The sports world was another matter. The prevailing belief was that feminine women – “true” women – should not exert themselves because exertion was considered manly, this belief relegated wartime women to more domestic wartime responsibilities. Women first needed to dismantle the arguments that sports, even just watching sports, made them manly. Of course, enslaved women and freed women servants of color were not treated like “ladies” in this way. In the early twentieth century, the only sports women were permitted to participate in were “aesthetic” sports like gymnastics, which was very different from the gymnasts today, and perceived as a sport that didn’t require women to exert themselves too much. 

 

In the late 1880s, the modern bicycle was invented and, as Susan B. Anthony said, “Let me tell you what I think of bicycling. I think it has done more to emancipate women than anything else in the world. It gives women a feeling of freedom and self-reliance. I stand and rejoice every time I see a woman ride by on a wheel…the picture of free, untrammeled womanhood.” Bicycles were new toys to men, but were viewed as a vehicle for autonomy and self-reliance for women. They were liberating! Bicycles allowed women to leave home and to wear clothing that enabled involvement in more physical activity. This social shift was a necessary first step toward women’s full participation in sport. 

 

Still, traditional gender norms persisted and the backlash was strong. Doctors and social commentators went out of their way to justify their belief that women should not exercise. In fact, a medical diagnosis of “Bicycle Face,” or the “the unconscious effort” required to keep one’s balance, which produces a “wearied and exhausted 'bicycle face.’” Beyond this nonsense, they argued that biking was taxing and inappropriate for women because it could lead to a number of health conditions including insomnia, heart problems, and depression. Rules were imposed on women cyclists, not men. In 1895, The New York World insisted on forty-one rules for women riders in order to keep them ladylike including to take assistance from male riders and not to emulate the more aggressive riding posture of male cyclists. 

 

It took female medical doctors pushing back to end the absurdity. In 1897, Dr. Sarah Hackett Stevenson wrote in a medical journal that bicycling “is not injurious to any part of the anatomy, as it improves the general health. I have been conscientiously recommending bicycling for the last five years… The painfully anxious facial expression is seen only among beginners, and is due to the uncertainty of amateurs. As soon as a rider becomes proficient, can gauge her muscular strength, and acquires perfect confidence in her ability to balance herself and in her power of locomotion, this look passes away.” Still, emphasis for women’s sports remained on aesthetics. The modern Olympics returned in 1896, but women were not allowed to compete. Women competed for the first time at the Paris Games in 1900 representing only 22 of 997 athletes present. Women competed in tennis, sailing, croquet, equestrianism, and golf. Golfer Margaret Abbott was the first American woman to win at an Olympic Game. Abbott received a porcelain bowl as a prize.

 

The 1904 Games were held in St. Louis, Missouri. Matilda Scott Howell won three gold medals, becoming the first American woman to win one. Archery was the only legitimate event women were permitted to participate in. It is important to note, however, that these achievements for women were limited to white women. During this time, Ku Klux Klan membership was increasing and incidents of lynching persisted. As a result, very few tennis courts or public pools were accessible to black athletes, whether male or female. After all—black bodies, like female ones, have a long history of being policed.

 

Women had to dismantle the social ideology that sport was inherently a male arena and that athleticism was synonymous with and essential to health. This pertained quite literally to bans on women even sitting in stadiums. Women sports fans protested their exclusion from stadiums. Perhaps the most famous American sports song ever is “Take Me Out to the Ball Game,” sung at baseball games everywhere. This song’s original 1908 verses and lyrics read as follows:

 

“Katie Casey was baseball mad,

Had the fever and had it bad.

Just to root for the home town crew,

Ev’ry sou Katie blew.

On a Saturday her young beau

Called to see if she’d like to go

To see a show, but Miss Kate said “No,

I’ll tell you what you can do:

 

Take me out to the ball game,

Take me out with the crowd;

Just buy me some peanuts and Cracker Jack,

I don’t care if I never get back.

Let me root, root, root for the home team,

If they don’t win, it’s a shame.

For it’s one, two, three strikes, you’re out,

At the old ball game.

Katie Casey saw all the games,

Knew the players by their first names.

Told the umpire he was wrong,

All along,

Good and strong.

When the score was just two to two,

Katie Casey knew what to do,

Just to cheer up the boys she knew,

She made the gang sing this song:

 

Take me out to the ball game….”

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​The song was and is a feminist anthem, imploring listeners to allow women into the sporting arena. Societal objections and false concerns about women’s health also played a role in women’s continued exclusion from sport, especially in track and field. So-called “experts” believed track could negatively affect women’s endocrine systems. Women were advised against participating during menstruation due to fears of uterine damage, and the emotional stress of competition was falsely seen as potentially leading to nervous breakdowns. Nevertheless, women remained eager to compete.