Development of Women’s Sport in Central Europe before the First World War

Abstract

In Germany, Austrian and Czech lands and Galicia, women’s gym associations were established in connection with Turner and Sokol gymnastics development. Women did not participate in sport in Central Europe until the 1880s. Before the First World War, women’s sport in the Czech lands developed similarly to Germany and the Austrian part of the Cisleithanian region. In the period leading up to the First World War, women’s sport developed within a hegemonic masculine society. Representatives of this masculine society enforced ideas about the social role of women in sport by dictating to women which sports disciplines were appropriate for them and how they should practise them. Swimming and tennis belonged to sports considered suitable for women. Women first competed in golf and tennis contests at the Olympics in Paris in 1900. In addition, Hedwig Rosenbaumová, who was listed on the programme of the games as a representative of Prague, won the third place in tennis. Women played tennis, skated, and cycled in the Austrian, Czech, and Hungarian parts of the monarchy. In Galicia, women’s physical education developed in Sokol and at the end of the 19th century gymnastics schools were established in Kraków, Lviv and Warsaw.