Physical Education Experiences

Macrae, Eilidh

doi:10.1057/978-1-137-58319-2_2

Eilidh Macrae³

Part of the book series: Palgrave Studies in Sport and Politics ((PASSP))

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Abstract

Macrae provides a review of physical education trends in twentieth-century Britain, using oral history testimony to look into the experiences of girls who took part in PE in the interwar and postwar years. She examines the ways in which girls were educated about their physical capabilities at school, taking into account official state understandings of the adolescent female body and how these may have affected girls’ experiences of exercise and sport. Macrae discusses provision of PE and feminine hygiene facilities in schools, as well as the type of sex and health education which adolescents had access to in the twentieth century.

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Notes

1.
Rona (Born 30/09/1930), oral history interview, 4th October 2010.
2.
Hargreaves, Sporting Females; J. Welshman (1998) ‘Physical Culture and Sport in Schools in England and Wales, 1900–1940’, International Journal of the History of Sport, 15, pp. 54–75; K. McCrone (1988) Playing the Game: Sport and the Physical Emancipation of English Women, 1870–1914 (Kentucky: University Press of Kentucky); C. Webster (1983) ‘The Health of the School Child During the Depression’, in N. Parry and D. McNair (eds) The Fitness of the Nation: Physical Education in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries, (Leicester: History of Education Society), pp. 76–81.
3.
S. Fletcher (1984) Women First: The Female Tradition in English Physical Education 1880–1980 (London: The Athlone Press).
4.
S. Scraton (1992) Shaping up to Womanhood: Gender and Girls’ Physical Education (Buckingham: Open University Press).
5.
Verbrugge, Active Bodies.
6.
H. Marland (2013) Health and Girlhood in Britain, 1874–1920 (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan).
7.
D. Kirk (1992) Defining Physical Education: The Social Construction of a School Subject in Postwar Britain (London: The Falmer Press); D. Kirk (2002) ‘Physical Education: A Gendered History’, in D. Penney (ed) Gender and Physical Education: Contemporary Issues and Future Directions (London: Routledge), pp. 24–37; D. Kirk (1993) The Body, Schooling and Culture (Victoria: Deakin University Press).
8.
D. Kirk (2000) ‘Gender Associations: Sport, State Schools and Australian Culture’, International Journal of the History of Sport, 17:2, pp. 49–64.
9.
Skillen, ‘A Sound System of Physical Training’, pp. 403–418; Skillen, When Women Look their Worst.
10.
See Appendix.
11.
Many of the interviewees found it difficult to maintain their sporting interests when they embarked upon marriage and motherhood and this will be discussed in Chap. 5.
12.
National Archives of Scotland (NAS), ED8/15 Report of the Third Advisory Council on Education in Scotland: Sub-Committee on Physical Education and Character Training in Schools (1932), p. 2.
13.
Edinburgh University Special Collections (EUSC) (Currently not catalogued) Dunfermline College of Hygiene 1914–1936, Old Students Association, Dunfermline Physical Training College, 18th Annual Report: 1929–1930, p. 26.
14.
EUSC Dunfermline College of Hygiene 1914–1936, Old Students Association, Dunfermline Physical Training College, 20th Annual Report: 1931–32, p. 19.
15.
EUSC Dunfermline College of Hygiene 1914–1936, Old Students Association, Dunfermline Physical Training College, 20th Annual Report: 1931–32, p. 16.
16.
Kirk, ‘Physical Education: A Gendered History’, p. 25.
17.
In the 1960s officials acknowledged that due to poor Scottish weather there was a greater need for enclosed sports facilities: NAS ED27/449 Official Working Party on Sport: Assistance for Sport (Wolfenden Report), Scottish Education Department: Note of Meeting of Working Party on Sport and Physical Recreation held on 16th January 1961.
18.
Skillen, ‘When Women Look their Worst’, p. 17.
19.
S. Fletcher (1985) ‘The making and breaking of a female tradition: women’s physical education in England 1880–1980’, The International Journal of the History of Sport, 2:1, p. 30.
20.
Fletcher, ‘The making and breaking of a female tradition’, p. 31.
21.
S. Fletcher (1987) ‘The making and breaking of a female tradition: Women’s physical education in England 1880–1980’, in A. Mangan and R. J. Park (eds) From ‘Fair Sex’ to Feminism: Sport and the Socialization of Women in the Industrial and Post-Industrial Era (London: Frank Cass), p. 148.
22.
I. C. MacLean (1976) The History of Dunfermline College of Physical Education, p. 34.
23.
NAS, ED71/23, Report of the Royal Commission on Physical Training in Scotland (Edinburgh: HMSO, 1903), pp. 27–8.
24.
MacLean, The History of Dunfermline College of Physical Education, pp. 1–30.
25.
MacLean, The History of Dunfermline College of Physical Education, p. 34.
26.
Norah, oral history interview, 11th November, 2010.
27.
Linda, oral history interview, 25th October 2010.
28.
Linda, oral history interview.
29.
J. A. Hargreaves (1985) ‘“Playing like gentlemen while behaving like ladies”: Contradictory features of the formative years of women’s sport’, International Journal of the History of Sport, 2:1, pp. 40–52.
30.
Rona, oral history interview, 4th October 2010.
31.
‘Hutchy’ is the local word used to refer to Hutchesons’ Grammar School for Girls in Glasgow, a fee-paying private school.
32.
Anne D., oral history interview, 28th October 2010.
33.
Margaret B., oral history interview, 27th July 2010.
34.
Norah, oral history interview.
35.
Margaret B., oral history interview.
36.
Margaret B., oral history interview.
37.
Fletcher, ‘The Making and Breaking of a Female tradition’, in From ‘Fair Sex’ to Feminism, p. 148.
38.
Scraton, Shaping up to Womanhood, p. 13.
39.
Fletcher, ‘The Making and Breaking of a Female tradition’, in From ‘Fair Sex’ to Feminism, p. 147, p. 152.
40.
Fletcher, ‘The making and breaking of a female tradition: Women’s physical education in England 1880–1980’, p. 30.
41.
D. Kirk (1992) ‘Curriculum History in Physical Education: A Source of Struggle and a Force for Change’, in A. C. Sparkes (ed.) Research in Physical Education and Sport: Exploring Alternative Visions (London: Falmer), p. 221.
42.
J. A. Mangan and C. Loughlan (1988) ‘Fashion and Fealty: The Glaswegian Bourgeoisie, Middle-Class Schools and the Games-Ethic in the Victorian and Edwardian Eras’, International Journal of the History of Sport, 5: 1, pp. 133–5.
43.
Davidoff and Hall, Family Fortunes.
44.
Mangan and Loughlan, ‘Fashion and Fealty’, p. 135.
45.
Fletcher, Women First, p. 16.
46.
Fletcher, Women First, p. 16.
47.
St Leonard’s School Magazine, 1920–1938 (St Leonards School Archive), in Skillen, ‘When Women Look their Worst’, p. 32.
48.
M. Treagus (2005) ‘Playing like Ladies: Basketball, Netball and Feminine Restraint’, The International Journal of the History of Sport, 22:1, p. 90.
49.
Anne D., oral history interview.
50.
M. McCrae (2003) The National Health Service in Scotland: Origins and Ideals, 1900–1950 (East Lothian: Tuckwell Press), p. 6; J. Welshman (1996) ‘Physical Education and the School Medical Service in England and Wales, 1907–1939’, Social History of Medicine, 9:1, pp. 31–48.
51.
Report of the Royal Commission on Physical Training (Scotland), (1903), Cd. 1507, in McCrae, The National Health Service in Scotland, p. 12.
52.
Report of the Inter-Departmental Committee on Physical Deterioration, 1904, Cd. 2175, in McCrae, The National Health Service in Scotland, p. 13.
53.
Skillen, ‘When Women Look their Worst’, pp. 21–2.
54.
‘School Medical Examinations, Scotland, 1929’, Annual Report of the Department of Health for Scotland, 1929, in McCrae, The National Health Service in Scotland, p. 13.
55.
McCrae, The National Health Service in Scotland, p. 142.
56.
McCrae, The National Health Service in Scotland, p. 143.
57.
L. P. Jacks (1932) ‘The Liberal Education of the Body’, The Lancet, 26th November, p. 1146.
58.
Stevenson and Cook, The Slump: Britain in the Great Depression, p. 53.
59.
Welshman, ‘Physical Education and the School Medical Service in England and Wales, p. 38.
60.
Stevenson and Cook, The Slump: Britain in the Great Depression, p. 53.
61.
‘Bases of National Fitness’ (1936) The Lancet, 21st November, p. 1219.
62.
E. Macrae (2010) “Scotland for Fitness”: The National Fitness Campaign and Scottish Women’, Women’s History Magazine, Spring, pp. 26–36.
63.
R. Holt and T. Mason (2000) Sport in Britain 1945–2000 (Oxford: Blackwell), p. 146; This will be discussed further in Chap. 5.
64.
Skillen, ‘When Women Look their Worst’, p. 19.
65.
NAS GD1/1022/3 Association of School Medical Officers of Scotland, ‘Minutes of Meeting 27th April 1929’.
66.
Health of the School Child, 1932 (London, 1933); Board of Education, Syllabus of Physical Training for Schools 1933 (London, 1933), pp. 6–7.
67.
NAS CRE 3/1/3 Publications of the Scottish Council for Research in Education, Curriculum for pupils of twelve to fifteen years, 1931, Reprint no 8. Physical Education, p. 4.
68.
M. Jordanova (1989) Sexual Visions: Images of Gender in Science and Medicine between the Eighteenth and Twentieth Centuries (London: Harvester Wheatsheaf), p. 23.
69.
See, for example, ‘President’s address, delivered at The fifty-fourth annual meeting of the British Medical Association, held in Brighton, August 10th–13th, 1886’ (1886) British Medical Journal (BMJ) 2, 14th August, p. 296.
70.
Marland, Health and Girlhood in Britain, 1874–1920, p. 143.
71.
‘Education of the Body’ (1947) The Lancet, 26th July, p. 139.
72.
‘Treatment of Cases of Abortion’ (1930) The Lancet, 20th September, p. 654; ‘Menstruation and Athletics’ (1932) The Lancet, 13th February, pp. 357–8.
73.
Curriculum for pupils of twelve to fifteen years, 1931, p. 6.
74.
NAS ED/8/15 Advisory Council, Education Authority of Glasgow: Syllabus of Physical Training for Elementary Schools 1920.
75.
Helen, oral history interview, 18th May 2010.
76.
Helen, oral history interview.
77.
J. Pilcher (2005) ‘School sex education: Policy and practice in England 1870 to 2000’, Sex Education: Sexuality, Society and Learning, 5:2, pp. 153–70.
78.
City of Leicester Education Committee (1930) in Pilcher, ‘School sex education: policy and practice in England’.
79.
NAS ED/48/178 Health Education Curriculum, ‘Speech Written for Mr Tom Fraser the Under-Secretary of State, 14/4/49’, p. 2.
80.
NAS ED/48/178 Health Education Curriculum, Report of the Scottish Council for Health Education, scheme of Health Education for Schools. 15/7/50.
81.
‘Speech written for Mr Tom Fraser the Under-Secretary of State, 14/4/49’, p. 2.
82.
NAS ED/48/178 Health Education Curriculum The Scottish Council for Health Education: Report of the Committee on Health Education in Schools (Edinburgh, 1950), pp. 22–3.
83.
The Scottish Council for Health Education: Report of the Committee on Health Education in Schools, p. 19.
84.
The Scottish Council for Health Education: Report of the Committee on Health Education in Schools, p. 20.
85.
R. Davidson and G. Davis (2005) ‘“This Thorniest of Problems”: School Sex Education Policy in Scotland 1939—80’, The Scottish Historical Review, 84:2, pp. 221–46.
86.
The Scottish Council for Health Education: Report of the Committee on Health Education in Schools, pp. 23–4.
87.
Disapproval on religious grounds—particularly in the case of Catholic schools—was also presumably an issue, but there was no mention of this within the available sources.
88.
The Scottish Council for Health Education: Report of the Committee on Health Education in Schools, p. 24.
89.
NAS ED/48/178 Health Education Curriculum, ‘Report of the Scottish Council for Health Education, Scheme of Health Education for Schools. Report of Meeting with EIS Representatives, 15/7/50’.
90.
Davidson and Davis, ‘“This Thorniest of Problems”’, p. 244.
91.
‘Speech written for Mr Tom Fraser the Under-Secretary of State, 14/4/49’, p. 4.
92.
Mary, oral history interview, 20th May 2010.
93.
‘Supply and Disposal of Sanitary Towels in Schools’ (1949) The Lancet, 28th May, pp. 925–7.
94.
‘Supply and Disposal of Sanitary Towels in Schools’, p. 926.
95.
‘Supply and Disposal of Sanitary Towels in Schools’.
96.
‘Supply and Disposal of Sanitary Towels in Schools’.
97.
‘Supply and Disposal of Sanitary Towels in Schools’, pp. 926–7.
98.
Anne D., oral history interview.
99.
Helen, oral history interview.
100.
Helen, oral history interview.
101.
Betty, oral history interview, 17th May, 2010.
102.
Verbrugge, Active Bodies, p. 69.
103.
C. G. Brown (2006) Religion and Society in Twentieth-Century Britain (Edinburgh: Pearson Education Limited), p. 187.
104.
Brown, Religion and Society in Twentieth-Century Britain, p. 187.
105.
Rona, oral history interview.
106.
Catherine, oral history interview, 11/5/2010.
107.
Rona, oral history interview, p. 19.
108.
D. Mullins and A. Murie (2006) Housing Policy in the UK (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan), p. 27.
109.
Val, interviewed by L. Abrams, 21st October 2010.
110.
Val, interviewed by L. Abrams.
111.
Elspeth, oral history interview, 7th October 2010.
112.
P. Summerfield and N. Crockett (1992) ‘“You weren’t taught that with the welding”: Lessons in sexuality in the Second World War’, Women’s History Review, 1: 3, pp. 435–54.
113.
J. Delaney, M. J. Lupton, E. Toth (1976) The Curse: A Cultural History of Menstruation (Urbana: University of Illinois Press), p. 28.
114.
Val, interviewed by L. Abrams.
115.
Chapter 5 will provide a full discussion.
116.
Linda, oral history interview.
117.
Davidson and Davis, ‘“This Thorniest of Problems”’, p. 244.
118.
As shown in the interview with Margaret B. where PE teachers were particularly influential. This will be explored further in Chap. 3.

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University of the West of Scotland, Hamilton, UK
Eilidh Macrae

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Macrae, E. (2016). Physical Education Experiences. In: Exercise in the Female Life-Cycle in Britain, 1930-1970. Palgrave Studies in Sport and Politics. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-58319-2_2

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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-58319-2_2
Published: 10 July 2016
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