Women in Weapon Land: The Rise of International Women's Fencing

Abstract

The world of weapons has always been male-dominated both on the battlefield and in sport. Competitive fencing, born as mimicry of duels, developed throughout the twentieth century as a symbol of masculinity; an embodiment of the notion of manhood and an expression of men's virility. Surprisingly however, female fencing was accepted into the Olympic programme in Paris in 1924, before many other sports, as a result of an ambiguity in the regulations of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and the International Fencing Federation (FIE). The full integration of female fencing took much longer according to the diverse weapons used in the competitions. Although the individual foil event appeared in 1924, the team foil event was not recognised until 1960 and the other weapons even later. The female epée became an Olympic event only in 1996, the female sabre in 2004, after long discussions both within the FIE and between the FIE and the IOC. The different stages of the recognition of female fencers by the sporting institutions are the focus of this paper. The analysis of the process, based on the archives of the FIE as well as on the specialised press, reveals the influence of three successive time contexts: the 1920s, the 1960s and the 1990s. The long resistance of the male fencing community to any challenge of the gender order has also been relevant. It is finally argued that, despite the explicit defence of women's sport by the leading sport institutions, women were still until recently the victims of the lengthy negotiations between the IOC and the FIE.