The Liberated Woman: Sportswear

During the first decades of the 20th century, women began to fight against or ignore society's limitations on feminine behavior and achievement. The movement that began in the mid–19th century gathered momentum in the 20th, as women campaigned for the vote and proved during World War I that jobs traditionally held by men could be done perfectly well by women. One area in which women had begun to express themselves in the late 19th century was participation in sports. Women's colleges encouraged their students to compete in a variety of strenuous athletics: rowing, fencing, basketball, gymnastics. As women's everyday clothing became less cumbersome, lighter in weight, and easier to care for, they began to discard their black wool serge gym suits and navy–blue wool–jersey bathing costumes in favor of sportswear that flattered their figures and followed fashion.