The formation and evolution of women’s boxing took place quite differently from other sports recognized as women’s, because it was based on the notion of sexual differences, that the difference in the structure of women’s and men’s bodies provided for the difference in women’s and men’s sport. At the same time, women’s boxing seemed to be a challenge to this trend, a pure celebration of female muscular strength and aggressiveness.
Women’s boxing has its own history. Some types of martial arts have been known since ancient times. However, physical training of both boys and girls, regular exercises and sports competitions were born in ancient Greek city-states. Girls took part in the fist fights of ancient Sparta. Their upbringing made female athletes more athletic and educated, hardened and trained, and involved in martial culture than other ancient Greek women.
Unlike the Greeks with their athleticism, the Romans were more spectators of sporting events, considering Greek sports useless in terms of military training. At the same time, gladiatorial games, an integral part of Roman life, turned women’s sport into a deadly battle in the arena. Many female gladiatorial captives from the North were of powerful build and required good physical and technical training and courage to fight: the competition was won by the strongest (or the strongest fighter). However, in 200 A.D. the Emperor Sever forbade women’s participation in gladiatorial fights.
Later women also participated in martial arts. It is known that among the ancient barbarian tribes that caused Rome’s death, women fought on the front lines and even led men into battle.
The early and late Middle Ages are characterized by references to female warriors participating in hostilities and knightly tournaments, there were “judicial duels” to which women sometimes challenged men and even defeated them. The usual weapons were stones the size of a fist wrapped in cloth. The losing men had their heads cut off and the losing woman lost her right arm.
In contrast, the Renaissance (fourteenth and sixteenth centuries) began to value refinement and agility in women rather than brute strength, and female athletes were graceful and elegant.
In the early modern period (17th century), women’s exercise began to spread throughout Europe and North America. And while there is little evidence of women’s participation in competition, in the eighteenth century, women literally broke into the most masculine and brutal of sports – fist fighting in the form of early bare-knuckle boxing.
The actual emergence of women’s boxing can be traced to London in the 1720s. Sources (mostly newspapers and travelers’ notes) note that the women who took part in the fights almost certainly belonged to the poorest strata of society and even had a reputation for “light behavior”. They had almost nothing to lose in every sense, but at the same time, female boxers also felt pride in their valor, not just shame at the low position in which they had been placed.
As judges and coaches, women entered boxing somewhat earlier than female boxers. Thus, Mrs. Wigmura acted as seconds for her husband in the English title match, and the Italian Antonella Minervi was a referee in professional boxing matches; among the organizers and sponsors of boxing duels the name of the American Ellen Eton is well known.
At first, there were very few boxing rules: the fight ended in surrender, kicking and wrestling holds were allowed in addition to punches, and the fights were a very brutal and bloody spectacle. In addition to the techniques used by male boxers, women used teeth, nails, and hair pulling.
In the first official competitions among women in 1876 (New York, USA), Nellie Saunders and Ros Harlaner boxed under the slogan “Equality in Sports”. Soon the first official instructions – the rules for women’s boxing – appeared.
For 150 years after that, women entered the ring sporadically to participate in demonstration and competitive fights, and fought for prizes. But because boxing among women was considered the entertainment of the lower classes of society, it remained an “underground” and marginal sport, and boxers themselves were considered “compromised.” Working-class women who freely disposed of their bodies in physical exercise were considered wild and easily accessible – in contrast to the image of the apathetic, weak and sexually repressed Victorian lady. For this reason, women’s boxing has always attracted fans of eroticism – not only working-class men, but also local dignitaries and businessmen.
Although middle-class women fought hard for the opportunity to box, the special doctrine that existed at the beginning of the 19th century, led by medical scientists, prevented women from competing. The dominant theory of the high vulnerability of the female body was based on the fact that vigorous exercise and high physical activity could harm women.
It should be taken into account that there are specific distinctive features of the female body that affect a woman’s performance and ability to tolerate exertion.
Firstly, the motor skills of men and women have certain differences caused more by social and psychological reasons than by biological factors (if boys gravitate to “men’s games”, then girls, on the contrary, in preschool age excel boys in motor tasks, typical for their games, for example, in jumping rope).
Second, the neuromuscular system in women is capable of lower strength achievements than in men (it is believed that the maximum strength in women is 40 percent lower than in men): the training capacity of women aged 19-40 is lower than that of men of the same age.
Third, women’s bodies, despite their greater plasticity, are vulnerable to high loads, which means that it is necessary to gradually increase the intensity and volume of loads during training (but the rate of increase in athletic performance in women is greater than in men).
Fourthly, for qualitative construction of training for women it is important to take into account ovarian and menstrual cycles, when female boxers show decrease in efficiency, irritability, depression, passivity to master a new material, etc.
Finally, psychological peculiarities of the female body (women have always been distinguished by greater stamina and good health than men, but they have more delicate skin, and deterioration of appearance is one of the main reasons of dropouts from the specialization). Boxers themselves, including the great ones, assure that a woman will never be able to box on equal terms with a man, although it must be admitted that boxing exercises develop the figure, coordination of movements, strengthen muscles, increase tone and give self-confidence.
At the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, thanks to the efforts of Richard Foxx and his “Police Gazette”, women’s boxing gained a wide popularity in the United States and beyond. However, there were two opposing trends at that time: the emancipation of women led women to engage in many traditionally male activities, but due to the humanization of Western society, boxing was seen as a cruel and harmful sport, especially to female reproductive function. The second trend temporarily prevailed when women achieved equal rights.
In 1904, boxing became an Olympic sport in St. Louis, USA, and women’s boxing was represented by demonstration bouts, but did not gain a foothold in the Olympic program. It took many decades for women’s boxing to become similar to men’s boxing, with an emphasis on sophisticated technique, precision, sharpness and knockout punches. It was during the period of the “masculinization” of women’s boxing that it attracted negative public attention, resulting in serious efforts to ban women’s boxing. Still, its development did not fade.
By that time, women’s boxing had become an indispensable attribute of boxing performances. Many female boxers most often got into the ring through male relatives associated with boxing shows.
Occasionally the police stopped boxing bouts involving women. Despite regulations and restrictions for boxing developed in the 1880s that allowed only hands to be used in bouts, French Savat boxing (where kicking was allowed) was also popular, and sometimes young girls as young as 12 participated in these fights. But most of the performances were not so violent at all.
After World War I, doctors and social workers loudly objected to women’s participation in boxing, but still there were women boxers and promoters of women’s boxing in Western Europe, South America, South Africa and the Subcontinent of India.
In the 1920s, women’s boxing was one of the favorite spectacles at British fairs (Polly Burns, Bell Gordon and Harriet Seebeck all took part in vaudeville shows). During these years, “Professor” Andrew Newton (British amateur boxing champion in 1888 and 1890) organized a Girls’ Boxing Club in London. In 1924, a fight for the ladies’ world champion title was scheduled between Annie Newton and Miss Madge Baker. The upcoming bout was widely commented on in the press and caused a huge stir. However, a week before the scheduled time, the fight was canceled by Interior Department decree.
Along with other sports characterized as harmful to women, women’s boxing was harshly opposed and universally rejected. It was believed that such activities made women muscular and therefore ugly. In addition, it was feared that strong blows could cause cancer or other trouble for women’s internal organs and mammary glands.
Proponents of female boxing, on the other hand, insisted that the female reproductive organs were well hidden and protected and apparently even less prone to injury than the male external genitalia. They believed that women, like men, could wear devices that protected vulnerable areas.
Until the 1950s there were sporadic meetings and bouts in Britain, the United States and France that left no discernible trace in the history of women’s boxing, yet American inventor Thomas Edison made several films that reproduced boxing matches involving women (including the famous Gordon Sisters Boxing). Filmmakers from England, Mitchell and Kenyon, also created the film “Ladies Boxers,” in which two boxers save a man from a gang of gangsters in a provincial market. The French film studio Homon made a film called “London’s Women Boxers.”
However, it was very difficult for serious female boxers compared to men to gain the same respect of the public and earn the same amount of money. This is true of the boxing careers of many famous female athletes of the mid-twentieth century.
Women’s boxing became hugely popular after a super lightweight fight with Barbara Buttrick, the first world champion of professional boxing, was shown on American television in 1954. Buttrick’s followers were Jo Ann Hagen (Verhagen) and Phyllis Kugler.
Beginning in the 1970s, women around the world, interested in equal rights with men in boxing, began filing petitions to various courts, demanding regular bouts and more rounds during women’s competitions, participation in the Golden Gloves tournament.
A huge number of lawsuits related to the regulation of boxing were filed all over the world. Overcoming stubborn opposition from the authorities and the public, women were allowed to hold sanctioned women’s bouts, the first official license to box a woman and to judge professional fights (Eva Shain).
In 1975 Carolyn Svendsen (USA) became the first woman to receive an official documented boxing license, which triggered the mass development of professional women’s boxing. Eventually, women’s persistence led to the legalization of women’s boxing, although it did not meet with the approval of the general public for a long time yet.
In the 1980s and 1990s, some active feminists organized friendly boxing matches in public, proving that women could do everything that men do, and thus attracted other women to their side. During these years, a characteristic feature of women’s boxing encounters (often staged) was the desire to emphasize the femininity of the participants. Unlike men’s fights in the ring, where it was necessary to display “truly masculine” fighting qualities and strength, women’s fights demonstrated grace and flexibility by contrast.
The real history of women’s boxing began at the end of the 20th century, when it was elevated to a new professional level. Merian Trimiar did a lot to promote women’s boxing. Active communication with journalists and picketing of promoters attracted public attention and changed the attitude towards women boxers.
Prominent female boxers such as Christy Martin, Lucia Rijker, Yvonne Cupples, Marisha Xiaw, Bridgette Riley, Regina Halmich, Laila Ali, Chevelle Hallbuck, Vonda Ward, Ann Wolfe, Martha Salazar and many others appeared in the professional ring.
Professional women’s boxing received special attention when the daughters of three great boxers of the past – Leila Ali, Jackie Fraser-Lyde and Frieda Forman came into it, who continued the confrontation of their star fathers and made everyone believe that women’s boxing is a real fight between two worthy opponents. For the first time, women’s fights overshadowed men’s bouts, and women’s boxing reached a new level.
A characteristic feature of women’s professional boxing is mixed bouts. The main reason for women to fight in the ring with men is the desire to prove that women are equal in everything, to make advertising and to get material gain. It’s no secret: if a woman manages to win a fight, she can experience triumph, if she loses, not bad either (even prestigious). For a male boxer, though, the situation is just the opposite.
