The Change in Womens Role in Sports and the Olympics

The Change in Womens Role in Sports and the Olympics

Sport has always been seen as a past time for men from the first

Olympic games in 1000-776BC in honour of Zeus, the father of the gods.

The women only Herean games were formed also in 1000-776BC but were

soon banned by Roman emperor Theodsious.

Women haven't had the same availabilities to get involved in sport and

certain factors for example, certain religious beliefs, self esteem,

discrimination, levels of media coverage, opportunities, lack of

coaching and access and provision.

The history of sport is largely the history of men’s sport and in the

middle ages only a small minority of women were actively involved in

such sporting activities as hunting, hawking, stool ball and smock

races.

This was mainly due to the fact that women were portrayed to be

‘innately physically inferior to men’

Emergence of Oxbridge colleges and other girl’s schools had a

significant impact on increasing sporting opportunities for women. A

range of activities including tennis; golf; cricket; lacrosse became

socially acceptable for women to participate in. The weaknesses of

this were that the working class women were often unable to take part

due to domestic responsibilities and lack of financial support.

In 1885 Madame Bergman-Osterberg founded the first Pe training college

for women at Dartford.

Although, the majority of women were still unable to take part due to

the pressure to conform to social norms and social expectations.

For example, modesty of dress.