ABSTRACT
An examination of Western society before the Victorian era, as it was represented in a variety of historical sources, reveals that the role of woman was defined largely by her child-bearing capacity and her status was derived from that of male relatives. Her natural sphere was a domestic world dominated by an often absent patriarch, and within it her physical and social functions were co-extensive. When she married she was, in effect, given permission by her father to surrender her body and its precious virginity to her husband, and henceforth to do her duty by satisfying his desires and bearing his children. Despite and because of their unique biology women were considered innately physically inferior to men, and that inferiority underlay fundamental presumptions of mental and social inferiority that were translated into masculine scepticism about women's abilities to secure independent action and partake in activities like sport hitherto monopolized by men.
