The Body, Women and Swimming in Britain 1860-1914

Abstract

The nineteenth century history of swimming has beenpredominately portrayed as a history of male participation. Thispaper will attempt to redress this imbalance, by tracing theprogress of the sport for women. More specifically, it will explorehow the unique qualities of swimming, enabled it to develop intoarguably the first modern, urban sport for women. The analysiswill focus principally upon two ideologies, which surrounded thefemale body and health, in nineteenth century Britain: firstly, theideology of female bodily incapacity; and secondly, the sociallyconstructed ideology of correct feminine behavior. The keyquestions to be addressed in this analysis will be the following: didthe rise of women's recreational and competitive swimming helpto break down the ideology of the weak, frail female body andcontribute to women's physical emancipation; and why was theemergence of the female competitive spirit acceptable in the sportof swimming, where as other sportswomen, were condemned as"masculine abominations?"