Dissenting Voices: The Discourse of Competition in The Sportswoman

In the 1920s, the appropriateness of competition for women became contested among educators and the public. In order to avoid the problems associated with men’s highly competitive athletics, many women physical educators sought to deemphasize competition and promote simple participation. According to sport historian Roberta Park, these women were “searching for a middle ground” in the debate. There was, however, another group of women whose position dissented from the polarized positions of the public as well as those who promoted the “middle ground” when it came to women’s competition. These women were the editorial staff of The Sportswoman, which was a periodical on women’s sport published from 1924 to 1936. While the editors included multiple perspectives on women’s competition, their own position was frequently in direct conflict with some of the other contributors. This paper highlights the overt and covert strategies used in the magazine to promote the acceptability of women’s competition in sport.