I’ve seen this argument being shared online but is there any historical evidence that prove this to be true?
It seems unlikely on its face. Look at any sport that involves a timed run (from track to swimming to skiing to cycling), a distance (like long jump or throwing something), or a height (like pole vaulting). How do top female athletes compare to top male athletes?
The inherent differences between the sexes make it such that I’m not aware of anyone—including feminists—suggesting that the sexes should be integrated for elite sporting competitions.
Can you point out an example where a sport initially allowed females, then changed their tune and kicked them out? I can’t.
I have no citations, but historically I would say that sports were the realm of men largely because men were able to generate free time to enjoy sports. Women tended to be too busy to engage in sporting events. Hence, nearly all sports were segregated because men played and women didn’t. Nothing to do with men getting all sore butted from losing to women.
Physiologically speaking, about the only thing that gives women an advantage over men is greater endurance, if I recall correctly. Even then, though, that advantage isn’t manifested over traditional endurance distances.
I sure would like a cite to support the hypothesis, though.
Speaking as a fan of women’s basketball ( or past fan, I am watching less sports generally now), absolutely not. There are a very few sports where women could theoretically compete on an even playing field. But anything that involves size, speed and strength is going to be dominated by men in a mixed competition simply based on physiology. The world is an uneven place.
ETA: If I can edit this quickly enough: Diana Taurasi is one of the greatest WNBA players of all time, some might argue the greatest. Put her in a game with NBA players and her skills are probably comparable and she might be able to shoot as well as any or most of them. But she’d never get off a shot - too small, too slow. She wouldn’t be able to defend - too small, too slow.
Here’s Sabrina Ionesco vs Stephen Curry in their exhibition three-point contest. Curry won, but it was close - Ionesco like Curry is a freakishly good shot. But in an actual game it wouldn’t be close for the reasons listed above. Basketball is a contact sport (unlike football which is a collision sport) - there is a lot of bodying up. Female players are just as tough, but wouldn’t be able to shift the men.
For prepubescent children, girls often physically and mentally mature faster than boys. It wouldn’t surprise me to see a team of ten-year-old girls beat their male peers.
Sports were segregated by gender because men are generally faster and stronger than women… … while it’s the women who are generally more mature and intelligent than men.
Right, I thought about adding that caveat, but neglected to do so.
My comments, of course, were referring to post-pubescent elite athletes. (“Elite” because of course an elite female athlete would wipe the floor with an out-of-shape male, and likely even an average male athlete.)
I don’t think women are banned from the NFL, MLB, NBA, NHL, or MLS. Goaltender Manon Rhéaume played in an NHL exhibition game in 1992, and Hayley Wickenheiser played professionally in a “men’s” league in Finland. Nancy Lieberman (USBL) and Ann Meyers (Indiana Pacers) played or tried out for men’s teams. Kelsie Whitmore pitched and played outfield for the Staten Island team in the Atlantic League. I don’t recall any women who played on a minor league team affiliated with a major league team. Julie Harshbarger kicked a field goal in a professional indoor football game for the Chicago Cardinals in the CIFL.
I think the leagues I mentioned are technically open – both men and women are allowed to compete.
I don’t think the OP is asking should it happen or is it happening now, but rather did it happen.
And much of the time, too pregnant.
I saw a similar claim on Bluesky recently, iirc it was specifically that Olympic shooting competitions were segregated after a woman won gold. I cannot speak to the veracity of the claim.
It is true that Zhang Shan won the gold medal in 1992 for skeet shooting. Men and women had separate events starting in 2000. I don’t know if the former caused the latter, though.
ETA: According to Wiki, “A decision to separate men’s and women’s skeet shooting had been made in December 1991” so it would seem the former did not cause the latter.
I wonder if segregation in sports by sex started at the adult level first. Or did it start with children sports, and then later extended to adults?
This seems highly unlikely, since even in sports which aren’t based on strength and speed, men typically dominate. For instance, competitions in activities like pool, bowling, motor sports, and darts are typically open to all, yet just a small number of women compete at the top level and fewer make it to the top. Even in open competitions which don’t have any physical component, like chess and poker, women will make up less than 10% of the competitors. Certainly there are some women who can beat some men, but it’s pretty rare for a woman to be able to beat a man in a comparable competitive activity. It’s hard to see how there was a time when women beating men was such a huge issue that a whole different division had to be created. Especially since in the past, society didn’t really value women athletes. Just having a woman athlete would have been rare. There would have had to be a time when there was so many dominate women athletes that they threatened men. Even now, that’s not the case. It seems highly unlikely that that there was a time in the past where super-women were beating men so badly in sports that they had to be put in their own division so the men wouldn’t have to compete against them.
One example of an open sport which split into men’s and women’s division is this one:
They initially were open to all, then created a women’s division. Women initially could play in either the open or women’s division, but then they got rid of the open division and had just men’s and women’s divisions. The players can only play in the division for their gender.
In 1976, Lanny Bassham and Margaret Murdock had the same score in the 3-position rifle event at the Montreal Olympics. Technically it was a mixed event, but very few women competed. Bassham was given the gold and Murdock the silver, supposedly after a “review of the targets”. Having the exact same score apparently wasn’t enough to warrrant awarding two gold medals. Starting in 1984, women had their own division.
A friend of mine related a story from his childhood where a new girl neighbor, who happened to also be well-endowed for her age, liked to play tackle football with the boys on the street. As you can imagine, among a bunch of 10-12 year old boys, she was very popular to play tackle football with, especially if she was on the opposing team! Anyway, point being, there is probably a point in adolescence/puberty where boys and girls stop playing together, for a variety of reasons.
I suspect it is the other way round, sports segregate the sex because men win too consistently.
In sports reliant on strength or physique men and women have always been segregated. (with the exception of occasional mixed teams like things like relay races)
I suspect that skeet shooting was segregated because nearly all the top competitors were men. For a number of years (probably going back to at least the 1990s) the Olympics have wanted to equalise the number of male and female competitors and one of the ways of doing that is to segregate sports like skeet shooting, so instead of having one event with 95% of the competitors male to have two events and equal numbers of men and women.
A number of other sports like darts, snooker and chess have open events and women’s events. While the open events are open to women nearly all the people who qualify are male, they then have separate women’s events.
There may be others but the most popular sport which is not segregated and has similar numbers of male and female stars is equestrianism, while most horse racing jockeys are male, in showjumping and eventing it is a much more equal mix.
This is not true and a misrepresentation at best
There is reasonably strong evidence that girls and young women tend to mature earlier than boys and young men. By adulthood, individual differences become much more important than average sex differences. It is an overstatement to say women are generally more mature than men in all contexts.
The majority of mainstream intelligence research has concluded that men and women have very similar average intelligence levels. Researchers frequently find little to no difference in average IQ between the sexes. The claim that women are generally more intelligent than men is not supported by the mainstream scientific evidence. The best-supported conclusion is that average intelligence is broadly similar between the sexes, with somewhat different cognitive strengths.
[Moderating]
While this question can perhaps be addressed factually, it’s a better fit for the Game Room. Moving.