowed by the conviction that female ambition should center on domestic commitments (Bell, 2008). 

 

WW2 swept millions of men to war leaving their positions in the workforce unfilled. Many women left their domestic roles to join the military service and to fill gaps in the labor force. By 1945 one in four married women were working in the industrial labor force (Bell, 2008). During wartime women demonstrated proficiency, confidence and commitment to their work and female morale reinvigorated the women’s equal rights movement and emphasis on opportunities for competitive sport (Bell, 2008).

 

 

The passing of the American Civil Rights Act in 1964 outlawed discrimination based on sex, race, and religious belief, signifying a significant shift in the social status of women in America (Bell, 2008). The Act further prompted women and feminist group avocation for federal reform that would eradicate sexual discrimination in sport altogether (Bell, 2008).

 

In 1972 title IX of the Education Amendments was passed prohibiting discrimination on the basis of sex for any federally funded education activities or programs in America, and six years later the federal Amateur Sports Act was passed (Bell, 2008; Women in Sport, 2016). These amendments were largely brought about by the lobbying efforts of the feminist group ‘National Coalition for Women and Girls in Education’ (Lopiano, 2000). These antidiscrimination laws, brought on by a growing consciousness of the detrimental effects of discrimination based on sex created a surge in female sport participation that is still intensifying today (Bell, 2008; Lopiano, 2000). 
 

 

We can see that female involvement in sport developed slowly in modern history. This was due largely to power inequities in society which subjugated women by restricting their opportunities and recognition in sport for centuries (Bell, 2008). Although prior generations have demanded a place for women in sport, inequity still persist between the sexes; men’s sport’s receives 90% of all written and televised coverage, while women’s sport coverage just slightly beats out coverage of horses and dogs by a meager 2% (5% to 3% respectively) (Hall & Oglesby, 2016; Schmidt, 2015). Furthermore, research tells us that when women’s sports do receive coverage, the veiled sentiment has sexist undertones that perpetuate a sense of hegemonic masculinity in sports (Schmidt, 2015). Although female participatory rates in competitive sport are at a historic high, media content (which largely influences cultural expectations) promotes the marginalization of women through discriminatory practices, objectification, biases, and limited coverage and acknowledgement for women (Hall & Oglesby, 2016; Schmidt, 2015). That being said, as women and girls are become involved in athletics they exert more economic influence which deems what is profitable to broadcast, invest in, and 

Ultimately a gender inclusive curriculum in physical education is integral to reforming the beliefs that inform students to their self-worth and their value in society (Kohl, 1992); it is for that reason that this resource is presented from a female-centric lens in which sport history is rarely depicted (Hall & Oglesby, 2016). By documenting the lived experiences of women and the social barriers they faced in sport and society instead of through a traditional male perspective, I hope to challenge the ever-prevalent notion that sport exists in the realm of boys (ibid).