The 1920s was a ...
... =time when female participation in rigorous athletic
competition was frowned upon. Why? There were the standard concerns about
exploitation and the risk of exhaustion for the daintier sex. Bowling,
swimming, tennis and golf, were OK, but basketball? Not so much. What’s more,
these archaic views were shared and promoted by some of America’s leading women
at the time.
=As a result, starting in the 1920s, sports educators and
authorities began a systematic effort to curtail female hoops. In 1923, the
Women’s Division of the National Amateur Athletic Federation launched a
campaign against women’s competition in high schools and colleges as well as in
the Olympic Games, under the leadership of Lou Henry Hoover, wife of Herbert
Hoover, then the U.S. secretary of commerce. Lou Henry Hoover was also the
national president of the Girl Scouts of America.
=These efforts were devastatingly effective. By 1930, only
about 10 percent of U.S. colleges had women’s varsity basketball teams, down
from nearly a quarter just a decade earlier. Women’s basketball was nipped in
the bud just as interest and participation were beginning to blossom, and right
when the pipeline for its growth was being established.
=The insidious hidden effect of these efforts was to
solidify a warped perception of the roles that men and women were “supposed” to
play in American society as a whole.=
Source:
Trailblazer Ora Mae Washington should be in the Naismith
Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame
Her feats were ignored by white media but chronicled in the
black press
April 1, 2018
:::::::::::::::
=The 1920’s were considered The Golden Age of Sport because
it was the beginning of high level competitive sport and tremendous athletes
began to emerge in every sport. Previous to this time, it was a magnificent
time for men sports, but the opposite was true for women. It wasn’t considered
lady like to participate in a contact sport, jumping around in basketball, etc.
Women were encouraged to play more lady like sports such as golf, tennis,
swimming, and field hockey. Women’s looks were more important to people than
their accomplishments in the sport. Women began to get more freedom in sports
in the 1920’s. With the increase popularity of sport, women were able to
participate in more sports than in earlier years.=
Source:
:::::::::::::::
=Field hockey was originally thought to be too dangerous for
woman but quickly caught on with the English. The game soon became known as
“the only team sport considered proper for women”.=
Source:
