Women in boxing

women in boxing

Although women have participated in boxing for almost as long as the sport has existed, female fights have been effectively outlawed for most of boxing’s history, with athletic commissioners refusing to sanction or issue licenses to women boxers, and most nations officially banning the sport. Reports of women entering the ring go back to the 18th century.

The first female boxer dates back to 1722, when Elizabeth Wilkinson challenged Hannah Hyfield to a bout through an ad she placed in the London Journal: “I, Elizabeth Wilkinson, of Clerkenwell, having had some words with Hannah Hyfield, and requiring Satisfaction, do invite her to meet me on the Stage and Box me.” Billing herself as the European Championess, she fought both men and women. In those days, the rules of boxing allowed kicking, gouging and other methods of attack not part of today’s arsenal. For six years, Hyfield fought both men and women professionally, wearing “close jackets, short petticoats, coming just below the knee, Holland drawers, white stockings and pumps,” according to the same newspaper advertisements.

In the late 1800s, Nell Saunders and Rose Harland fought the first women’s boxing match in the United States; the prize was a silver butter dish. Twenty-five years later, in 1904, boxing made its debut as an Olympic sport in St. Louis — men’s boxing was admitted as a competitive sport, but women’s boxing was limited to exhibition bouts.

By the late 1970s and into the early ’80s, women’s boxing was resurrected. Some of the first women to be licensed for boxing in the United States were Marian Trimiar, known as Lady Tyger, and Jackie Tonawanda; Cathy Davis, known as Cat, appeared as the first female boxer on the cover of The Ring magazine in 1978.

The International Boxing Association (amateur) accepted new rules for Women’s Boxing at the end of the 20th century and approved the first European Cup for Women in 1999 and the first World Championship for women in 2001.

Women’s boxing was not featured at the 2008 Olympics; however, on 14 August 2009, it was announced that the International Olympic Committee’s Executive Board (EB) had approved the inclusion of women’s boxing for the Games in London in the 2012 Olympics, contrary to the expectations of some observers.

Here in Boston area MK Boxing provides first class boxing classes for women.
Join the long history of women boxing or Become the next Women’s boxing champion if you wish!