Monday, March 9, 1998
Women play an important role in history of sports
WOMEN: Recognition has seldom been given to pioneering
females
By Kristina Wilcox
Daily Bruin Staff
You’d never figure that there are so many sports out there just
by looking at the Daily Bruin’s back page sports section.
No, it takes a trip to the library, a glance through a general
sports book’s index, and then you see the truth.
The truth that there are numerous sports out there, and women
have been involved in each of them.
March is Women’s History Month, as you may or may not know. In
homage to women who have participated in the sports arena, the
Daily Bruin will take part in the annual frenzy of feminist
propaganda in order to shine the spotlight on familiar "feminine"
names and those dug out of the annals of ancient sports
history.
Back to the index search. My realization actually took place
while sitting on the floor at the Sisterhood bookstore, perusing a
lovely book compiled by a man (gasp!) called, inspiringly, "Women
In Sports." I wanted to see just how many sports women have played
some role in over the course of American History. I was totally
overwhelmed.
For every sport, a woman has played a prominent role, and has
often not been recognized for her efforts. And when there’s an
attempt to recognize her, uptight individuals try to contest the
move.
It’s unfortunate that women have been relegated to the side ring
in sports, but it reflects society’s view of how the power
structure should be set up.
Commercialized spectator sports emerged in the United States
during the prosperous industrialization half of the 1800s, which
gave people extra time and money to devote to their personal
lives.
It was considered natural and normal for men to play important
roles in these sports because of the dominant notion of "separate
spheres," an outgrowth of Victorian notions of gender: men belonged
out in the public realm, and women belonged in the private sphere,
preferably her own home.
So with the growing interest in spectator sports, the power
structure had to be maintained by keeping men as the active
participants – the players – and women as the occasional grace on
the sidelines.
But sometimes those women wanted to cross over the sidelines and
do what the men were doing. This movement coincided with the New
Woman’s emergence into the public sphere of jobs and politics, as
well as the bicycle craze.
Women and men both rode bicycles. It was a cool fad back then,
and it was very liberating for the women. They got to wear short
dresses and riding pants that were specifically-designed for women
bicyclists.
This lead to further freedom because they were not confined to
long dresses and corsets that had been fashionable during the
Victorian era.
While there had been women athletes before the bicycle insanity
at all levels of society, the turn of the century created an
explosion in sports interest among women, and we still see the
effects of these changes today – successful college athletics’
programs, the Women’s NBA, the Colorado Silver Bullets baseball
team, and women sports journalists, among others.
Women in sports have come a long way, but there is still
progress to be made.
Wilcox’s next story on women in sports will detail the life of
"Babe" Didrikson Zaharias, the jill-of-all-trades in the sports
world.