19th Amendment and Women and Sport

19th Amendment

The 19th Amendment to the Constitution was ratified August 18th 1920 and was responsible for giving women the right to vote. The amendment itself states 'The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of sex. Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.' This meant that both states and the federal government could not stop people from voting because of their gender. This was common throughout US history as women were not viewed as equal and worthy of the vote due to a perceived lack of education or understanding of politics.

This was a key moment in women's history s it gave women equal political stature to men for the first time in federal law. It meant that women had a proper voice in politics now and were not being restricted based on gender. The amendment came after 72 years of hard work, the movement for women's rights began on a national level in 1848. This was with the Seneca Falls Convention organised by Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia Mott. Following the convention, suffrage became a cornerstone of the movement as a key goal to work towards. Women's rights activists such as Stanton, Mott and Susan B. Anthony worked and campaigned hard to earn the vote for women as well as helping to establish several women's rights groups.

However, while the 19th Amendment is often viewed as the most significant event in the advancement of women's rights, it did not have an immediate positive impact for all women. It did not mean that all women could now vote. For example, African American women could not vote as they were often stopped based on skin colour as opposed to gender. This suggests that its immediate impact only really was positive for white women. However, following the civil rights movement, it meant hat all women could vote and many took this opportunity. It paved the way for political equality for women, allowing them to have a say and influence politics directly.

Women and Sport

Women have been involved in organised sport in the US since the late 19th century. A key early invention was the bicycle. It was argued that the bicycle symbolised the quintessential 'New Woman' in the late 19th century which were self-reliant, athletic, strong and looking for a marriage based on equality. This activity led to organised sport for women which began really at the collegiate level with a number of Eastern women's universities offering sports programmes. The first intercollegiate women's basketball game took place between the University of California and Stanford on April 4 1896.

However, it was not easy for women to participate and numbers were low, it was still opposed by many who argued that sport was unfeminine. This became the prominent view throughout the 1930s around the great depression when ideas of the 'woman's role' were strong. Participation in sport did not completely stop for women and sport carried on. Up until this time sport had been limited to elite white women but the creation of business amateur leagues gave working class women the opportunity to participate in sport. These leagues were taken very seriously and businesses wanted their teams to do well. Dallas based Employers Casualty Company hired Mildred 'Babe' Didrickson as a clerical worker in 1930 essentially so that she could play for the companies basketball team which she led to a national championship.

In terms of African American women, they had more opportunities to compete in sport, particularly at the collegiate level. In 1939, only 25% of African American universities objected to intercollegiate sport for women as opposed to 83% of predominantly white universities. This led to greater opportunities in sport for African American women but they would not compete against white universities.

In 1972, congress enacted Title IX of the Education Amendments. This prohibits sex discrimination in education and programmes that receive federal funding. This meant that women could no longer be denied access to sport in high school based on gender. This increased greatly the opportunities that women had in playing sport at all levels. According to a University of Michigan study, Title IX resulted in a 20% increase in female attainment of education, 10% increase in number of women working full time and a 12% spike in the number of women male dominated fields. Leading to Nancy Hogshead-Makar's quote, 'other than women's suffrage, possibly no other piece of legislation has had a greater effect on women's lives than Title IX.'

Today, women in sport are still making progress. This can be seen through Shannon Szabados, a female ice hockey player who has been the first female player to take part in a number of leagues and tournaments.

Sources

https://www.law.cornell.edu/constitution/amendmentxix
http://www.history.com/topics/womens-history/19th-amendment
https://www.google.com/culturalinstitute/beta/exhibit/game-changers/gRJ3eKVt