ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the contested amateur tradition as it manifested itself across a range of women's sports during the 1940's and 1950's. It explains the second London Olympic Games as a starting point to examine wider issues affecting of women's sport in the 1940s and 1950s, particularly the fluxes of amateurism and professionalism that shaped participation. The chapter describes an assessment of Britain's female Olympians at the London 1948 Games and the wider involvement of women and girls. In order to keep the focus on the 1948 Olympics for now, the wider culture of British women's athletics has been included, especially competition under Women's Amateur Athletic Association control. The 1951 survey already referred to Sport For Girls coincided with a year of national reflection and celebration, culminating in the Festival of Britain. The increase in female personal mobility is borne out in popular men's magazines and increasing use of motor-savvy women as a sign of modernity in women's magazines.
