Womens sport in the. th century The pursuit of active sports by women was not to persist, however.
During the second half of the eighteenth century, a series of complex changes gradually altered gender roles and relations. Enlightenment ideology and the emergent capitalist economy combined to redefine women s place, to move them into the home and away from public activity, and to emphasize biological differences from men as grounds for keeping them there.
In effect, the famous doctrine of separate spheres drew from the same movements that resulted in a new nation and a Declaration of Independence that proclaimed all men are created equal. The phrase was not tongue-in-cheek even before 1800, women were seen as morally superior but physically inferior to men. The characterization lasted for more than a century and a half. The immediate impact of these changes was the movement of many, though by no means all, women off the tracks and fields and into the stands, or out of public view entirely, unless accompanied by men. The trend was especially pronounced in towns and cities among middle- and upper-class people whose lives were increasingly shaped by commercial and industrial tasks and rhythms and who came to believe that women s central role was to bear and nurture children and families.
Slave and free women who continued to live and work on farms and plantations, as well as the increasing number who joined in the westward migration, did not experience the full weight of these changes in roles and lifestyles.
Indeed, the experiences of such women in 1850 more closely resembled those of their predecessors in 1750 and even 1650 than they did their urban contemporaries. They remained visible producers and consumers of traditional sports and other displays of physical prowess.
During the first half of the nineteenth century, perceptions and real experiences suggested to some people that the health of middle- and upper-class women in urbanizing areas was declining. Educators, doctors, and writers of popular magazine articles responded with analyses and prescriptions for improving women s health, including calls for renewed physical exertion via exercises and games. The logic of the health literature was simple and straightforward if women were to fulfill their roles as caretakers of families and national virtue, they needed to maintain their physical and mental health.
People such as Catharine Beecher, Mary Lyons, and Diocletian Lewis thus argued for the physical education of women, started schools, and laid out regimens of calisthenics, domestic exercises e.g sweeping, and traditional activities such as walking and riding. The movement to return women to physically active pursuits had begun, albeit in their private, domestic sphere.
This would not, however, occur overnight. The urban areas that were home to many of the women targeted by the likes of Beecher and Lewis, as well as the economic activities that powered such areas, had reduced the social power of traditional sports and engendered an emerging new form, modern sports. Constructed by men for men, games such as baseball were becoming popular in eastern urban centers at mid-century.
Other activities such as skating, croquet, and rowing were also modernizing acquiring rules, specialized playing spaces, and an organizational base in clubs. Only gradually did women gain access to such forms. In the 1850s they did so primarily as spectators and moral guardians. Especially at baseball games, male promoters hoped that women would bring their perceived moral superiority to bear on the crowds and ensure social order 13, www.womenssportsfoundation.org . 2.4.3.