The modern Olympic Movement, women's sport and the social order during the inter-war period

Abstract

The Olympic Movement, created by the French Baron Pierre de Coubertin, was conceived as a tool to promote and spread European aristocratic and masculine values. That is why women were not included in the first Olympic programme in 1896. Nevertheless, the growing influence of feminist movements before and after the First World War sparked the development of international women's sports contests. Since 1921, the Fédération Sportive Féminine Internationale, directed by Alice Milliat, organized regular ‘Women's Games’ and was affiliated with the same number of countries as similar male international federations. This expanded role of women and women's sport challenged the established social order of masculine domination. Despite the fact that women's participation in the Games can be seen as early as 1900, the Olympic Games at which the participation of female athletes became more notable to some historians was not until those held in 1928 in Amsterdam. But the overture made to women did not emerge from the willingness of the International Olympic Committee. Rather, it must be attributed to Sigfried Edström, President of the International Amateur Athletic Federation (IAAF). The motives of Edström were far from benevolent; he wanted to control women's sport in order to maintain the social order dominated by men.