THE INCLUSION OF WOMEN IN THE OLYMPIC GAMES – AN INVESTIGATION OF
THE MINUTES OF IOC SESSIONS (1894 – 1981)
Ana Miragaya & Lamartine DaCosta
Olympic Studies GroupUniversidade Gama Filho - Rio de Janeiro

Resumo: O objetivo principal desta pesquisa foi examinar em detalhes o processo de
inclusão das mulheres como atletas nos Jogos Olímpicos (JO) desde 1900. Muitos
documentos, particularmente fontes primárias como as Minutas das Sessões Anuais do
Comitê Olímpico Internacional (COI) e as Minutas das Sessões da Comissão Executiva,foram rigorosamente examinadas de forma que pormenores pudessem vir a elucidar asrazões pelas quais sempre houve um número reduzido de mulheres atletas nos JO. Essa
autora teve acesso a essas fontes primárias através de uma bolsa de pós-graduação
concedida pelo Centro de Estudos Olímpicos do COI.

Os resultados desta pesquisa

mostraram que embora não houvesse documentos proibindo as mulheres de participar nosJogos Olímpicos, elas lutaram contra preconceito e discriminação para poder participar
dos JO. Também foi possível observar que o COI desenvolveu estratégias ao longo dos
anos para evitar que mais mulheres participassem nos Jogos Olímpicos.

Abstract: Although women have been taking part in the Olympic Games as athletes since
1900, their participation has not been thoroughly studied. Many documents, particularly
primary sources such as the Minutes of the Annual Sessions of the International Olympic
Committee (IOC) and the Minutes of the Executive Board Sessions, were scrutinized sothat details that may reveal the reasons of this phenomenon should be unearthed. Thisauthor had access to these primary sources through a post-graduate scholarship concededby the Olympic Studies Center of the IOC. Questions related to the participation of womenathletes in the early Games were especially tackled in addition to other points such as
women athletes’ participation in the Ancient Olympic Games, a supposed prohibition totake part in the Games and the many barriers women had to overcome in order to be partof the Games, including prejudice and discrimination. The historical method of research
was used to gather and analyze materials related to the subject under investigation. The
results of this research showed that there were no documents prohibiting women fromparticipating in the Olympic Games either in the Greek antiquity or in the modern era.
Even so, women had to overcome prejudice and discrimination to take part in the Games.
It was also possible to observe how the IOC developed strategies to prevent women fromparticipating in the Olympic Games.

Key Words: women athletes; IOC documents; Olympic Games1

Women’s participation in sports is a recent social phenomenon. Acceptance of
women’s participation in sports by societies worldwide is an even more recent
phenomenon. Although the register of women’s participation in the Modern Olympic
Games points to their debut in 1900, ‘unofficially’, it took women 104 years to be 40.7%of the total number of athletes participating in Olympic Games (International OlympicCommittee - Games of the XXVIII Olympiad in Athens, 2004: 10,864 athletes: 4,306
women and 6,452 men) (IOC, 2005).
With the evolution of humankind in a more inclusive direction, it becomes
important to investigate and describe the role played by women athletes in the process ofadmission to the Olympic Games. For this reason this author submitted a research projectto the Postgraduate Researchers Scholarship Program of the IOC Olympic Studies Center(OSC), located in Lausanne, Switzerland. The proposal was selected by the grant program
Selection Committee and this researcher received a grant that covered for almost twomonths of investigation at the OSC in 2004.
The Olympic Studies Center is one of the largest centers of written, visual andaudio information on the Olympic Movement and on the Olympic Games. It houses thecollective memory of past Games and the Olympic Movement. This author concentrated
efforts on the written documents which are kept by the following services: (i) Historical
Archives, (ii) Library, and (iii) Documentation Service.
The International Olympic Committee’s Historical Archives display documents that
attest the evolution of the Olympic Movement since 1894 including not only the collectionsof Pierre de Coubertin, reviver of the Games, whose documents go back to 1886, including
his correspondence, but also the Minutes of IOC Sessions and of the Executive Board
Meetings, which were vital documents for this research as primary sources for the period
1894-1982.
The Library aims to offer the most complete possible collection of books, reports,annals of conferences and symposiums on the Olympic Movement, the Olympic Gamesand the Olympic sports, including theses and dissertations in several languages including
English, French, Italian and Spanish languages, consulted by this author. The works also
cover scientific, medical, economic, legal and other aspects of sport in general. Inaddition, the library also offers consultation to the following important collections ofdocuments used by this author: the Olympic Review; the Olympic Charters, and theOfficial Reports of the Olympic Games. The library also houses not only a wealth ofnewspapers and magazines such as La Vie au Grand Air, Le Sport Universel Illustré,
L’Education Physique, Révue Sportive Illustré, but also the Reports from the International
Olympic Academy Sessions all consulted by this author.

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The Documentation Service makes available to researchers their collections ofofficial documents, press clippings and other relevant information sources gathered by thedocumentalists. These files cover varied subjects related to the history of the Olympic
Movement, the International Olympic Committee and the Olympic Games, covering
sporting, political, social, economic, scientific or artistic topics.
After two months of intense investigation, covering all of theses available sources,
it was possible to observe that the little research that existed concerning the participationof women athletes in the Olympic Games included few and incomplete studies. Besides, nostudies had been done on the participation of women in the Olympic Games using primarysources such as the Minutes of the IOC Sessions and on the Minutes of the Executive
Board Meetings, written primarily in French. These documents are essential as they
represent the heart of the Olympic Games once they are exactly what was discussed anddecided by the IOC members in relation to the participation of women in the Olympic
Games. Most of the decisions involved the International Federations (IFs) and the National
Olympic Committees (NOCs). The period covered in this research extended from 1894,
when the IOC was founded by Pierre de Coubertin, until 1981, when the very first two
women were co-opted as IOC members.
Since history brings along echoes of the past, investigation of the ancient historicalsources became a must as the Olympic Games of Antiquity had deeply influenced BaronPierre de Coubertin, the renovator of the Olympic Games.

Research questions
Some of the research questions initially proposed were the following:•Were women initially excluded, prohibited from participating or not included in theAncient Olympic Games? What about in the Modern Games?

•Which barriers did women have to overcome?

•How did then women take part in the Games? Were they admitted, allowed, givenpermission, helped or did they struggle to be included?

•How do the Minutes of the IOC Sessions, other official documents and thespecialized literature reflect the historically developed process of women’sparticipation and inclusion in the Olympic Games as athletes?

Relevance
For the past decades, male Olympic athletes have provided other young athletes
and future athletes an image worthy of emulation. Women and girls should also be given
the chance to identify with female Olympic athletes with the admiration, recognition, andapproval which is usually given to high achievement in sports. Maybe by putting together
the facts which relate to women’s struggle for inclusion in a full Olympic program and3

treating it as a portion of the whole effort for women’s emancipation, this project could
contribute to the pride of women and girls in their achievements in sports and provide away through which they can identify and recognize the contributions, struggles and effortsof the highly skilled women athletes of the past. The analysis of history is an important
tool for people to appreciate and understand the events, forces and processes that haveshaped their lives and self-image. It is therefore extremely desirable if the analyticalprocess related to the progressive participation of women in the Olympic Games is done
intensively.
This careful overview and analysis of the past could be a tool not only to avoid themistakes made in the past but also to help understand the forces, movements andtendencies which were present in that context. The result of this study or of any other reexamination of the history of women in sport can bring about not only a sense of pride in
the struggles, efforts and accomplishments of previous generations of women but also aclearer comprehension of the conditions which have limited those accomplishments so thata greater sense of will, determination and aspiration will be stimulated in girls and women
to shape their own future.

Methods
The historical method of research was used to gather, and analyze materials
related to the subject under investigation. Initially much of the material utilized in thisstudy could only be found in international journals, available through the World Wide Web(internet) and the books identified by this author. Moreover, the essential materials wereavailable only at their source: the Olympic Studies Center located at the Olympic Museum,founded in 1993, in Lausanne, Switzerland. The examination and analysis of primarysources required contextualization according to data found in secondary sources. The
Minutes of the Annual Sessions of the IOC, the Minutes of the Executive Board Meetings
and the Olympic Charters, primary sources by excellence, were analyzed from theperspective of their own time contextualized through information related to the following:(i) the participation of women in the Ancient Olympic Games as they deeply influenced
Pierre de Coubertin; (ii) the position of women in society in the 19th and early 20thcenturies; (iii) Coubertin’s life and influences; and (iv) the foundation of the IOC, its
control over women’s admission process and the early female Olympians.

Results
The process of inclusion of women in the Olympic Games is long, extremelycomplex, strewn with obstacles and has not been completed yet either for women as
athletes or for women as sports administrators. It also involves the process of inclusion ofwomen in the societies to which they belong. Although, according to the specialized

4literature, there are no documents that prohibited women from participating in the Ancient
Olympic Games, there were no official documents excluding women’s participation fromthe modern Olympic Games.
The results of this research showed that there were no documents prohibiting
women from participating in the Olympic Games either in the Greek antiquity or in themodern era. Even so, women had to overcome prejudice and discrimination. It was also
possible to observe how the International Olympic Committee developed strategies toprevent women from participating in the Olympic Games.

Next StagesAs ‘women in sport’ is a relatively recent area of study, there is still a lot toinvestigate and discover, particularly through the use of primary sources such as
newspapers, letters, minutes of clubs and sports associations of the late 19th and early
20th centuries, written in various languages. Consequently, more research is necessary to
examine the roles women have played not only as athletes but also as administrators innational and international sports federations, and other sports governing bodies, related
not only to the Olympic Movement but also to the culturally-rich national associations ofsports worldwide.
The next steps for this research will be investigations in relation to the participationof women in the administrative areas of the various sports organizations, including theInternational Olympic Committee and the International Federations. More details related
to the participation of women athletes in the 1904 Saint Louis and in the 1906 Athens
Olympic Games are still to be investigated as the documents found in the OSC did notprovide enough evidence. Other sources need to be found and scrutinized, both in SaintLouis and in Athens.

Reference:MIRAGAYA, Ana (2006). The Process of Inclusion of Women in the Olympic Games.
Doctoral dissertation (Programa de Pós-Graduação em Educação Física) – Universidade
Gama Filho, Rio de Janeiro, 2006.

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