Women in Sports- Equity For All

By Kyle Pierce

Women have been fighting for equity in collegiate sports since the late nineteenth century and continue to do so today. Historically, women's activities have been regarded as non-physical leisure pastimes that could be pursued without acquiring an indelicate sweat, such as horseback-riding, archery, and croquet. The women's sports scene has dramatically changed since then. Efforts by women's rights activists have gradually expanded the options available to women wishing to pursue other types of sports, but were met with limited acceptance. Physicians at the time even believed that women on sport's fields were not only viewed as unattractive, but worried that they would damage delicate nerves and physiques or drain the "vital forces" necessary for reproduction. We obviously know now that none of this is true, but women still struggle today to gain the acceptance in sports that men have.