It was not that long ago that women were considered such fragile creatures that they were not allowed to compete in endurance track events, with ‘endurance’ being 800m and over.
The BBC has a nice article on the topic. It appears that there was a woman who competed in the very first Olympic marathon event in 1896 but little is known about her. That was not all.
The day after the men’s marathon event at the first modern Olympic Games in Athens in 1896, Stamata Revithi, a 30-year-old mother from Piraeus, ran the same course unofficially in five and half hours. external-link
…Thirty years later, in 1926, an English woman, Violet Piercy, ran the London Marathon course unofficially in 3:40:22 and completed two official marathons in 1933 and 1936. The Sunday Mirror quoted her as saying her 1936 race was to “prove that women could stick the distance.”
It was clear to all with their eyes open that women could run 26.2 miles, but cynical attitudes lingered based on imaginary evidence and often outright lies.
The decline of female participation began in 1928 when there were false reports about what happened after the women’s 800m event that led to all manner of myths.
The 1928 Summer Olympic Games saw women compete in track and field events for the first time, and on 2 August three of the nine women who ran in the 800m final broke the world record, with Germany’s Lina Radke claiming gold.
However, what should have been a giant stride forward for women’s athletics degenerated into a remarkably nasty media campaign in which newspapers worldwide reported incorrectly that many women had collapsed with exhaustion after the race and that such exploits were far beyond the female sex.
The New York Times falsely reported that “six out of the nine runners were completely exhausted and fell headlong on the ground”, while the Montreal Star shrieked that the race was “obviously beyond women’s powers of endurance and can only be injurious to them”. The Daily Mail even pondered whether women running over 200 metres would age prematurely.
The media firestorm led officials to cut the 800 metres from the women’s Olympics, with the event not appearing again until 1960. Women’s perceived fragility was underpinned by some preposterous medical theories that wound their way into the public consciousness.
“There were fears that women would become more ‘masculine’ if they played sports and that they had a finite amount of energy. If they expended it on education, politics and sport, it would draw away from their reproductive capabilities,” said Schultz.
…In the mid-1960s, women’s long-distance running was still considered dangerously radical. Female runners had completed 26.2 miles many times, but groundless ideas lingered that a woman’s body was not built for such extreme exertion. It was feared that allowing women to take on the distance would lead to dangerous levels of indecency.
“Running was considered a breeding ground for impropriety that would overly sexualise women,” said Jaime Schultz, Professor in Kinesiology at Penn State University.
Roberta ‘Bobbi’ Gibb applied to run in the 1966 Boston marathon but her application was rejected, with the letter saying “Women are not physiologically capable of running a marathon.” She was incensed and decided to run anyway, and she did, disguising her looks with a hooded sweatshirt until she had to remove it during the race. The male runners around her quickly realized that she was a woman but they rallied around her and vowed not to let her be removed and word quickly spread that a a woman was in the race and spectators craned their necks to see her.
Gibb completed her first Boston Marathon in an impressive three hours, 21 minutes and 40 seconds – faster than two-thirds of the competitors.
A now iconic image shows her running alone, her face grimacing as she nears the finish line. On both sides, spectators crane their necks, ignoring other runners passing by, desperate to glimpse the first female finishing the storied race.
Crossing the line, she was greeted warmly by Massachusetts State Governor John Volpe, who shook her hand and offered his congratulations before being ushered into a hotel room where the world’s press waited breathlessly.
After the interviews, the group of men she had been running with invited her to join them for the traditional post-race stew, but as they reached the door, Gibb was barred from entry: “Sorry, men only.”
…In 1996, Gibb was finally recognised as an official three-time winner, receiving her medals while also having her name inscribed on the Boston Marathon Memorial in Copley Square.
It struck me that the decline in acceptance of women in track and field and the rise in beliefs in their fragility may have been a backlash, since it coincided with women getting the vote and becoming more assertive in claiming their rights in the public sphere.
The notion of female fragility has been around for a lot longer than women/s suffrage, at least in Europe. Backlash may have strengthened it some.
As far as I can tell, it was mostly a characteristic of the ‘well born’. Peasant women were working much too hard for such ideas to gain traction.
My mother often told a story about playing basketball in high school in the late 1920s. There was a rule in girls’ basketball back then that you could get two points for a basket only if you used two hands and pushed the ball from your chest area (to avoid damage to your delicate physique, don’tcha know). Mom was only about five feet tall (in a graduating class of about twenty kids, anyone who wanted to play a sport could do it), and she couldn’t possibly have gotten the ball over the other much taller girls that way. She had to shoot with one hand over her head and so scored lots of one-pointers.
My mother played high school basketball in the 1940s. There were six girls to a team; three played offense at one end of the court and three played defense at the other. They were not allowed to cross the center line.
Apparently, they didn’t want the girls running too much, as their ovaries might fall out or something.
feralboy12 @3: Did they also have fainting couches handy on the sidelines?
feralboy12 @ 3
Iowa high school girls played 6 on 6 until 1993.
feralboy12 @3: I still played that version of bball in high school in the 70s! Hard to play a running game while you’re grinding your teeth.
Looking at 30 years of finishing times for the 46km Manhattan Island Marathon Swim, Knechtle noted that the fastest women were on average 12 to 14 percent quicker than the fastest men. Similarly, in 87 years of the 32km Catalina Channel swim, the fastest woman averaged 53 minutes quicker than the fastest man.
https://explorersweb.com/why-women-excel-at-marathon-swimming/
Some researchers in exercise physiology assert that women may be better than men at extreme distances. Although I have never competed in ultras, I have some friends who do (and quite successfully), and now we’re talking about multiple marathon distances, such as 100 mile or longer trail runs. If you want an idea of how good female ultra runners can be, just look up Ann Trason. This is a person who won two major international ultras (Western States 100 and the Comrades 56 mile marathon in South Africa) within two weeks of each other. Twice. I recall a story about another woman who ran one of the major trail ultras (not sure if it was Western States) just weeks after giving birth. She would stop at pre-arranged locations so that she could breast feed her baby. I forget her full name but she was nicknamed “Lactating Laura” by the other racers. That’s the definition of tough.
At what most consider “normal” long distance races, say 5k to the marathon, it has been my experience that men tend to have about a 10% advantage time-wise, maybe a little more, at least among the serious racers. For example, if a young man is running a 15 flat 5k, I’d estimate that a comparable time for a young woman would be mid 16 minutes.
I remember when no one thought a woman would ever get below 2:20 in the marathon. I also remember when Paula Radcliffe (UK) ran 2:15, just crushing the record and the rest of the women’s field. That time stood for over 15 years and is still one of the fastest ever run by a woman (and which, not too long ago, would have won most any marathon outright).
@7 -- interesting article. One point piqued my interest -- the observation that in swimming, technique plays a bigger role, not just raw power. I’ve observed this truth in a number of sports I’ve participated in over the years, especially rock climbing and windsurfing. In both cases women are in a pretty small minority. In both cases they can’t compete with men at the top levels BUT at the level I’m operating at, what you tend to find is that men are mainly self-taught or even if not then they make up what they lack in technique by relying on brute strength… and the women, not being able to rely on brute strength, have no other choice but to get the technique right. They therefore tend to be better than average and progress faster.
I have a vivid memory of watching a couple at a climbing wall. He was brilliant -- wiry, powerful looking, the sort of bloke who could do pull ups using just two fingers on each hand. He ascended a 7a, hanging his body weight (what there was of it) off what look like tiny crimps, and pushing hard off smears or footholds that were barely there. It was a proper display of raw strength. Then he came back to earth, she stepped up and just… went up. It was weird. Where he had been displaying power, she was just kind of oozing up the same wall with little apparent effort. It all seemed to be about balance and the proper application of forces. It was weird to watch, such a contrast to her partner’s technique. She went up as fast as he did, but she didn’t break a sweat. A more effective demonstration of the superiority of technique over power I have never witnessed.
…but groundless ideas lingered that a woman’s body was not built for such extreme exertion. It was feared that allowing women to take on the distance would lead to dangerous levels of indecency.
If women can’t handle the exertion of running a race, how can we expect them to have any energy left over for “indecency?” Those dipsticks were too panicked to even get their made-up excuses straight.
@10
The indecency would be outside their control, as in certain “parts” would, you know, maybe like, fall off and be out there for everyone to see.
This is a very persistent claim, but one that currently has only weak evidence. I know the Iditarod is often cited in these sorts of discussions, but the dominance of women in dog sledding leads me to wonder if the advantage is not endurance per se, but rather endurance per bodyweight.
Fell running is hard -- typically you’re not just running, you’re running and scrambling up and down extremely tough terrain. A few of my friends have done the Bob Graham round, a punishing 65 miles or so that includes about 26,000 feet of ascent. Incredibly fit and committed people aim to do it in 24 hours, and for most it’s the ultimate fell running challenge.
For most.
In 2010, I walked all the Wainwrights -- 214 summits in the Lake District. I did it over the whole year, over approximately 35 separate days. In 2013, between January and September, I flew a paraglider off, over or onto all the summits. I therefore know them extremely well. Since 1985, people have been trying to visit them all without stopping. A couple of years ago, Sabrina Verjee knocked over six HOURS off the record to complete it in under six days.
Her record has been beaten since, but the point stands: she’s entirely competitive with the absolute elite male fell runners… and then you find out that her previous attempt on the record was stymied by a combination of the weather and her fucking asthma. If she wasn’t asthmatic, would any man be able to get anywhere near her?
One of the reasons there are separate categories for women in a lot of sports is that the real fragility is in the men who couldn’t take losing to them.
Tabby:
One of the imaginary reasons, sure.
(I think you have that backwards)
#13 Sonof
If someone’s asthma is not triggered, then there is often no difference between an asthmatic and non-. Depends on the individual and the particulars of their condition, but asthma is rarely a constant presence. So, Sabrina Verjee’s athleticism in between asthma attacks is probably not distinguishable from a non-asthmatic Sabrina Verjee’s athleticism.
___
#14 Tabby
Haha, good jape! But really, no.
@ 15 John Morales
One of the reasons for the real fragility in men who couldn’t take losing to women is that there are separate categories for women in a lot of sports.
Morales, just for once… could you try to make some sort of sense?!
@ 16 Holms
Yeah, Tabby. Stop suggesting to Holms that women aren’t his inherent inferiors. He finds it very disturbing to his worldview. “Women! Equal to me! What a jape!”
(Tabby’s observation is of course correct. Historically, sport was thought to be a manly pursuit, and it would be an insult to expect a man to compete with a mere woman. The origin of women’s sport is being excluded from open competition. Not some benign gesture on the part of men to protect the “weaker sex”, as in Holms’ misogynist fantasies.)
@ 15 John Morales
One of the reasons for the real fragility in men who couldn’t take losing to women is that there are separate categories for women in a lot of sports.
Morales, just for once… could you try to make some sort of sense?!
@ 16 Holms
Yeah, Tabby. Stop suggesting to Holms that women aren’t his inherent inferiors. He finds it very disturbing to his worldview. “Women! Equal to me! What a jape!”
(Tabby’s observation is of course correct. Historically, sport was thought to be a manly pursuit, and it would be an insult to expect a man to compete with a mere woman. The origin of women’s sport is being excluded from open competition. Not some benign gesture on the part of men to protect the “weaker sex”, as in Holms’ misogynist fantasies.)
Mano, if you wouldn’t mind deleting my #17. Botched blockquote.
Silentbob, you’ve been slacking. Good to see you’re back on the case, however lackluster your effort. Let’s have some fun.
I can but try. Let’s simplify.
Predicate A: there are separate categories for women in a lot of sports;
Predicate B: the real fragility in men who couldn’t take losing to women;
Proposition: B is ontologically dependent on A
How is that not backwards? 😉
Trust a meathead to interpret ‘less muscular’ as ‘inferior’.
https://twitter.com/shereebekker/status/1504899936843935746
Wrong in tweet 1, find someone better.
silentbob @#18,
That is awkward since others have already responded to it. Could you tell how I can correct the quote without deleting it?
By charming coincidence, today’s Google doodle in Australia celebrates a founder of women’s cricket from the 1870s -- who died in her early 20s 🙁
Lily Poulett-Harris’ 150th Birthday
http://www.google.com/doodles/lily-poulett-harris-150th-birthday
Imagine not making it to your 25th birthday and still being celebrated a century and a half later. 🙂 Good onya Lily.
#24 Mano,
I believe Sbob wants the portion that responds to John Morales to have a nested double quotation -- quoting John’s comment which also quotes Tabby -- as seen in comment 18.
Silentbob, #18: a better solution than bleating to the host and begging to have your ramblings corrected, but not being specific as to how this might be achieved, would be to
(a) post coherently in the first place (a massive ask, obviously) OR
(b) just give up posting until you’ve learned to express yourself clearly at the first attempt.
I don’t expect you to take either course, and to continue in your current mode.
I have corrected it as suggested by Holms @#26.
In the news:
https://www.bbc.com/sport/athletics/66905203
Ethiopia’s Tigst Assefa smashes women’s marathon world record in Berlin