The rate of participation of women in the Olympic Games has been increasing since their first participation in 1900. Some sports are uniquely for women, others are contested by both sexes, while some older sports remain for men only. Studies of media coverage of the Olympics consistently show differences in the ways in which women and men are described and the ways in which their performances are discussed. The representation of women on the International Olympic Committee has run well behind the rate of female participation, and it continues to miss its target of a 20% minimum presence of women on their committee.
History of women at the Olympics
1900
The first modern Olympic Games to feature female athletes was the 1900 Games in Paris. Hélène de Pourtalès of Switzerland became the first woman to compete at the Olympic Games and became the first female Olympic champion, as a member of the winning team in the first 1 to 2 ton sailing event on May 22, 1900. Briton Charlotte Cooper became the first female individual champion by winning the women's singles tennis competition on July 11. Tennis and golf were the only sports where women could compete in individual disciplines. 22 women competed at the 1900 Games, 2.2% of all the competitors. Alongside sailing, golf and tennis, women also competed in croquet.
There were several firsts in the women's golf. This was the first time ever that women competed in the Olympic Games. The women's division was won by Margaret Abbott of Chicago Golf Club. Abbott shot a 47 to win and became the first ever American female to win a gold medal in the Olympic Games, though she received a gilded porcelain bowl as a prize instead of a medal. She is also the second overall American woman to receive an Olympic medal. Abbott's mother, Mary Abbott, also competed in this Olympic event and finished tied for seventh, shooting a 65. They were the first and only mother and daughter that have ever competed in the same Olympic event at the same time. Margaret never knew that they were competing in the Olympics; she thought it was a normal golf tournament and died not knowing. Her historic victory was not known until University of Florida professor Paula Welch began to do research into the history of the Olympics and discovered that Margaret Abbott had placed first. Over the course of ten years, she contacted Abbott's children and informed them of their mother's victory.
Two women also competed in the hacks and hunter combined (chevaux de selle) equestrian event at the 1900 Games (Jane Moulin and Elvira Guerra). Originally only the jumping equestrian events were counted as "Olympic", but IOC records later added the hacks and hunter and mail coach races to the official list of 1900 events, retroactively making Moulin and Guerra among the first female Olympians.
1904–1916
In 1904, the women's archery event was added.
London 1908 had 37 female athletes who competed in archery, tennis and figure skating.
Stockholm 1912 featured 47 women in sports events. Swimming and diving were added, but figure skating and archery were removed. The Art competitions that were introduced at those Olympics were also open to women, but full records of the entrants were not kept.
The 1916 Summer Olympics were due to be held in Berlin but were cancelled following the outbreak of World War I.
1920–1928
In 1920, 65 women competed at the Games. Archery was added back into the programme.
A record 135 female athletes competed at Paris 1924. At the 1924 Summer Olympics held the same year in Paris, women's fencing made its debut with Dane, Ellen Osiier winning the inaugural gold. Archery was again removed from the programme of sports. Dorothy Margaret Stuart was the first woman to gain a medal in the Arts, winning silver in Mixed Literature.
In 1924 the first Winter Olympics also took place, with women competing only in the figure skating. Herma Szabo became the first ever female Winter Olympic champion when she won the ladies' singles competition.
At the 1928 Winter Olympics in St Moritz, no changes were made to any female events. Fifteen year old Sonja Henie won her inaugural of three Olympic gold medals.