MEN'S AND WOMEN'S ATHLETICS

SEPARATE ORGANISATIONS

Most of the organisations that were established during the Victorian era to govern and organise sport were run by and for men. Women were discouraged from participating in sport and, even after it became relatively commonplace for them to take part, it was the norm for women to have separate governing bodies in each sport.

Organised women's sport took much longer to become established for a variety of social, political and economic reasons. Even today there are separate governing bodies for men and women in some sports.

Athletics was no different. The all-male Amateur Athletic Association (AAA) was established well before the Women's AAA. They only joined to become one body in the 1990s. 

DIFFERENT COMPETITIONS

Seeing the thousands of women competing in events such as the London Marathon and countless other events around the world, it is hard to believe that until relatively recently women were prevented from participating in the same types of event as men.

As late as 1968, the longest women's race at the Olympic Games was the 800 metres. The women's marathon was only introduced in 1984.

There may be many reasons for this but the most significant was a misguided view by men (who governed most of the major athletics bodies and events) that women were incapable of competing, would be injured too easily or that it was simply was not ladylike to be seen indulging in the "manly" pursuit of organised sport.

Some of the greatest female athletes had to endure years of ridicule and worse simply to enjoy the sport they loved. Two of the greatest, Fanny Blankers-Koen of The Netherlands and Shirley Strickland of Australia, both of whom died in early 2004, won Olympic medals in the 1940s and 1950s after having given birth to children. This was something that was not only frowned upon but positively discouraged on moral, sociological and religious grounds.

ALL CHANGE

Thank fully the situation has changed in many countries around the world and women are able to participate in the same range of track, road running and cross country races as men.

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