Women's lacrosse in Australia

Women's lacrosse in Australia

Lacrosse pictogram
Country Australia
National team Australia

While not being urged to avoid competition, women had few opportunities to compete in sport in Australia until the 1880s. After that date, new sporting facilities were being built around the country and many new sport clubs were created.[1] During the 1900s in Australia, lacrosse became more socially acceptable for women to participate in and subsequently female participation rates rose in places like Queensland.[2]

In 1922, a committee in Australia investigated the benefits of physical education for girls. They came up with several recommendations regarding what sports were and were not appropriate for girls to play based on the level of fitness required. It was determined that for some individual girls that for medical reasons, the girls should probably not be allowed to participate in tennis, netball, lacrosse, golf, hockey, and cricket. Soccer was completely medically inappropriate for girls to play. Sports in which it was medically appropriate for all girls to be able to participate in, so long as they were not done in an overly competitive manner were swimming, rowing, cycling and horseback riding.[3]

Australian women's sports had an advantage over many other women's sport organisations around the world in the period after World War II. Women's sport organisations had largely remained intact and were holding competitions during the war period. This structure survived in the post war period. Women's sport were not hurt because of food rationing, petrol rationing, population disbursement, and other issues facing post-war Europe.[4]

During the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s, women's surfing saw a large expansion in the number of competitors.[5]

See also

References

Bibliography

  • Evening Post (19 December 1922). "Women in Print". Evening Post CC (147) (New Zealand: National Library of New Zealand). p. 7. Retrieved 28 April 2011.
  • Howell, Max; Howell, Reet; Brown, David W. (1989). The Sporting Image, A pictorial history of Queenslanders at play. Brisbane: University of Queensland Press. ISBN 0-7022-2206-2.
  • Stell, Marion K. (1991). Half the Race, A history of Australian women in sport. North Ryde, Australia: Harper Collins. ISBN 0-207-16971-3.