The Olympics, Paralympics, and Gender: Participation of Female Athletes and the Principleof an Inclusive Society

The Olympics, Paralympics, and Gender:
Participation of Female Athletes and thePrinciple of an Inclusive Society
OGOURA Kazuo

Introduction
The Paralympic Games often promote the social participation of people withdisabilities and can be a catalyst for raising public awareness of the social inclusion ofpeople with disabilities. To discuss the social inclusion of people with disabilities,
however, it is important to review the history of the social inclusion of women, whohave historically been a target of discrimination and social exclusion.
To consider this issue particularly in relation to the Paralympics, we must first ask
how women’s participation in the Olympics has progressed, on what basis objections
were raised against women’s participation, and what factors helped to promote their
participation. Based on these points, we can examine how and to what extent female
athletes’ participation in the Paralympic Games has been realized.
One of the principles of the Paralympic Movement is to realize the social inclusionof people with disabilities, and this means that an important principle in the
Paralympic Games is the inclusion of women and people with various forms of
disabilities. Furthermore, given that the Paralympics follows the path of the Olympics
in many ways today, it is important to examine how the concept of inclusion has beenrealized in the Olympics. This paper will focus its analysis on the participation of
female athletes, although historically, the issue of inclusion in the Olympics has also
involved the inclusion of social classes, such as the participation of the working class.
There are also other gender-related issues that have become important, such as
female representation in the administration of sports organizations and sex
verification in sports. However, this paper will concentrate on analyzing athletes’
participation, specifically in the Paralympic Summer Games, to highlight points which
need further examination, lessons to be learned, and issues which need to be115

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discussed from the point of view of today’s Paralympics.

A）Participation of female athletes in the Olympic GamesIn the early days of the modern Olympics, female athletes met deep-rooted
opposition to their participation in the Games. Even today, when the overall female
representation among athletes has grown and is comparable to the number of maleathletes, many problems remain at the level of individual countries and sports. The
historical development of female participation reflects issues which also have
implications for the future relationship between the Paralympics and Olympics.

1.

Opposition and negative attitudes to female athletes’ participationin the Olympics

Negative opinion towards including female athletes in the Olympics was expressedby the founder of the modern Olympics, Coubertin. It was also prevalent among
many people involved in the Olympics and in competitive sports in Europe andAmerica almost until the Second World War. The reasons for the negative opinion
can be summarized as follows.
（a）There was a general perception in society that women’s role in society was
to be domestic keepers and raise children, and that women engaging incompetitive sports, except in the form of exercise for leisure or refreshment,
did not conform to this social role.
（b）This was also related to the fact that the perception of the female body, its
physical functions, and women’s activities was strongly influenced by maleperspectives. This was further reinforced by the media, and encouraged theopinion that women’s participation in strenuous competitive sports activities
was against the social norm and had little positive value. There were some
women who also approved of this opinion1.
（c）There was a perception that men who engaged in physically demanding
competitions and sports such as those of the Olympic Games should bepraised only by women, like the male figure in medieval chivalry, and forthis reason, there were those who wanted women to be “spectators.”2116The Olympics, Paralympics, and Gender: Participation of Female Athletes and the Principleof an Inclusive Society（d）In parallel to these perceptions and opinions, some thought that because
competitive sports involve physical contact, sports such as triple jump, polevault, boxing, and weightlifting in particular, could easily harm female
reproductive organs3.
（e）Later, after it had become the norm for female athletes to participate in the
Olympics, despite the fact that it was still limited to a number of sports,
there were negative opinions about their participation based on the idea that
the Olympics should be slimmed down, and that a further increase of female
athletes should be suppressed4.
The summary above has focused on the perspectives of Coubertin and people
associated with the International Olympic Committee（IOC）of the time. An exampleof the Japanese perspective, in 1924, is that physical education instructors voiced theopinion that allowing female students to compete in physically demanding competitive
sports, such as jumping, swimming races, and indoor baseball, might compromise “thefeminine dispositions of their psychology.”5What implications or lessons can be drawn from the negative opinion towards
female athlete participation that can be useful today for the coordination between the
Olympics and Paralympics? What significance is there for the participation of athleteswith disabilities in the Olympics?
First, there is the fact that the acceptance of female athletes in the Olympics was
significantly influenced by the male perspective on women which formed the basis ofsocial norms, as well as the male perspective on men themselves, that lay behind it.
To put this into the context of the relationship between the Olympics andParalympics and the concept of an inclusive society today, we must ask whether theperception of para sports tends to be determined by the mainstream, in other words
the perspective of able-bodied people, and examine to what extent the perspectives
and thoughts of people with disabilities are being reflected.
If in the past, the fact that the majority of the spectators were men added to the
problems for female participation in the Olympics, we must study the proportion ofpeople with disabilities among today’s Olympics and Paralympics spectators（including indirect spectators who watch the Games for example on television）. We
need to address the question as to whether today’s Paralympic Games are in fact
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primarily “for able-bodied people” in its social significance, in the same way that the
Olympic Games were mainly “for men.” To examine this further, we must also ask
whether the Olympics and Paralympics mainly reflect the logic and tendencies ofable-bodied people, especially as both Games lean strongly towards a performancebased ideology and towards commercialism.
We must also consider that if underlying the promotion of female participation in
the Olympic Games was the idea of making women “as strong as men,” whether
today’s Paralympics are based on an implicit premise of making athletes withdisabilities “as strong as able-bodied people,” and furthermore, consider how thisrelates to the principle of an inclusive society.

2.

Women’s Olympic Games

While there was widespread opposition to female participation in the modern
Olympics, and an underlying disapproval of women’s sports activities in general as
outlined above, there was a momentum to promote international competitive sports
for women beginning at around the time of the First World War. One example was
the Women’s Olympic Games, organized by the Fédération Sportive Féminine
Internationale （FSFI） between 1922 and 1936, and renamed the Women’s WorldGames from the second games in 1926. Several factors were involved in therealization of these Games:（a）In Europe, the first national-level athletics（“athletics” will be used to refer totrack and field）competition for female athletes was held in 1918 in Vienna,
Austria, and several European countries had emerging female athletes inathletics. Against this backdrop, the French rower Alice Milliat negotiatedstrongly for female athletes to be allowed to participate in the Olympic
athletics events. The IOC and International Amateur Athletic Federation（IAAF）refused. This led to the inauguration of the FSFI in 1921 to organize
an Olympic Games exclusively for women, comprised solely of athletics
events with the exception of the exhibition events6.
（b）The Women’s Olympic Games were organized as a contender to the modern
Olympics, which had refused female athletes’ participation in athletics events,
but its purpose may also have included showcasing women’s sports to118

The Olympics, Paralympics, and Gender: Participation of Female Athletes and the Principleof an Inclusive Societysociety. This is evident in the fact that the first Olympics for women（Olympiades Féminines） held in 1921 in Monte Carlo, Monaco—thepredecessor of the aforementioned Women’s Olympic Games and Women’sWorld Games—included the exhibition event “rhythmic gymnastics” （acombination of gymnastics and dance）, which was not in the modern
Olympic Games, and created something that was different from “male-centric,
militaristic and stiff gymnastics.”7（c）There was a theory that strengthening the abdomen through sports andnurturing the body and mind would help create good mothers, and in orderto make this widely known, Alice Milliat also supported the national policy ofboosting the birth rate in post-WWI France8.
（d）Inspired by these developments, some female athletes became stars andgained public attention, which contributed indirectly to the momentum tosupport the Women’s Olympic Games. Examples include the American
swimmers Gertrude Ederle and Sybil Bauer, and the Japanese athletics
athlete Kinue Hitomi who were active in the 1920s. In particular, some held
records that surpassed those of male athletes: Ederle in the English Channel
swim, and Bauer in the 400-yard backstroke. The emergence of female
athletes who were not inferior to men in their performance record, also
contributed indirectly to the Women’s Olympic Games9.
（e）In Europe（especially in France）at the time, women did not have the rightto vote, and advancing the participation of women in politics was believed tobring with it the acceptance and recognition of women’s competitive sports10.
Table 1 Women’s Olympics/World Games
Year

Name

City

1922

Women’s Olympic Games

1926

Women’s World Games

1930
1934

Women’s World Games
Women’s World Games

Paris
Gothenburg,
SwedenPragueLondonNumber ofparticipating
countries

Number of
athletes

Number of
events

5

77

11

9

100

12

17
19

200
200

12
12

Source: compiled by the author using data from Parčina, I., Šiljak. V., Perović A. and Plakona E., 2014, “Women’s WorldGames,” Physical Education and Sport Through the Centuries, 53- 55, 57. The events varied slightly depending on
the Games. The Paris Games（1922）for example, included the 60-meter, 100-yard, 300-meter, 1000-meter, 4 x 110yard relay, and 100-yard hurdle races, as well as long jump, standing long jump, high jump, javelin, and shot put.
The exhibition, introduced at the Prague Games （1930）, included basketball, handball, fencing, archery, andcanoeing, while at London（1934）, the exhibition included basketball, football, and handball.

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Today, the significance of the Women’s Olympic Games is not limited to their rolein initiating the introduction of women’s athletics in the male-centered modern
Olympic Games, and in the creation of rules and organizations for female competitive
sports. They also raised public awareness about what makes female sports different,and developed and promoted sports that were uniquely for women. This iscomparable to today’s Paralympics, which are held as its own event, separate from（although working together with）the Olympics, and plays a role in promoting anddeveloping para sports, as well as being as an opportunity to highlight what attracts
people to sports, specifically for people with disabilities（such as goalball, boccia, andwheelchair basketball）. In the future, there also needs to be a discussion on whether
sports that have been “developed” for athletes with disabilities may become official
Olympic sports, just like sports that are only open to women, such as artistic
swimming, are included in the Olympics, and what significance this would entail. This
may generate discussions on the significance of evaluating abilities other thanphysical competence（such as artistic expression and entertainment value）especiallyin highly competitive sports. Finally, some argue that sports which add rules tocreate an equal condition for all players（such as football 5-a-side and goalball）should
be referred to as “adapted sports” rather than para sports. This could have an impact
on removing the boundary between para sports and able-bodied sports, as well as theboundary between men’s and women’s sports.
In parallel to these international developments, in Japan, a national event for femalecompetitive sports began under the name Japan Ladies’ Olympic Games. The
background to this event is as follows.
In 1912, for the first time, Japan sent athletes to the Olympic Games. This became
a turning point, and the move to organize national sports competitions gained
momentum, resulting in what was named the Japan Olympic Games. At the second
Games（held in Osaka in 1915）, several athletics events were unofficially organized
for women （for example, the 50-meter, 100-meter, and 200-meter races, 400-meter
relay, long jump, high jump）. This was the background to the first Japan Ladies’
Olympic Games, which were also held in Osaka, in June 192411.
The Ladies’ Olympic Games were a result of two separate developments. One wasthat the men’s Japan Olympic Games had been organized, which became open to
women participating on an unofficial status. The other was the movement to organize
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comprehensive sports competitions for women, which led to the first Osaka Women’s
Union Sports Competition and the first Japan Female Athletics Championship in
192212.
Behind these developments were the currents of society at the time. As Japan wasmodernizing and becoming a stronger nation, the public celebrated healthy andstrong mothers（“kenbo”）. This is epitomized by the fact that the Kenbokai（literally
meaning a group for healthy and strong mothers）was one of the organizers of thefirst Japan Ladies’ Olympic Games. The “kenbo” ideology was that women were the“mother” of the nation, and that it should be a national priority to improve theirhealth and strengthen their bodies13.
It is significant that the Japan Ladies’ Olympic Games went beyond the objective ofpromoting women’s physical exercise through the “healthy and strong mothers”
ideology, and aimed to build more awareness among the general public, and men inparticular, of promoting women’s sports. The Games were organized not only to
encourage sports activities among women, but also to add competition to women’s
sports with the aim of establishing them as spectator sports, and in turn, increasesocial awareness. This is reflected in the slight difference between the events
included in the Ladies’ Olympic Games, and those included in a separate competitiona few years earlier. The Japan Female Athletics Championship of 1922 included
events such as indoor baseball throw and basketball throw, in which competition wasless emphasized, whereas the Japan Ladies’ Olympic Games of 1924 were focused on
more competitive events14.
Among the men who aimed to promote women’s sports activities, however, there
were those who insisted that women did not have to reach the same level as men,and that women should “feminize” the exercises they engaged in15. Thus, there seemto have been differences in opinion on what it meant to introduce as muchcompetition as possible in women’s sports to make them sports “to show” tospectators.
If we consider today’s Paralympics in relation to the sequence of events justoutlined, they highlight the issue of identity among female athletes participating insports competitions. In the historical context discussed above, it was considereddesirable for female athletes participating in major sports competitions to maintain a“female” identity that differentiated them from male athletes. This also meant that it
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was better if their identity as athletes did not erode their identity as women. Today,
female Paralympic athletes have three different identities: as athletes, as people withdisabilities, and as women. In could be a delicate balancing act to determine which
identity to assert or emphasize, and where and how to do so. For each identity, there
are different points of view to consider: as athletes, those of spectators andsupporters; as people with disabilities, of able-bodied people and of other people withdisabilities; and as women, of men and the general public. Just as we observed in thecase of the Ladies’ Olympic Games, the true significance of women’s participation incompetitive sports today cannot be determined by simply focusing on the quantitative
progress of the number of female participants.

3.

Female athletes’ participation in the Olympic GamesLet us now turn to the number of female athletes in the history of the modern
Olympic Games. To start with, the first Games in Athens in 1896 had no female
athletes. The second Paris Games in 1900, however, accepted female athletes in golf
and tennis16. There were two possible reasons. First, the Games（taking place over
five long months）were organized originally as part of the International Exposition in
Paris, in which women often had a central role, especially in cultural events. Second,the organization and management of the Paris Games reflected the bourgeois societyof the time, while Coubertin’s ideology was more reflective of the aristocratic class,and as a result, there were often conflicts between the organizing committee and
Coubertin. Being the president of the IOC at the time, Coubertin joined hands withthe aristocratic members among people associated with the Olympics, and admitted
women in tennis and golf. These were two sports that had a tradition of being playedby the European upper-class, and which women had been playing at an early stage.
Subsequently, the following sports were added for women: archery at St Louis（1904）, competitive swimming at Stockholm （1912）, fencing at Paris （1924）, and17（although the number of sports did
athletics and gymnastics at Amsterdam（1928）

not constantly increase, as some sports were changed）.
The table below illustrates the changes in the number of sports that were open tofemale participation, from the first Games in 1896 to the 32nd Games in 2021.

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The Olympics, Paralympics, and Gender: Participation of Female Athletes and the Principleof an Inclusive Society

Table 2 Changes in the number of Olympic sports open to female athletes
Year

City

1896
1900
1904
1908
1912
1920
1924
1928
1932
1936
1948
1952
1956
1960
1964
1968
1972
1976
1980
1984
1988
1992
1996
2000
2004
2008
2012
2016
2021

AthensParis
St. Louis
LondonStockholm
Antwerp
Paris
Amsterdam
Los Angeles
BerlinLondonHelsinki
Melbourne/Stockholm
Rome
Tokyo
Mexico City
MunichMontreal
Moscow
Los Angeles
Seoul
BarcelonaAtlanta
SydneyAthensBeijing
LondonRio de Janeiro
Tokyo

Total
number ofsports
8
16
16
23
15
23
19
16
16
21
19
18
18
18
20
19
21
21
21
21
23
25
26
28
28
28
26
28
33

Sports open to female athletes
0
2
1
2
2
2
3
4
3
4
5
6
6
6
7
7
8
11
12
14
17
19
21
25
26
26
26
28
33

Source: compiled by the Paralympic Research Group using data from IOC, 2020, Factsheet: Women in the Olympic
Movement; and the Japanese Olympic Committee official website

As seen in Table 2, the number of sports open to female athletes did not grow verymuch between the two world wars, and even after World War II, did not change
significantly until the 1990s. It was well into the twenty-first century when thenumber of women participating became comparable to that of men.
The shift in the total number of sports events open to women, however, should not
be the sole index for evaluating the representation of women and its significance. For
example, there were no cycling events for women until the 1984 Games despite
women holding superior records than men in that sport. This is a point to consider
when analyzing the underlying causes that made the participation of female athletesdifficult18.
Meanwhile, the number of female athletes participating began at zero in the first
Athens Games（1896）but steadily increased until World War II, as shown below inTable 3. A consistent growth in the number also continued after World War II.
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The Melbourne （1956） and Moscow （1980） Games had less female participants
than the preceding Games. However, both Games also saw a decrease in the numberof male athletes, suggesting special factors（for example, political reasons）.
Table 3 Number and ratio of participating female athletes（overall）
Year

City

1896
1900
1904
1908
1912
1920
1924
1928
1932
1936
1948
1952
1956
1960
1964
1968
1972
1976
1980
1984
1988
1992
1996
2000
2004
2008
2012
2016
2021

AthensParis
St. Louis
LondonStockholm
Antwerp
Paris
Amsterdam
Los Angeles
BerlinLondonHelsinki
Melbourne/Stockholm
Rome
Tokyo
Mexico City
MunichMontreal
Moscow
Los Angeles
Seoul
BarcelonaAtlanta
SydneyAthensBeijing
LondonRio de Janeiro
Tokyo

Number of female
athletes

0
22
6
37
48
63
135
277
126
331
390
519
376
611
678
781
1,059
1,260
1,115
1,566
2,194
2,704
3,512
4,069
4,329
4,637
4,676
5,059
5,457

Ratio of female athletes
0%
2.2%
0.9%
1.8%
2.0%
2.4%
4.4%
9.6%
9.0%
8.3%
9.5%
10.5%
13.3%
11.4%
13.2%
14.2%
14.6%
20.7%
21.5%
23.0%
26.1%
28.8%
34.0%
38.2%
40.7%
42.4%
44.2%
45.0%
48.7%

Source: compiled by the Paralympic Research Group using data in IOC, 2021, Factsheet: Women in the Olympic Movement.

As for the number of female athletes from Japan, they first participated in the
Amsterdam Games（1928）, and as seen in Table 4, the number continued to growuntil the Atlanta Games（1996）, with the exception of the Helsinki Games（1952）
when Japan was amidst post-WWII reconstruction, and the Tokyo Games （1964）
when Japan was the host country. After the Atlanta Games, the number seems tohave plateaued over the medium term（the 1980 Moscow Games and the 1984 Los
Angeles Games are being considered an exception here, because of the boycott of the
Moscow Games and its lingering political effects）.
As a point of reference, the number of male Japanese athletes levels off over thelong term after the Rome Games （1960）（depending on the analysis, it can be
described as decreasing after the 1990s） with the exception of the Tokyo Games
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The Olympics, Paralympics, and Gender: Participation of Female Athletes and the Principleof an Inclusive Society（1964）. The number of female athletes also levels off after the Atlanta Games（1996）,
and the number of female athletes participating from Japan may have reached its
saturation point, with the Tokyo Games（2021）being an exception since Japan was
the host country.
Table 4 Number and ratio of female athletes in the Olympics（Japan）

The Japanese team（male athletes only）first participated in the Olympics at the Stockholm
Games（1912）while female athletes first participated at the Amsterdam Games（1928）.
Number of female
athletes from Japan

Ratio of female
athletes in theJapanese team

Amsterdam

1

2.3%

1932

Los Angeles

16

12.3%

1936

Berlin

17

9.5%

Year

City

1928

No participationfrom Japan

1948

London－1952

Helsinki

11

15.3%

1956

Melbourne/Stockholm

16

13.4%

1960

Rome

20

12.0%

1964

Tokyo

61

17.2%

1968

Mexico City

30

16.4%

1972

Munich

38

20.9%

1976

Montreal

61

28.6%

1980

Moscow

1984

Los Angeles

53

22.9%

1988

Seoul

71

27.4%

1992

Barcelona

82

31.2%

1996

Atlanta

150

48.4%

2000

Sydney

110

41.0%

2004

Athens

171

54.8%

2008

Beijing

169

49.9%

2012

London

156

53.2%

2016

Rio de Janeiro

164

48.5%

2021

Tokyo

276

47.4%

No participationfrom Japan－

Source: c ompiled by the Paralympic Research Group using data from the Japanese Olympic Committee official
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A simple comparison of the numbers in the male-female ratio may, however, bemisleading when analyzing the significance of the proportion of female athletes.
Together with the overall numbers and trends, we must also observe and analyze
differences in individual sports, to find if there are some sports which haveconsiderably less female participation. The ratio of female athletes in different sports
at the Rio de Janeiro Games（2016）is listed in Table 5 below. It shows that nine outof twenty-eight sports had either a 40% or lower ratio of female athletes: boxing,
canoe, cycling, equestrian, judo, rowing, sailing, shooting, and wrestling.
Table 5 Number and ratio of female athletes at the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Games（Olympics）

Archery
Athletics
Badminton

No. offemaleathletes
64
1,085
86

No. ofmaleathletes
64
1,183
86

Basketball

144

Sports

128
2,268
172

Ratio offemaleathletes
50.0%
47.8%
50.0%

144

288

50.0%

48

96

50.0%

Rowing

250

286

12.6%

156
62

247
83

36.8%
25.3%

29

49

78

37.2%

Rugby Sevens
Sailing
Shooting
Swimming-Diving-Marathonswimming-Synchronizedswimming-Swimming-Waterpolo
TabletennisTaekwondo
TennisTriathlon
Volleyball
WeightliftingWrestling
Total

Beach
48
Volleyball
Boxing36
Canoe/Kayaking-Sprint
91-Slalom
21
Cycling-Mountain

Total

-Road

68

143

211

32.2%

-Track

82

98

180

45.6%

-BMX

16

32

48

33.3%

Equestrian

74

125

199

37.2%

Fencing
FootballGolf
Gymnastics-Artistic-Rhythmic-Trampoline

124
219
60

121
294
60

245
513
120

50.6%
42.7%
50.0%

98
96
16

98
0
16

196
96
32

50.0%
100.0%
50.0%

Event
HandballHockeyJudoModernpentathlon

No. offemaleathletes
177
194
153

No. ofmaleathletes
178
196
237

355
390
390

Ratio offemaleathletes
49.9%
49.7%
39.2%

36

36

72

50.0%

215

331

546

39.4%

148
163
150

152
217
239

300
380
389

49.3%
37.6%
38.6%

68

68

136

50.0%

26

25

51

51.0%

104

0

104

100.0%

413

483

896

46.1%

104

156

260

40.0%

86

86

172

50.0%

64
91
55
144
103
112
5,059

62
105
55
144
150
234
6,178

126
196
110
288
253
346
11,237

50.8%
46.4%
50.0%
50.0%
40.7%
32.4%
45.0%

Total

Source: Women’s Sports Foundation, 2017, Women in the Olympic and Paralympic Games: An Analysis ofParticipation, Leadership, and Media Coverage, 28, Table 8.

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Analysis of the inclusion of women in the Olympics must also consider individual
events within each sport. For example, at the Amsterdam Games （1928）, many
athletes in the women’s 800-meter race collapsed after crossing the finish line, which
was widely reported in the media. This strengthened the opinion that female athletes
were physically unsuited to long-distance events, and subsequently, women were notallowed to participate in long-distance athletics events until the 1960s. However,historian Lynne Emery later reexamined the 800-meter race and argued that since all
finalists had completed the race, the IOC members’ decision at the time to eliminate
the event was unjust19.
Not only did the level of female participation vary across events, but it also varied
significantly across countries. For example, the number of countries whose teams had
no female athletes was 34 in 1992, 11 in 2000（Botswana, the British Virgin Islands,
Brunei, Kuwait, Libya, Monaco, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, UAE, and Yemen）, and20.
even in 2016, there were five（Iraq, Monaco, and Nauru, Tuvalu and Vanuatu）

The reasons for these countries having low female participation need to beconsidered individually or by region. First, countries such as those in Africa andSoutheast Asia that are the poorest among developing countries, can face manydifficulties in sending athletes to the Olympics. Countries with smaller populations,such as island nations, would naturally have smaller teams. Therefore, an analysis offemale athletes’ participation may need to focus on the gender ratio of national teams
that have more than for example, 10 athletes. With this in mind, we reviewed theLondon Games（2012）and the Rio de Janeiro Games（2016）, analyzing the genderratio in teams of countries represented by at least 10 athletes. Table 6 below shows
the 10 countries whose national teams had the lowest female representation.

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Table 6 Female ratio in the teams of 10 countries with the lowest levels of female
representation（Olympics）
London 2012

Ranking

Country

Numberoffemaleathletes

1.

Gabon

2

2.

Eritrea3.

Rio de Janeiro 2016
Ratio offemaleathletes’

Numberoffemaleathletes

Ratio offemaleathletes

Ranking

Country

7.7%

1.

Iraq

0

0.0%

1

8.3%

2.

Honduras

1

4.0%

Pakistan

2

8.7%

3.

Qatar

2

5.4%

4.

Uruguay

3

10%

4.

Eritrea

1

8.3%

5.

Honduras

3

10.7%

5.

Algeria

10

15.4%

6.

Saudi Arabia

2

12.5%

6.

The
Seychelles

2

20.0%

7.

Georgia

5

14.3%

7.

Croatia

19

21.8%

8.

Iran

8

15.1%

8.

Armenia

7

22.6%

9.

Armenia

22

15.4%

9.

Bulgaria

22

23.5%

10.

Tajikistan

3

18.8%

10.

Azerbaijan

14

24.1%

Source: W omen’s Sports Foundation, 2017, Women in the Olympic and Paralympic Games,
25, and Media Coverage, 27, Table 7.

Table 6 also shows that the countries are dispersed across the world, from theMiddle East to Central Asia, South America, and Africa, and are not concentrated in
one region. Furthermore, apart from Eritrea, Honduras, and Armenia, none of thecountries are in the top ten in both 2012 and 2016. Therefore, we cannot easily
conclude that low levels of female participation are the result of social or politicalfactors specific to a country or region, and a careful, chronological examination ofdevelopments in a specific country or region is necessary.
While there are differences in the levels of female athlete participation in the
Olympics across countries and events, the overall representation has been constantly
improving. Historically, however, women themselves were not always unanimous in
their strong support for female participation in the Olympics, and there are examples
128

The Olympics, Paralympics, and Gender: Participation of Female Athletes and the Principleof an Inclusive Societyof women taking a more cautious approach.
One example involved the restriction on competitive events which were open to
women. Some argued that if women are only allowed to participate in certain events,
participating on those terms would mean accepting the restrictions, and that
therefore, it would be better if women did not participate at all in the Olympics.
Indeed, female athletes from Britain boycotted the Amsterdam Games in 1928 inprotest against the extremely few athletics events for female athletes21. Later, when
the issue of female participation in the Olympic Games of 1936 was discussed at the
IAAF congress meeting in 1932, an FSFI official declared that they “wished to
introduce a complete program of track and field athletics ... and if the IAAF was notprepared to implement this demand, then the FSFI preferred to have no women’s
events at all.”22 It is possible that in this context, there was a tug-of-war taking place
between the IOC and FSFI over the control of competitive sports for women.
Meanwhile, even in the 1960s, there were women who were reluctant to support
female participation in events such as shot put and discus because they thoughtshowing women compete in these two sports at the Olympics would hurt the generalimage of women23. The progress in the inclusion of female athletes has been a resultof overcoming many arguments, including from women themselves.
If we think about this in relation to today’s Paralympics, it raises the question ofwhether bringing the Paralympics closer to the Olympics would be truly beneficial
for promoting the social inclusion of people with disabilities, as the Olympics become
increasingly commercialized and transform into a large-scale entertainment event.

B）Female athletes’ participation in the Paralympic GamesThe ratio of female athletes to male athletes in the Paralympic Games shows thatthe number of female athletes is steadily increasing （almost in line with theOlympics）, as shown in Figure 1 below.

129

Journal of Paralympic Research Group vol.17








               2O\PSLFV 

3DUDO\PSLFV 

Figure 1 Ratio of female athletes（Olympic and Paralympic Summer Games from1960 onwards）
Source: compiled by the Paralympic Research Group using data from IOC, 2020, Factsheet:
Women in the Olympic Movement, and the IPC official website and database

Between 1968 and 1984, the Olympics and Paralympics were held in different cities,
and this may have contributed to the significant fluctuation in female athletes’
participation rates in that period （since 1988, the ratio of female athletes in the
Paralympics has been constantly increasing, as with their ratio in the Olympics）.
The overall ratio of female athletes is either equal to or remains lower than theratio of male athletes, and has yet to surpass it. This can be explained by theextremely low level of female participation in some countries. The number of teams
with less than a 10% ratio of female representation was four at the 2012 Games, andthere were still two at the 2016 Games.
Table 7 Female ratio in the teams of 10 countries with the lowest levels of female
participation（Paralympics）
London 2012
Rio de Janeiro 2016
Ranking

Country

Number of
femaleathletes

Ratio of female
athletes

Ranking

Country

Number of
femaleathletes

Ratio of female
athletes

1

India

0

0%

1

Bosnia andHerzegovina

1

1

Rwanda00%2Lithuania

1

7.7%

3

Bosnia andHerzegovina

1

8.3%

3

Malaysia

2

10.5%

4

Iran

7

8.9%

4

Iraq

23

15.4%

5

Kenya

2

15.4%

5

India

3

16.7%

6

Austria

5

15.6%

6

Serbia

3

18.8%

7

Iraq

3

15.8%

7

Iran

23

21.3%

8

Argentina

10

16.7%

8

Czech Republic

14

21.6%

9

Cuba

4

18.2%

9

Austria

6

22.2%

9

Lithuania

2

18.2%

10

Azerbaijan

5

22.7%

Source: Women’s Sports Foundation, 2017, Women in the Olympic and Paralympic Games, 32, Table 11, and 33, Table 14.

130

7.1%

The Olympics, Paralympics, and Gender: Participation of Female Athletes and the Principleof an Inclusive Society

Very low female ratios are observed among developing countries in Asia, Africa,and Central and South America, but also in European countries such as Bosnia,
Austria, Lithuania, Serbia, and the Czech Republic. This indicates that female
participation is not necessarily connected to a country’s level of economic
development.
A study of each country is necessary to analyze the factors that contribute to low
female participation: for example, whether there are issues with women’s participationin sports in general, or whether there is a gender difference in the number of people
with disabilities as a result of a presence of wounded war veterans.
As for the Japanese national team, the ratio of male to female athletes is as follows.
Table 8 Number and ratio of female Paralympic athletes（Japan）
Men

Women

Ratio offemaleathletes

Year

City

1960

Rome

0

0

0.0%

1964

Tokyo

14

2

12.5%

1968

Tel Aviv

40

7

14.9%

1972

Heidelberg

23

5

17.9%

1976

Toronto

30

4

11.8%

1980

Arnhem

24

6

20.0%

1984

Stoke Mandeville/
New York

27

10

27.0%

1988

Seoul

109

34

23.8%

1992

Barcelona

54

22

28.9%

1996

Atlanta

58

23

28.4%

2000

Sydney

111

40

26.5%

2004

Athens

106

54

33.8%

2008

Beijing

97

64

39.8%

2012

London

89

45

33.6%

2016

Rio de Janeiro

86

46

34.8%

2021

Tokyo

148

106

41.7%

Source: c ompiled by the Paralympic Research Group using data from the IPC Historical
Result Archive131

Journal of Paralympic Research Group vol.17

The number of female athletes from Japan shows an overall increase from 1964,
but has levelled off after the 2004 Athens Games, with the exception of the Tokyo
Games（2021）hosted in Japan, despite the growth in female participation globally,and still remains an issue.
The shifts in the number of Paralympic sports and in female athletes’ participationby sports show the following, as summarized in Table 9 below. In several Paralympic
Games, there were no female athletes in football, goalball, judo, powerlifting, snooker,
sitting volleyball, wrestling, and weightlifting, whereas the Tokyo Games had nosports, except football 5-a-side, that excluded women. This suggests that restrictions
on the number of sports open to women no longer have a significant impact on theparticipation of female athletes.
Table 9 Changes in Paralympic sports open to female athletes
Stoke
SportsRome Tokyo

Tel

HeidelAviv

berg

Toronto Arnhem

Mandeville& New

Seoul Barcelona Atlanta Sydney Athens Beijing London

Rio

Tokyo

York
1960

1964

1968

1972

1976

1980

1984

1988

1992

1996

2000

2004

2008

2012

2016

2021
21/22

Number of Sports Open to
Women / Total Number of

6/8

6/9

8/10

8/10

9/13

9/13

12/18

12/18

11/16

15/19

15/19

17/19

18/20

18/20

20/22

Archery

●

●

●

●

●

●

●

●

●

●

●

●

●

●

●

●

Athletics

●

●

●

●

●

●

●

●

●

●

●

●

●

●

●

●

SportsBadminton●

Basketball ID
Boccia

●

●

●

●

●

●

●

●

Canoe
Cycling●

Equestrian

●

●

●

●

●

●

●

●

●

●

●

●

●

●

●

●

●

●

●

●

●

●

●

Football 5-a-side
Football 7-a-side
Dartchery

●

●

●

●

●

●

Goalball

●

●

●

Judo
Lawn Bowls

●

●

●

●

●

●

●

●

●

●

●

●

●

●

●

●

●

Powerlifting●●

Rowing
Sailing
Shooting

●

●

●

●

●

●

●

●

●

●

●

●

●

●

●

●

●

●

●

●

●

●

●

●

●

●

●

●

●

●

●

●

●

●

●

●

Snooker
Swimming

●

●

●

●

Triathlon

●

●

●

●

Taekwondo
Table Tennis

●
●

●

●

●

●

●

●

●

●

●

●

Volleyball
Wheelchair Basketball
Wheelchair Fencing

●

●

●

●

●

●

●

●

●

●

●

●

●

●

●

●

●

●

●

●

●

●

●

●

●

●

●

●

●

●

●

●

●

●

●

●

●

●

●

●

●

●

●

●

●

●

●

●

●

●

●

●

●

●

Wheelchair Rugby
Wrestling
Weightlifting
Wheelchair Tennis●●

The symbol ● indicates that the sport included women’s or mixed-gender events. White cells indicate that the sports were not included in the program.
Source: c ompiled by the Paralympic Research Group using data from the IPC Historical Result Archive

The above statistics make it clear that there is a marked gender disparity in the132The Olympics, Paralympics, and Gender: Participation of Female Athletes and the Principleof an Inclusive Society

Paralympics both in the number of sports with female participation and the numberof female athletes. One possible reason is that the negative attitudes towards
supporting female participation in competitive sports was stronger toward womenwith disabilities than women in general. If this is the case, for a woman with adisability, the balance between their identity as a woman and their identity as aperson with a disability is a complex issue, just as the issue of identity for able-bodied
women is complex. This leads to the possibility that there is a difference between
men and women in how their disability is seen in relation to their identity as
individuals, a point that requires further study.

Summary
By reexamining the transitions in women’s participation in the Olympic andParalympic Games, there are several things we can learn that are relevant for thepromotion of the social inclusion of people with disabilities through para sports, andfor the realization of an inclusive society.
First, we must note that finding a balance between ensuring gender equality andmaintaining female individuality, or empowering female identity, was closely related
to finding a balance between ways to increase opportunities for women to participate
in the Olympics, and creating and promoting alternative opportunities such asorganizing Women’s Olympics and developing competitive sports specifically for
women.
Given that being a woman and being a person with a disability are both aspects ofan individual’s identity, it is not sufficient to achieve equal treatment between men
and women, or between people with disabilities and able-bodied people. These are notthe only goals for the social significance of women’s participation in sports or for thepromotion of para sports. It can be socially significant if there is, at the same time, adevelopment of sports for women such as artistic swimming, where female identity
can be a part of the sport, and a development of “adapted sports” such as goalball andwheelchair basketball.
Second, we must note that it was necessary for women to form their own
organizations for sports to promote female participation in sports competitions.
Similarly, in order to promote para sports activities, it may be important for people
133

Journal of Paralympic Research Group vol.17

with disabilities to organize sports associations on their own initiative.
Third, although today, the number of female and male athletes in the Olympics isalmost equal, this is not the case with the Paralympics. To further evaluate female
athletes’ participation in the Paralympics, we will need to examine their participationby country and by sport.
Fourth, female participation in competitive sports has developed almost in parallelwith the commercialization of competitive sports. It can be argued that this has also
increased the “commercialization of women’s bodies.” 24 In the same way,“commercialization” of the bodies of people with disabilities is an issue that needs tobe considered, as we see the participation of people with disabilities in competitive
sports events and the public’s interest increase, and more sponsors become involved.
Fifth, when female athletes increase their presence in competitive sports, and as（orthe more）they achieve remarkable results, attention is often drawn away from theiridentity as athletes and focuses instead on for example their physical appearance.
Similarly, athletes with disabilities often receive more attention for “being a personwith a disability,” and how they have overcome difficulties or have been supported byothers, instead of for their results in competitions. This point requires further
discussion in the future.
Finally, one of the purposes of promoting female participation in competitive sports
was to raise public awareness that women can enjoy competitive sports and achieve
results just like men. Underlying this is a merit-based system, which ultimately, isalso the basis of the Paralympics. We must carefully study to what extent theachievements of athletes in the Paralympics have contributed to the promotion ofsports activities among people with disabilities in general, in the same way that we
could question to what extent the participation and achievements of female athletes
helped to increase women’s participation in sports activities in general25.
While this paper has focused on the participation of female athletes, it is also
necessary to study the significance of women as spectators. For example, theStockholm Games（1912）are considered a watershed in increasing the number offemale spectators. One reason is that tennis and equestrian, which were added to the
Olympics in Stockholm, were both sports that were popular among upper-classwomen, and that this contributed to the increase in female spectators26. Althoughstudies of the number of female spectators and their attitudes as spectators are not
134The Olympics, Paralympics, and Gender: Participation of Female Athletes and the Principleof an Inclusive Society

easily found, future studies could benefit from an analysis of the number and attitudesof female spectators and their impact on the Olympics and Paralympics.
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2

Bairner, A. and Molnar, G., 2010, The Politics of the Olympics, Routledge, 42 and 44 for（a）,（b）, and （c）; Coubertin, P., Norbert, M., Skinner, W. H., IOC, 2000, Olympism: Selected
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9Ibid., 96.

10 Leigh and Bonin, “The Pioneering Role of Madame Alice Milliat and the FSFI in Establishing
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Raita, K., 2000, “A Study on the Japan Ladies’ Olympic Involvement in Athletic Sports –Focused on the First Games in 1924,” Japan Journal of the History of Physical Educationand Sport, 13, 40.

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13

Ibid., 46.

14

Ibid., 41-42, 48-50.

15Ibid., 48.

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Findling and Pelle, Encyclopedia of the Modern Olympic Movement, 30.

17IOC, 2020, Factsheet Women in the Olympic Movement, 4.

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Birrell, S. and Cole, L. C., 1994, Women, Sport, and Culture, Human Kinetics, 52.

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Women’s Sports Foundation, 2017, Women in the Olympic and Paralympic Games: An

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Hargreaves, Sporting Females: Critical Issues in the History and Sociology of Women’s

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135

Journal of Paralympic Research Group vol.17
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23

Hargreaves, Sporting Females: Critical Issues in the History and Sociology of Women’sSport, 216.

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Birrell and Cole, Women, Sport, and Culture, 69.

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Ferez, S., Ruffié, S., Joncheray, H., Marcellini, A., Pappous, S., and Richard, R., 2020, “Inclusion
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26

Goldblatt, The Games, 76.

136