Women's/Girls' Sports in 20th Century America

Murffy

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My current WIP (one of them) is a mystery/adventure set in 1964 where a young woman (28) is the MC. I'm imagining her to be stout and athletic and quite a ways from the ideals of femininity at the time. I was thinking she would have been an athlete in high school. I asked my stepfather what kind of sports offerings there were for women at his high school in Omaha in 1950s. Answer: None. Looking at yearbooks supported what he said, at least for high schools in Nebraska (where the MC is from). The University of Nebraska did have very limited offerings: a basketball team, tennis team and a PE club.

My stepdad also noted that offerings were very limited for women when he attended Carlton College in Minnesota. However, he said when his mother was attending the same school in the 20s, there were several different women's sports teams. That seems to have been the case for Nebraska as well. I haven't done any real research but it appears the women's sports in schools suffered a decline between between the 20s and the 50s. Was it economic factors (Great Depression)? World War II? Some kind of traditionalist backlash?

Anyway, I was wondering if anybody around here had knowledge or thoughts on the matter.
 

angeliz2k

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Well, first, she could have taken part in intramural sports or amateur sports teams. It wouldn't necessarily have to be high school- or university-sanctioned. By the 60's, women were taking part in lots of Olympic sports. Take a look at the Olympic offerings. Track and field, gymnastics . . . Again, it might not be something she participated in through her school.

Often, good tennis players aren't what might be considered "ladylike" in their physique. You can often see how powerful they are, which would probably be considered unattractive by a lot of people at that time. So tennis might fit the bill.

Again, not all my time period (though I know a bit about gymnastics in the 60's).
 

cornflake

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There's the obvious impact of WWII on this, during and after, but aside from that, I think this is going to be fairly entirely school and geography dependent.
 

Murffy

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Yeah, they definitely had Olympic sports for women. This is the background I came up with for her: Informal sports in high school, joins basketball team and PE club in college. During the track and field section of the PE club, she finds she has a talent for javelin and hammer throw. The men's coach notices and lets her practice with the guys whom she can mostly out-perform except for the strongest. Her throwing distances grow to be impressive enough that the coach thinks she has a chance of making the Olympics. He arranges a tryout with representatives in Chicago and the University is willing to sponsor her. She's riding high but before she departs there's an incident: A football player (spurred by fraternity bet) tries to rape "Thunder Thighs" but she defends herself, pokes him in the eye and ends up kicking the crap out of him in a rage. She's charged with assault and is expelled from the University. The novel opens 5 years later as she's starting to come out of the deep funk the incident caused and move on with her life.
 

Siri Kirpal

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I graduated from high school in San Diego in 1970. I pulled out my sophomore annual (1968) and discovered we had a girls' tennis team and a girls' gymnastics team (which was larger than the tennis team). Boys' sports predominated, but girls with athlete talent were accommodated.

Not saying that would be true for Nebraska.

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Siri Kirpal
 

Lil

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Early 1960s, Midwestern university, I know there was a fencing team, swimming, and synchronized swimming. Probably others, but I don't know about them.
 

ironmikezero

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In my high school years (East Coast, mid-60s) I was involved in early martial arts training. Not everyone considered it a sport back then; in retrospect, I realize it was more of an introduction to a disciplined lifestyle laced with philosophical introspection. The classes were co-ed (something of a novelty at that time). The women who continued through the four year program (and later throughout college) were, in no uncertain terms, simply awesome. Some went on to teach in their own dojos. None that I knew were anything but reserved, feminine in every respect, and supremely competent and confident in facing anything that life threw at them.

Just because mainstream society did not always acknowledge female athletes in other than the commonly recognized sports (tennis, track, etc.), that hardly meant they didn't exist.
 

Siri Kirpal

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Oh, and I know it's not considered a "sport," but I do want to mention that four of the young women who graduated when I did went on to have careers in dance: one as a ballerina, two as teachers, and one as a dance therapist (this last one was a no-holds-barred feminist).

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Siri Kirpal
 

Murffy

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Thanks for the responses, folks. A kind of side question: It seems that 1964 is a bit modern to be considered historical fiction but it was 54 years ago (maybe I'm getting old). Is there any sort of consensus cutoff?
 

benbenberi

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I would consider something written today about 1964 to be historical fiction.
 

Roxxsmom

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My current WIP (one of them) is a mystery/adventure set in 1964 where a young woman (28) is the MC. I'm imagining her to be stout and athletic and quite a ways from the ideals of femininity at the time. I was thinking she would have been an athlete in high school. I asked my stepfather what kind of sports offerings there were for women at his high school in Omaha in 1950s. Answer: None. Looking at yearbooks supported what he said, at least for high schools in Nebraska (where the MC is from). The University of Nebraska did have very limited offerings: a basketball team, tennis team and a PE club.

My stepdad also noted that offerings were very limited for women when he attended Carlton College in Minnesota. However, he said when his mother was attending the same school in the 20s, there were several different women's sports teams. That seems to have been the case for Nebraska as well. I haven't done any real research but it appears the women's sports in schools suffered a decline between between the 20s and the 50s. Was it economic factors (Great Depression)? World War II? Some kind of traditionalist backlash?

Anyway, I was wondering if anybody around here had knowledge or thoughts on the matter.

You may want to ask some women about girls' sports in the 60s. I suspect the boys and men of the time didn't pay much attention to girls' sports, but that doesn't mean there were absolutely none. It could be a bit like all those guys who post in SFF forums who can't name any female SF writers (when there are tons of women who write in that genre). Many men seem to be blind to the lives, accomplishments, and activities of women, and I'll imagine this was worse in the 60s. Sometimes girls' sports were club sports or intramural instead of between schools, and it wasn't unusual to treat them as primarily a social thing, or something that could help them maintain their figures. There were intercollegiate sports for women in colleges by 60s, though, and women competed in track and field events in the Olympics. They had to come from somewhere.

It was during the 60s that many colleges first started to have a variety of women's varsity sports teams.

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/07303084.1993.10606727?journalCode=ujrd20

http://www.ohio5.org/woosterwomeninsport/exhibits/show/eras/1960s

http://thesportjournal.org/article/a-history-of-women-in-sport-prior-to-title-ix/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_women's_sports_in_the_United_States

My mom was a high school student in the midwest in the 50s. She was athletic and interested in sports, and there were some opportunities at her school, but they were pretty limited. She did track, swimming and field hockey. The girl athletes were treated like second-class citizens too, always doing their sports in the "off seasons" to give the boy's best access to facilities during the best time of year. She remembers having to run track in the winter, when the track was frozen, and not being able to get pool time to do her red cross lifesaving test, because the boys always had priority access. That's how it was back then.

Title IX had a big effect, but that wasn't until the 70s.

By the time I was an elementary schoolkid in CA in the 70s, there were a lot more girls' sports in schools, and a variety of after-school sports leagues for girls. There were (and are) still discrepancies, and the coaching for girls was still very inferior (and unlike today, after-school leagues for both genders tended to be recreational, not about getting kids an edge for college scholarships) but Title IX was beginning to have an effect by then. The most popular girls were the ones who did sports and were good at them, much as with the boys. Not every woman my age says this was the case with her schools, though, so maybe CA was ahead of the curve with regards to girls' sports. There was still some second-class citizenship back then, though. For instance, when the high school built a new gym, it became the "boys' gym" and the older gym was labeled the "girls' gym."

I'm guessing it was far worse in the sixties.

I do remember a friend who is about ten years older than I am showing me a picture of herself in tackle football gear, however. There was evidently a women's semi-pro tackle football league of some kind in the south back then, but I think it was probably in the 70s, not the 60s.
 
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Murffy

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Thank, Roxxsmom.

Sorry folks, I don't think I was entirely clear. While my novel is set in 1964, the MC attended high school and college in the mid to late 50s. It seems women's sports offerings began to improve rapidly in the 60s.
 

Alessandra Kelley

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I would consider something written today about 1964 to be historical fiction.

If you think about it, it would be the equivalent of someone at the tail end of the First World War writing a novel set during the Civil War.

So yes, absolutely historical fiction.
 

Elenitsa

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I would consider something written today about anything sooner than 1950 as contemporary, because there are people who have lived it and you can interviewed them. Or rather, as far as I learnt, usually the Second World War (1945) was the limit for contemporary vs. historical.
 

benbenberi

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There are adults today whose grandparents weren't born yet in 1950. I would definitely not consider anything set then as "contemporary."

Actually I would have trouble thinking of anything set in the pre-computer pre-cellphone era as "contemporary" -- the rhythms and structures and expectations of ordinary life have been so transformed by technology that even as someone who was there it's hard to relate to living in a world without them except as a historical curiosity. So, 1990 would be my cutoff.

But of course I'm not a marketer.
 

Murffy

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Why do I seem to have habit of writing on the borders of categories? There is a blurb in the Contemporary-Modern forum suggesting post-WWII as a cutoff. My WIP is a mystery/adventure where the main action is set in the Congo. The history of the region certainly comes into play so I'm tempted to consider it historical. I am considering posting an excerpt in SYW but not exactly sure where to put it. I guess I'll just pick a forum and go when the time comes.
 
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Murffy

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FYI - I posted the opening of my WIP in "Mystery | Thriller | Suspense SYW" even though I'm still uncertain were the best place would be.
 

mrsfauthor

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My current WIP (one of them) is a mystery/adventure set in 1964 where a young woman (28) is the MC. I'm imagining her to be stout and athletic and quite a ways from the ideals of femininity at the time. I was thinking she would have been an athlete in high school. I asked my stepfather what kind of sports offerings there were for women at his high school in Omaha in 1950s. Answer: None. Looking at yearbooks supported what he said, at least for high schools in Nebraska (where the MC is from). The University of Nebraska did have very limited offerings: a basketball team, tennis team and a PE club.

My stepdad also noted that offerings were very limited for women when he attended Carlton College in Minnesota. However, he said when his mother was attending the same school in the 20s, there were several different women's sports teams. That seems to have been the case for Nebraska as well. I haven't done any real research but it appears the women's sports in schools suffered a decline between between the 20s and the 50s. Was it economic factors (Great Depression)? World War II? Some kind of traditionalist backlash?

Anyway, I was wondering if anybody around here had knowledge or thoughts on the matter.

My character, written as historical fiction, was also an athlete during that era. My research has provided (she was in college in 1920) that she swam, played field hockey, horseback riding, played tennis, fished, hunted, hiked. Pretty much anything she could do physically, she did. I do think the economics of the time changed what activities people did, i.e. if they belonged to a country club and lost their fortunes during the great depression, probably no more golf or tennis then. From the team photos, as it was in the 70's when I was in high school, the girls seem huskier, taller and broader shouldered than the girls in the choir, etc. You can research high school yearbooks and really get a good idea of this.
 

frimble3

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In that era, my town had really good swim teams. We sent swimmers to the Olympics, the Commonwealth Games and the Pan Am Games. We were very proud of them, but there was usually a dig at the women - "Oh, they have such big shoulders and arms, so unladylike."