You Go Girl - Women Boxing in the Early 1900's
The Library of Congress posted this 1910 photo on Flickr recently of the Bennett sisters boxing. "What is this?" I wondered. I searched around and found that women's boxing is much older than I thought. The site, womenboxing.com explains:
"While women's boxing can loosely trace it beginnings to London in the 1720's, throughout the ensuing decades, there were various exhibitions and scattered bouts until the 1950's when several fighters, most notably Barbara Buttrick, JoAnn Hagen (Verhaegen), and Phyllis Kugler staged professional fights. The sport rekindled again in the 1970s thanks to the efforts of several important trailblazers. The 1970's, in particular, were highlighted by many women’s boxing "firsts" including many states lifting bans for women to box; issuing "first time" boxing licenses, sanctioning boxing matches; and the various commissions approving more than four rounds for women’s bouts."
Women's boxing was a displayed event at the third olympic games held in 1904 in St. Louis as this photo from the Olympics archives attests.
