Women's Sports : A History

There has never been a time, from the dawn of our civilization to the present, when women have been as involved in sports, as participants or as spectators, as men have. Are sports then a “male domain,” a “masculine preserve”? Are women like Nadia Comanici, Steffi Graf, and Florence Griffith-Joyner unwelcome intruders? Yes and no. While it is historically true that sports have usually been more important for males than for females, there has never been a time when girls and women were wholly excluded from sports and there have certainly been times and places where their involvement was almost as extensive and intensive as the men’s. If the values institutionalized in sports, like physical strength, stamina, swiftness, and skill, are defined as masculine, then one must accept Lois Bryson’s assertion that sports are “so thoroughly masculinized that it seems unlikely that [they] can be reclaimed to serve women’s interests .” If, however, the institutionalized values are thought of as human rather than as exclusively masculine, the prospect for women’s sports is considerably less gloomy.