Little Girls in Pretty Shells: The Introduction of Lightweight Women's Events in Competitive International Rowing

摘要

In a sport that was predominantly 'masculine', women struggled for recognition, not least because they were regarded as weaker and therefore inferior to men; in addition, the dominant discourse within rowing suggested that to compete at the highest level would compromise an oarswoman's femininity. Thus, when women were admitted to international competition in 1954 it was under special conditions. Thereafter, though heavyweight oarswomen competed at international level, lightweights were effectively marginalized by the absence of a FISA-recognized classification. Though they were seen as more feminine than the 'fat Russians' who dominated women's heavyweight rowing, they were also subject to criticism because of the limitations that their physique imposed on their performance. The political battle within FISA to establish a lightweight women's class intensified in the ten years after international competition for lightweight men was approved in 1974. Eventually, in 1985, FISA recognized lightweight women's competitive international rowing, though it remained subject to important limitations.