| Women's squash in Australia | |
|---|---|
| Country | Australia |
| National team(s) | Australia |
In 1940, a study of 314 women in New Zealand and Australia was done. Most of the women in the study were middle class, conservative, Protestant and white. The study found that 183 participated in sport. The ninth most popular sport that these women participated in was squash, with three having played the sport. The sport was tied with croquet, billiards, chess, fishing, field hockey, horse racing, squash, table tennis and shooting. [1]
During the 1950s, Australian women competed in squash at the Empire Games. One player who had success at these games was Heather McKay. [2]
Some of the best known Australian squash players include Heather Blundell-McKay. [3] [4] During Blundell-McKay's squash career, she only lost twice. She won the British amateur title seven times starting in 1962 and she won the Australian championship eight times starting in 1960. [3]
In 1960, there was a mass demonstration of the sport at a school in Roseville, New South Wales, where female students learned a number of skills including the forehand drive. [5]
In 1968, Australia had thirty total professional squash players amongst both genders. Only two of these players were female: Yvonne Barlow and a Melbourne based player. [3]
In 1968, Australia was one of the most important squash playing countries. There were many players of both genders and a large number of courts. In Sydney, there were 85 squash buildings. Each building had an average of five courts. [6]
Heather Pamela McKay is a retired Australian squash player, who is considered by many to be the greatest female player in the history of the game, and possibly also Australia's greatest-ever sportswoman. She dominated the women's squash game in the 1960s and 1970s, winning 16 consecutive British Open titles from 1962 to 1977, and capturing the inaugural women's World Open title in 1976, while remaining undefeated during that period. She was also a top-level player of other sports, including field hockey and racquetball.
The Australia women's national softball team, also known as the Aussie Spirit, is the national softball team of Australia. It is governed by Softball Australia and takes part in international softball competitions. They are one of Australia's most successful women's sporting teams on the world stage, and they have achieved outstanding results over the last 3 decades. Alongside the USA team, the Aussie Spirit are the only other team to medal at all 4 Olympics that softball was included as a sport in the Olympics program. At the inaugural Women's Softball World Championship held in Melbourne, 1965. Australia claimed the first ever title, winning Gold and stamped themselves as a pioneer in the sport.
Field hockey has been played by men in Australia since 1901. By 1907, there were clubs in several states including New South Wales, South Australia, Tasmania, and Victoria. Women's field hockey was eventually represented by the Australian Institute of Sport, though the amount of support it received was less than the support the men received. The All Australian Women's Hockey Association was established in 1910 to govern the sport in Australia. in 2000, Women's Hockey Australia merged with the Australian Hockey Association to form Hockey Australia. The game has been played by women on the university and school level. Interstate matches were being played by 1909. The level of play on the interstate level is very high. The Australia women's national field hockey team, established in 1914, has placed highly in many competitions.
Women's sport in Australia started in the colonial era. Sport made its way into the school curriculum for girls by the 1890s. World War II had little impact on women's sport in the country. After the war, women's sport diversified as a result of new immigrants to the country. In the 1990s, the percentage of media coverage for women's sport on radio, television and in newspapers was not at parity with male sport. Basketball is nominally professional in Australia but players do not earn enough from the sport to compete full-time. Some Australians have gone overseas to play professional sport. Many television spectators for Australian sport are women. In person, netball has large percentage of female spectators. The Australian Federal and State governments have encouraged women to participate in all areas of sport.
While not being urged to avoid competition, women had few opportunities to compete in sport in Australia until the 1880s. After that date, new sporting facilities were being built around the country and many new sport clubs were created. Athletic events were being held in schools in Australia by the early part of the twentieth century. The Glennie School in Toowoomba was one school to host races for girls during their annual girls' sport day. During the 1920s, girls were able to run while wearing bloomers, instead of skirts. The first meeting for women's athletics took place in 1926 and was organised by the NSWAAA. The purpose of the meeting was to determine if it would be possible to send women to compete in the 1928 Summer Olympics based on merit. Only one female athlete was determined to be good enough to send. That was E.F. Robinson. The first women's national athletics body designed to govern the sport in Australia was founded in 1932 and was called the Australian Women's Amateur Athletic Union. It was designed to oversee state organisations in Victoria (1929), Queensland (1921), New South Wales (1932) and South Australia. (1932) The first Australian woman to travel overseas to compete was E.F. Robinson, who went to the 1928 Summer Olympics where she ran in the 100-metres. She came in third and was the only Australian female on the 1928 Australian Olympic team.
The beginning of women's badminton in Australia dates back to the year 1900, when for the first time badminton was played in Australia.
The first women's bowls match played in Australia took place in Stawell, Victoria in October 1881. The first women's only bowls club was not created for another seventeen years, when the Rainsford Bowls Club was created on 16 December 1898 at the home of J. Rainsford Needham, who lived in Glenferrie, Victoria. The first women's bowls association was created in September 1907. The association was called the Victorian Ladies' Bowling Association, and was created by six Melbourne, Victoria based clubs. It was the first women's bowling association created the world.
Croquet has historically been a sport in Australia where men and women were able to compete on a level playing field.
Women's cycling was controversial during the 1890s in Australia. The issue was discussed in several periodicals of the era including the Bulletin. There was a question of whether women should be allowed to ride bicycles in the first place, an issue settled in 1895 of yes. There was a question of the appropriate clothing to wear while riding a bicycle, if women should be allowed to compete in bicycle races, the most appropriate style of bicycle riding for women, if bicycle riding was good for a woman's health, and if the sport was appropriate for women to participate because of the possibility of making women more manly. Bicycle shops, such as Massey-Harris Bicycles of Brisbane, Rockhampton and Charters Towers, were catering to female customers by 1896. Malvern Star was also featuring female cyclists on the cover of their cycling catalogs during the same period. During the 1890s, cycling's popularity increased because it served several purposes, including transportation and recreation. It made parts of Australia more accessible to women than they had previously been.
During the 1900s in Australia, fencing became more socially acceptable for women to participate in and subsequently female participation rates rose in places like Queensland.
Shooting was an important skill for women in the bush to possess. It was encouraged as part of self-reliance. Rifle shooting as a sport was being played in Queensland by 1914.
While not being urged to avoid competition, women had few opportunities to compete in sport in Australia until the 1880s. After that date, new sporting facilities were being built around the country and many new sport clubs were created. For swimming, the rapid expansion of facilities took place during the 1880s and the 1890s. Compared to the past when the whole of the swimming community was made up of males, currently 55 percent of the Australian swimming membership is made up of women. Not only do females dominate swimming in the pool but there are more than 5,500 female coaches in the swimming world in Australian and over 2,000 female technical officials.
While not being urged to avoid competition, women had few opportunities to compete in sport in Australia until the 1880s. After that date, new sporting facilities were being built around the country and many new sport clubs were created. One of the reason women were encouraged to play croquet, tennis and golf during the late 1800s was because it was seen as beneficial to their health. These sports were also seen as passive, non-aggressive and non-threatening to the period's concepts of masculinity and femininity.
In 1940, a study of 314 women in New Zealand and Australia was done. Most of the women in the study were middle class, conservative, Protestant and white. The study found that 183 participated in sport. The nineteenth most popular sport that these women participated in was surfing, with 2 having played the sport. The sport was tied with cricket, mountaineering, and rowing.
Women's cue sports in Australia is a sporting topic that has received some Australian media coverage since the early 20th century. Coverage began with English billiards and today is more often about the sport of snooker and various pool games such as eight-ball.
Margaret Court was known by the British press as the 'Australian Amazon." She was one of the first Australian women to encourage women to integrate weightlifting into their training regime for other sports like tennis.
During the 1970s and 1980s, Australian women's basketball was successful in terms of attracting participants and having a competitive team on the international stages. This success did not translate into llul gksponsorship and financial support for the sport.
Heather Lynne Reid AM is a former Australian football administrator and an advocate for gender equity, diversity and inclusion in sport, particularly in the world game of football. From 2018 to 2021, she was was a member of the Football Australia Board.
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