Breaking Barriers: Women’s Basketball Documents

NHD Resource
Description

In the late 19th and early 20th centuries women had a much different role in society than they do today. Women were expected to raise children, take care of the household, and not question the male figures in their lives. Women were expected to act in a respectable, “ladylike” way. Women were advised against participation in athletics by men and doctors due to their “frail” bodies and “weak demeanor.” Furthermore, the competitive attributes that came out while participating in sport were deemed “unladylike” by society. 

Objective

Students will decide whether or not they think that women’s participation in early basketball continued to limit women’s participation in sports or liberated women to break the barriers that limited their participation and push for equality.  

Materials
Procedures

In December of 1891, James Naismith developed 13 original rules for the sport of basketball. 

Original Rules

Women started to play basketball almost immediately after Naismith invented the game. Women in the late 19th and early 20th centuries faced many barriers and limitations in their pursuit of participation in the sport of basketball.

Using the documents sheet, decide whether or not you think that women’s participation in early basketball continued to limit women’s participation in sports or liberated women to break the barriers that limited their participation and push for equality.