Emergence of Oxbridge colleges and other girl’s schools had a significant impact on increasing sporting opportunities for women. A range of activities including tennis; golf; cricket; lacrosse became socially acceptable for women to participate in. The weaknesses of this were that the working class women were often unable to take part due to domestic responsibilities and lack of financial support.
In 1885 Madame Bergman-Osterberg founded the first Pe training college for women at Dartford.
Although, the majority of women were still unable to take part due to the pressure to conform to social norms and social expectations.
For example, modesty of dress.
As time reached into the inter war years the amount of women challenged traditional attitudes towards what was shown to b appropriate female behaviour increased. As the war developed and husbands had to go of to fight women began to work and this gradually broke down the stereotype of the typical women who were portrayed to b unable to do strenuous activities.
The first modern Olympic games were in 1886 and held at Athens; women were excluded and were not aloud to take part in the Olympics for 15 years. Until 1900, when women could compete in two events, golf and tennis.
Charlotte cooper (GBR) became the first female Olympic champion in tennis.
It wasn’t till 1924 when the IOC decided to include more women’s events. This also was the first Olympic winter games and women were also permitted to participate.
In 1928 women were aloud to participate in the 800m. But 5 women that participated collapsed and the distance was omitted until 1968.
The first successful mother to participate in the Olympic games was Fanny blankers-koen and she won four events, this gave women who suffered from low self-esteem a boost to improve and achieve their goals to participate in the Olympics.
After this in 1973 the IOC decided that women could b proposed as members.
Feminism brought about a lot of changes in attitudes to women participation. McCrome (1987) noted the ‘‘recognition that women’s limitation in sport have has less to do with genetics that with social l and cultural codes that kept women alienated from their own bodies and protected from the privileges and superiority of men’’
Women have been faced with many difficulties including certain religious beliefs for example Islamic women follow a very strict religious which mean they are not aloud to show flesh and therefore have to be covered up. The first Islamic woman to win a gold medal was Nawal El Moutawaket and this was not until 1984.
Certain…………….families still do not allow their daughters to participate in sport.
The modern sporting female is the result of social and sporting changes. Women’s present position is significantly different now then what it was 50 years ago.
Olga korbet, Nadia comaneci who were female gymnast challenged the dress code of wearing Lycra during performances, this, and a combination of talent and attractive looks brought increased media attention and coverage.
Attractiveness was a major influence on marketability of the athlete and can sometimes cause the athlete to become exploited because of the beauty and grace factor and not how talented the athlete actually was. Also because of this it leads to women exploiting the sporting market because of their looks and not their talent. This was a highly debated issue.
The increase of sporting females and upsurge of highly talented and famous sports women is due to the high change of social acceptance of women and the rise of sporting organisations such as the women’s sports federation.
The increase of financial support and provision of facilities is also a main factor.
The previous attitudes to women were formed long ago and this mainly due to the control of sport by men. This seriously impacted equality of access, opportunity, and provision.