Women boxers: Actresses to athletes - the role of vaudeville in early women's boxing in the USA

TY - JOUR

T1 - Women boxers

T2 - Actresses to athletes - the role of vaudeville in early women's boxing in the USA

AU - Gems, Gerald

AU - Pfister, Gertrud Ursula

N1 - CURIS 2014 NEXS 321

PY - 2014

Y1 - 2014

N2 - This article fills a gap in the very limited literature on women's boxing by examining the gendered space in which women engaged in the sport as participants in saloons, vaudeville theatres and the prize ring. In doing so, they challenged the contemporary gender order and disputed the notion of women as the weak sex. Vaudeville provided women with an opportunity to present physical performances that surpassed the restrictions placed on women within the mainstream middle-class society. This article includes biographical sketches of some of the outstanding female boxers of the era by drawing upon new primary sources and embedding the findings within various gender theories.

AB - This article fills a gap in the very limited literature on women's boxing by examining the gendered space in which women engaged in the sport as participants in saloons, vaudeville theatres and the prize ring. In doing so, they challenged the contemporary gender order and disputed the notion of women as the weak sex. Vaudeville provided women with an opportunity to present physical performances that surpassed the restrictions placed on women within the mainstream middle-class society. This article includes biographical sketches of some of the outstanding female boxers of the era by drawing upon new primary sources and embedding the findings within various gender theories.

KW - boxing

KW - gender

KW - USA

KW - vaudeville

KW - women

U2 - 10.1080/09523367.2014.933209

DO - 10.1080/09523367.2014.933209

M3 - Journal article

AN - SCOPUS:84907860602

SN - 0952-3367

VL - 31

SP - 1909

EP - 1924

JO - International Journal of the History of Sport

JF - International Journal of the History of Sport

IS - 15

ER -