Stride: a History of Competitive Women’S Rowing in Britain, 1945–2000
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Taylor, Lisa Jane (2020) Stride: A History of Competitive Women’s Rowing in Britain, 1945–2000. Doctoral thesis (PhD), Manchester Metropolitan Univer- sity in collaboration with the River & Rowing Museum, Henley-on-Thames. Downloaded from: https://e-space.mmu.ac.uk/626435/ Usage rights: Creative Commons: Attribution-Noncommercial-No Deriva- tive Works 4.0 Please cite the published version https://e-space.mmu.ac.uk Stride: A History of Competitive Women’s Rowing in Britain, 1945–2000 L J TAYLOR PhD 2020 Stride: A History of Competitive Women’s Rowing in Britain, 1945–2000 LISA JANE TAYLOR A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements of Manchester Metropolitan University for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Department of History, Politics and Philosophy of Manchester Metropolitan University, in collaboration with the River & Rowing Museum, Henley-on-Thames March 2020 stride, v.: to walk with long or extended steps; figurative: to make progress (Oxford English Dictionary) Rowers: you know the drill. You sit on the start line, slide forwards and bury your blades. You look forwards, and suddenly it starts. The first couple of strokes feel slow, and heavy. Once the boat is moving, you scramble for speed, winding it up, and after a few, short pumps of the legs, you start to lengthen out. The boat moves faster and faster, hands, blades, legs, working to keep up. Then comes the call: stride. You press the strokes out, longer, harder, looser. You hit your rhythm, and settle in for the long haul. Soon, your legs and lungs will burn; for now, it feels like flying. Stride is a demand, and a response. It is also a feeling. Abstract Since the turn of the century, the British women’s rowing team has enjoyed unprecedented success and profile. Yet such success belies a more chequered history of female participation in rowing in this country. This is the first academic study to consider the trajectory of competitive women’s rowing in Britain. It focuses on the period from 1945 to 2000, with particular interest in international competition and the domestic structures underpinning athletes’ engagement with it. It addresses the ways in which historic barriers to female participation in sport, and the wider social subjugation of female needs and ambitions to male ones, continued to manifest in women’s rowing throughout the second half of the twentieth century. Using a mixed methodology, juxtaposing archival sources with oral histories, it foregrounds the lived experience of a cohort of women who competed for Great Britain over this period. It makes no claim to a comprehensive account; rather, it advocates for the value of the individual, and necessarily partial, insight that characterises oral history. This thesis contributes to the growing literature pertaining to women’s sport in two important ways: firstly, as a close analysis of women’s rowing in Britain, and secondly, as a case study of the intersection of gender and sport in social history. It identifies increasing – yet, uneven – individual and collective excellence, ambition and achievement in international rowing, and argues that the alignment of personal and institutional understandings of sport was a driver of fulfilment and of success. It suggests that increased centralisation and funding, notably from the introduction of the National Lottery, created new and different costs to the individual, as well as opportunities. Thanks and acknowledgements First, perhaps, we learn to learn, and for the love of learning, I have only my parents to thank. It is my privilege to have parents who are not only loving, but also curious; parents who have unfailingly encouraged and supported my sister and I to follow our passions and interests, however unknown or unexpected; parents who, at a substantial remove from the academy, also love to learn. The warmth, generosity and friendships that I enjoy in our extended family and beyond remain a huge source of strength and happiness. Thank you all, so much. I am grateful for the generous support of the Arts and Humanities Research Council, and the warm welcome I have received – academically and personally – in a number of networks and communities in the course of this research. The Collaborative Doctoral Partnership cohort of students, and consortium of leaders, have constantly challenged, inspired and supported me to think differently. I hope I have been able to give back to the community some measure of what I have taken from it. The River & Rowing Museum has been more than just a partner in the project, and I am deeply appreciative of all the time that Sarah Posey and the team, past and present, have made for me. Ellie, without you this project would not have existed, and I hope you feel a sense of pride in having enabled some extraordinary women, whose stories might otherwise still be drowning in the archival malestream, to be heard. I owe a substantial debt of gratitude to these women themselves: the narrators who were able to tell me more about the sport, and what it could mean, than I could have learned anywhere else. I loved hearing your stories. Thank you all for your time, your generosity, and the invitation to apprehend and understand your worlds. The SpLeisH research group at Manchester Metropolitan University has been my home as a researcher, and I have been fortunate to learn from the scholarship and collegiality of those within it. My supervisor Professor Dave Day, and Margaret Roberts, have modelled rigour, craft, and good humour in their work. More than this, they have extended huge kindness and generosity to me as friends and colleagues. The bar for my future work has been set extremely high. Dave: I could not have asked for more engaged and encouraging supervision and guidance than you have given me over the past four years. I have loved working with and from you; the jolly japes, too, have been memorable and many. Thank you for your unfailing support, interest, and faith in me – and for the privilege of writing this history. Contents Introduction ....................................................................................................... 1 British sporting cultures: amateurism, class and gender ................................. 6 Permissions and conditions: female leisure and participation in sport ........... 10 Women in sport and sport history .................................................................. 15 Methodology .................................................................................................. 19 Structure of the thesis ................................................................................... 26 Chapter 1 ......................................................................................................... 31 1945–1960: rowing revival .............................................................................. 31 Social and sporting landscape ....................................................................... 32 Wartime rowing ............................................................................................. 37 Rebuilding a women’s rowing community ..................................................... 41 1951–1954: international prospects .............................................................. 51 1954: launching the European Women’s Rowing Championships ................ 58 1955–1960: reassessing women’s rowing ..................................................... 66 Coaching, training and selection: new approaches to amateurism................ 71 Collaborating with men .................................................................................. 76 Local clubs and international competition: the collision of sporting cultures .. 80 Conclusion..................................................................................................... 87 Chapter 2 ......................................................................................................... 89 1960–1972: ‘a path of cautious progression’................................................ 89 Sporting and social landscape ....................................................................... 90 The 1960 European Women’s Rowing Championships at Willesden ............ 95 1961–1963: administrative anxieties and amalgamation ............................. 102 1963–1964: ‘competing out of their class’ ................................................... 116 1965–1972: indecision and insufficiency ..................................................... 127 Gendered constructions of women’s rowing: continuity and change ........... 131 International mobility and sociability in women’s sport ................................ 138 ‘The day of the amateur is passing’: shifts in sporting ideology and practice .................................................................................................................... 143 Conclusion................................................................................................... 153 Chapter 3 ....................................................................................................... 155 1972–1980: ‘the first rung on the ladder’ .................................................... 155 Social and sporting landscape ..................................................................... 156 1972–1974: laying the foundations for a women’s national squad .............. 160 1974–1975: the advent of the Women’s World Rowing Championships ..... 169 Montréal 1976: ‘Wow! Olympics was the Olympics!’ ..................................