The Overarching Idea Of Gender Barriers

The overarching idea of gender barriers is a prevalent issue discussed in the 20th century. Through the emergence of women involvement in sport, people like Marilyn Bell and Fanny “Bobbie” Rosenfeld were recognized for their achievements and success in their respective sports. By means of culture, nationalism, and identity, these two women persevered until success was achieved by reaching their goals, making them athletes of their time. Does the increasing participation of women in sport lead to the break down of social barriers within the 20th century? Marilyn Bell was born on October 19th, 1937 in Toronto, Ontario. She started swimming at the young age of four and successfully accomplished her biggest swim by swimming across Lake Ontario

This challenged the supposed stereotype and social barriers within sport. Their achievements positively reflected on Canada as a culture of equality, embodying motivation and determination while upholding a hard work ethic. Competing in sports was more male dominated and women were discouraged to compete in sport. For women, sport was more of a recreational activity and men generally achieved excellence in sport. Sport continued to evolve as a domain for strength highlighting masculinity within athletic competitive settings. In earlier times sport was meant for men only, and as a means for training for war. It was simply too aggressive for women to take part in. Their contribution to sport as Canadian athletes amongst other Canadian sport icons began to break down the gender barriers and allowed more involvement of women participation and achievements within professional sport. They both have gone down in history for their own successes and continue to show excellence as retired athletes. Based on the ideas of identity, nationalism, and culturalism in the 20th century, would women’s involvement ruin all that men have worked for? The emergence of gender-neutral sport and the idea of women being accepted as part of the culture in sport has adapted through the modernization

How they represented Canadian culture in the sporting field was essential in creating team cohesion, and competing with a sense of pride for who they represented. In Canada the culture of young children competing at a higher level than amateur and recreational play was unheard of. Marilyn Bell being the youngest and first successful women to swim across Lake Ontario was considered an amateur athlete. Doing such a long distance swim at such a young age and successfully was not practiced. As this swim was incredibly dangerous, it gives a sense of the culture at which she grew up in. Training to win was something very important to her and she kept training and gaining skills leading her to winning the Lou Marsh Trophy and ultimately becoming professional. Bobbie Rosenfeld was known for being the first Jewish women to win a gold medal in track and field event awarding her a place in the International Jewish sports Hall of Fame. Growing up Jewish in the early 20th century was difficult for some as Nazi Germany’s goal was to take over all aspects of life including sport. Bobbie Rosenfeld did not participate in the Nazi Germany Olympics but rather competed in a competition in the United States, as she did not want to give into their dominance and power as a part of her career (Burr and Reader, 2013). With the modernization of women in sport, and increasing number of females involvement from a