Athletic “Womanhood”: Exploring Sources for Female Sport in Victorian
and Edwardian England
Parratt, Cartriona M. (Dept. of Physical Education and Sport Studies, The University of Iowa)
Journal of Sport History, Vol. 16, No. 2 (Summer, 1989)
Abstract
In her 1984 review essay on the scholarship of American women’s sport history, Nancy Struna notes that we still know relatively little about what sportswomen actually did. She proceeds to argue that if we are to push back the boundaries of our knowledge we must seek out fresh source material. These comments are equally applicable to the scholarship on the history of British women’s sport. Research by several scholars illustrates how educators, the medical profession, and various social commentators of the nineteenth century viewed the issue of women and sport, and, thanks to the excellent work of Kathleen McCrone, there exists a very clear picture of developments within private schools and women’s colleges in Victorian and Edwardian England.
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