A History of Women's Boxing

by Malissa Smith

Records of modern female boxing date back to the early eighteenth century in London, and in the 1904 Olympics an exhibition bout between women was held. Yet it was not until the 2012 Olympics—more than 100 years later—that women’s boxing was officially added to the Games. Throughout boxing’s history, women have fought in and out of the ring to gain respect in a sport traditionally considered for men alone. The stories of these women are told for the first time in this comprehensive work dedicated to women’s boxing.

A History of Women’s Boxing traces the sport back to the 1700s, through the 2012 Olympic Games, and up to the present. Inside-the-ring action is brought to life through photographs, newspaper clippings, and anecdotes, as are the stories of the women who played important roles outside the ring, from spectators and judges to managers and trainers. This book includes extensive profiles of the sport’s pioneers, including Barbara Buttrick whose plucky carnival shows launched her professional boxing career in the 1950s; sixteen-year-old Dallas Malloy who single-handedly overturned the strictures against female amateur boxing in 1993; the famous “boxing daughters” Laila Ali and Jacqui Frazier-Lyde; and teenager Claressa Shields, the first American woman to win a boxing gold medal at the Olympics.

Rich in detail and exhaustively researched, this book illuminates the struggles, obstacles, and successes of the women who fought—and continue to fight—for respect in their sport. A History of Women’s Boxing is a must-read for boxing fans, sports historians, and for those interested in the history of women in sports.

Genres: History

346 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2014

Reviews

[Clay Davis · Rating 4 out of 5]

Overall a good book. The mentioning of women learning to sword fight during the Middle Ages is odd. There are no pictures of the daughters of male boxing champions who boxed which seems petty. The brief mention of female amature boxing seems like an add on.

[Angela · Rating 5 out of 5]

I picked up this book while doing research for a blog about late nineteenth century celebrity boxing champion Hattie Stewart but read it to discover the whole history of the sport. As Malissa Smith shows in this important work, women have “fought for gold guineas, butter dishes, a percentage of the ticket sales, and championship titles, but have mostly come into the game for nothing more than their love of boxing—a sport that tests their will, their courage, and even their right to cross the velvet ropes into what has historically been considered a male-only domain” (p. xvii).

Blogger and amateur boxer, Smith provides a comprehensive history of women in the world of professional and amateur boxing, both in and out of the ring as well as within and outside of the US. She takes the story from when women boxers also performed on the vaudeville stage through their appearance in early movies, efforts for equal access in the 1970s, being allowed to compete in the Golden Gloves in 1995, their acceptance as Olympians in the 2012 games, and to the recent emergence of Ireland’s Katie Taylor as a star.

Smith nicely situates her story within the context of the times. She traces the rise in popularity of boxing and the changing perceptions of women’s role, sexuality, and athletic abilities. She relies on existing sport and women’s history scholarship but also extensively used newspapers and conducted interviews with people prominent in the sport.

Smith uncovered many interesting stories that she uses to personalize her tale. Elizabeth Tucker, for instance, was a manager and trainer in the early decades of the twentieth century. She was Cherokee and began her career helping her twin brother arrange and train for bouts. Belle Martell earned praise as a promoter and ring announcer, but when she completed her training as a referee in 1940, California barred women from officiating and revoked her newly acquired license.

Four foot eleven inch Barbara Buttrick relocated to the US in the 1950s to box because she was banned from participating in official fights in her home country Great Britain. In 1957, she soundly defeated Phyllis Kugler in possibly the first fully sanctioned bout between licensed female boxers. Jackie Tonawanda and others sued in the 1970s for equal access. Mary Kom was portrayed in a Bollywood film and inspired girls to take up boxing when she won a bronze medal for India at the 2012 Summer Olympics.

Whether you are a fan of boxing or not and whether you are a student of women’s history or not you will be both educated and entertained by this thorough history of the sport.

[sincari · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was disappointed at first that it was centered so much on the USA, Canada and Britain, but in the last 2 chapters it covered other regions of the world, and although they lack a history perspective (all of the international representation in the book is from the 1990s onwards), I'm glad it covered fighters from countries that aren't just those three.

It's definitely worth reading until the end even though the beginning can feel harder to read or to identify with (and you need to read all the historical chauvinist excuses quotes for not allowing women in the sport :-/ very insightful & frustrating). You get a full landscape of the state of women's boxing now, the controversies, legal struggles & all + film and book recommendations by women boxers. I loved it so much.

[Bea · Rating 4 out of 5]

I think you'd be hard-pressed to find a more authoritative account of women's boxing because author Malissa Smith has done an astounding job for this one. It's a meticulously researched account of the history of women's boxing, complemented with the author's eye for detail and in-depth knowledge of boxing as a sport; she tells the history, while also describing the action. It's easy to ready too.

[Fraser Sherman · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5, but that's because the book goes into more detail than I wanted to know (i.e., it's a personal reaction, not a flaw in Smith's work). An excellent job chronicling women's involvement in boxing from bare-knuckles prizefighters in the early 1700s through modern-day pros and problems (women's boxing has become vulnerable to the same kind of scams and corruption as men's).

[Wendy Rouse · Rating 4 out of 5]

Smith writes a history of women fighters covering the early 1800s to the present-day. An interesting dive into a topic rarely studied by scholars of women or of fighting sports. Smith offers an excellent introduction to a history that deserves much more scholarly research.