Women's sports

HistoryFor most of human history, athletic competition has been regarded as an exclusively masculine affair. In antiquity, athletic competitions were held among warriors to prove their fighting prowess or otherwise demonstrate their virility. The exclusively male origins of competitive sport carried over into the Ancient Olympics, where women were not allowed even to watch competitions, much less compete. However, a separate women's athletic event, the Heraea Games, was eventually developed.

Few women competed in sports until the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, as social changes in Europe and North America favored increased female participation in society as equals with men, as exemplified by the women's rights movement. Although women were permitted to participate in many sports, relatively few showed interest, for a variety of social and psychological reasons that are still poorly understood.

The modern Olympics had female competitors from 1900 onward, though women at first participated in considerably fewer events. Concern for the physical strength and stamina of women led to the discouragement of female participation in more physically intensive sports, and in some cases led to less physically demanding female versions of male sports. Thus netball was developed out of basketball and softball out of baseball.

Edith Cummings was the first woman athlete to appear on the cover of Time magazine, a major step in women's athletic history.] Due to a relative lack of public interest in female athletics, most early women's professional sports leagues foundered, so amateur competitions became the primary venue for women's sports. Throughout the mid-twentieth century, Communist countries dominated many Olympic sports, including women's sports, due to state-sponsored athletic programs that were technically regarded as amateur. The legacy of these programs endured, as former Communist countries continue to produce many of the top female athletes. Germany and Scandinavia also developed strong women's athletic programs in this period.

In the United States, nearly all schools required student participation in sports, guaranteeing that all girls were exposed to athletics at an early age, which was generally not the case in Western Europe and Latin America. In intramural sports, the genders were often mixed, though for competitive sports the genders remained segregated. legislation required colleges and universities to provide equal athletic opportunities for women. This large pool of female athletes enabled the U.S. to consistently rank among the top nations in women's Olympic sports, and female Olympians from skater Peggy Fleming (1968) to Mary Lou Retton (1986) became household names.

Tennis was the most popular professional female sport from the 1970s onward, and it provided the occasion for a symbolic "battle of the sexes" between Billie Jean King and Bobby Riggs, enhancing the profile of female athletics. The success of women's tennis, however, did little to help the fortunes of women's professional team sports.

Women's professional team sports achieved popularity for the first time in the 1990s, particularly in basketball and football (soccer). This popularity has been asymmetric, being strongest in the U.S., certain European countries and former Communist states. Thus women's soccer is dominated by the U.S., China, and Norway, who have historically fielded weak men's national teams. Despite this increase in popularity, women's professional sports leagues continue to struggle financially. The WNBA is operated at a loss by the NBA, in the hopes of creating a market that will eventually be profitable. A similar approach is used to promote female boxing, as women fighters are often undercards on prominent male boxing events, in the hopes of attracting an audience.

Today, women participate competitively in virtually every major sport, though the level of participation decreases in contests of brute strength or "contact" sports. Few schools have women's programs in American football, boxing or wrestling. This practical recognition of gender differences in physiology has not impeded the development of a higher profile for female athletes in other historically male sports, such as golf, marathoning, and ice hockey.

A more detailed history of female participation in various sports can be found in the related articles listed below.

ports

American Football

*Women's American football

Australian rules football

*Women's Footy

Baseball

*Women´s baseball
*National Pro Fastpitch

Basketball

*Women's basketball
**Women's National Basketball Association (USA)
**Women's National Basketball League (Australia)
**EuroLeague Women
**List of WNBA players
**Women's Chinese Basketball Association
**College basketball (USA):
***NCAA Women's Division I Basketball Championship
***NCAA Women's Division II Basketball Championship
***NCAA Women's Division III Basketball Championship
**Netball

Boxing

*Women's boxing
**List of female boxers

Camogie

*Camogie, the women's version of hurling
**All-Ireland Senior Camogie Championship

Cheerleading

*Cheerleading

Cricket

*Women's test cricket
*Women's One-day International cricket
*Women's Twenty20

Association football

*Women's association football
**List of women's association football clubs
**List of women's association football clubs in England and Wales
**List of women's national association football teams
**International competitions in women's association football
**Women's United Soccer Association

Golf

*LPGA Tour (based in the United States)
*Ladies European Tour
*LPGA of Japan Tour
*LPGA of Korea Tour
*Ladies Asian Golf Tour, for Asia outside of Japan and Korea
*ALPG Tour, based in Australia
*Women's major golf championships

Gymnastics

[
right|thumb|150px|WomenGymnastics]
*Gymnastics
**Artistic gymnastics
*NCAA Women's Gymnastics championship

Field Hockey

* Women's Field Hockey

Ice hockey

*IIHF World Women Championships

*American national women's hockey team
*Canadian national women's hockey team
*Finnish national women's ice hockey team
*Swedish national women's ice hockey team
*Russian national women's ice hockey team
*German national women's ice hockey team
*Chinese national women's ice hockey team
*Kazakhstani national women's ice hockey team

Lacrosse

*Women's lacrosse
** International Federation of Women's Lacrosse Associations
*** Women's Lacrosse World Cup

Martial Arts

*List of female mixed martial artists

Netball

*Netball

Polo

*United States Women's Polo Federation [http://www.uswpf.com]

Roller Derby

*Roller derby

Rowing

*Henley Women's Regatta
*NCAA Rowing Championship

Rugby

*
*Women's Rugby World Cup

oftball

*Women's softball

Tennis

*Women's Tennis Association
*List of female tennis players

Volleyball

*Women's volleyball
**NCAA Women's Volleyball Championship

Wrestling

*Women's wrestling

Magazines

* [Sportsister] [http://www.sportsister.com] is a new UK based online sports magazine for women, packed with interiew with leading sportswomen, gear and kit reviews, health and nutrition advice and women's sports news.
Her Sports
*REAL SPORTS, an online magazine
*Sports Illustrated Women (defunct)
*The Sporting Women's Quarterly is a sports lifestyle magazine featuring women's luxury sports.
*Women in Sports, a UK-based quarterly publication
*Women's Multisport Online is a magazine for women's multisport around the world.
*womenSports magazine (defunct) was started in 1974 by Billie Jean King, Larry King and Jim Jorgensen, it was sold to Redbook in 1976 and eventually stopped publishing in 1984.

Further reading

*Dong Jinxia: "Women, Sport and Society in Modern China: Holding Up More Than Half the Sky", Routledge, 2002, ISBN 0714682144
*Allen Guttmann: "Women's Sports: A History", Columbia University Press 1992, ISBN 023106957X

ee also

*Famous Women Athletes
*Patsy T. Mink Equal Opportunity in Education Act (Title IX)
*Women's Sports Foundation
*Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women (defunct since 1982)

References

* [http://www.northnet.org/stlawrenceaauw/timeline.htm History of Women in Sports Timeline]
* [http://www.personal.psu.edu/users/s/j/sjf187/olympics/6.html|Heraea Games]
* [http://www.paintballguns.net Paintball] 's first female team
* [http://home.hia.no/~stephens/gender.htm Physiological gender difference in sports]
* [http://www.paintballfarm.ch Paintball] 's first Swiss female team