Introduction to the development of physical education for women in Victorian and Edwardian Britain

Throughout the Nineteenth century sport was considered to be essentially masculine, requiring physical and psychological attitudes and behaviour deemed unnatural to women. Sporting activity was therefore considered beyond the proper sphere of women and was used to repress and constrain them throughout the century. However, despite this position, women increasingly gained access to sports and exercise. This changed female attitudes and had a liberating effect. Health was improved and patriarchal ideologies were weakened. In particular it changed the fundamental view of femininity taking place in a sedentary environment, to being able to take place in a more active one.  

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By the time the first female college of physical training was being established, women were partaking in sport and exercise in ever increasing numbers, though it was the middle class who had the most opportunities and were taking the lead. Women were now participating in bicycling, gymnastics, ice skating, golf, cricket, and swimming. In the 1890s more competitive games such as hockey, lacrosse, basketball, and energetic lawn tennis became popular and acceptable. Careers in sport and physical education were becoming viable for women. The more adventurous were keen not just to play, but to become employed in this growing market. 

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The demand for professional physical training college teachers was eventually met by five pioneer female principals 1. They established institutions designed to supply schools with well trained, respectable, middle class, young ladies. These women would go out into society to train girls in physical education. The colleges' teacher output led to the establishment of a new respectable profession for women. This allowed them access to a career and independent financial remuneration. It also widened the horizons of girls and women who gained the opportunity to be trained and participate in various forms of sporting activity. 

 

 

The first physical training college for women was created by Madame Bergman-Osterberg in Hampstead before later moving to Dartford. Miss Bergman had originally come to England from Sweden and had begun work as superintendent of physical education for the London School Board. By 1885 she had trained one thousand teachers and introduced Swedish gymnastics into three hundred of the Board's schools.  

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Madame favoured girls from the middle classes. Her stated aim was, "that the work must be properly valued and the dignity of the profession recognised" 2. To achieve this standing, Madame needed her students to have recognised status, and work, and positions in the now established high schools and public schools. 

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One of Madame’s first students was Margaret Stansfeld and this is where her story begins.