Australian Female Endurance Cyclists of the 1930s and the Commercialization of Their Athletic Femininity.

Bootcov, Michelle

In the 1930s, Australian women were enthusiastic participants in a bicycle boom. Their engagement in cycling was fostered by economic depression, by interwar concerns with health and exercise, and through the consumption of images in the media. It was also underpinned by a modernist regard for the body as an efficient machine. Entrepreneurial bicycle manufacturers harnessed these concepts to promote cycling through the mobile spectacle of female endurance cyclists. In return, the endurancers gained opportunities and know-how in what had traditionally been a male preserve. These women were instrumental in wresting control of their sport from male administrators, and through their record-setting rides, they demonstrated equality with men's physical and mental capabilities. In a decade when Australian women became increasingly involved in organized sport, the female endurance cyclists epitomized athletic femininity. Their vigorous physicality, unwavering grit, and sun-tanned good health, helped to shape notions of Australian womanhood and national identity in the decade leading up to the Second World War.

ENDURANCE athletes; WOMEN cyclists; CYCLING competitions; CYCLING; AUSTRALIAN economy

International Journal of the History of Sport, 2019, Vol 36, Issue 15/16, p1433

0952-3367

Academic Journal

10.1080/09523367.2020.1713107