I have always been a fan of breaking glass ceilings, whether based on ethnicity or gender. I think it started because I was raised by a single mom. She struggled to make ends meet working as a secretary, but gave us a good life. Back then it was very hard for a woman to rise past secretary. But by the late 1970s more opportunities were becoming available, and at the age of 47 Mom broke through the glass ceiling and became manager of the customer service department at Hunt Wesson, a position at which she performed superbly.
So I very much enjoyed reading Better Faster Farther: How Running Changed Everything We Know About Women, by Maggie Mertens
This book chronicles the history of women’s running, and societies perception of how “fragile” woman are in general. This was a notion that seemed to start as soon as there were upper class women who did not have to do manual labor. There was the widespread belief, including in the medical profession, that they, and their reproductive systems, were delicate and they shouldn’t strain themselves too much. The author gave some astonishing examples of this, like stairways with half-height stairs being installed in colleges for women so they wouldn’t strain themselves going upstairs. I always wondered how the example of working class women was ignored, including the servants of the upper class. Those woman did quite strenuous work and their reproductive systems didn’t seem to get harmed. Maggie explained this as an example of racism combined with sexism: working-class woman were thought to be of “lower breeding” so they were closer to their “animal nature”, making them more robust. I’m glad we now live in more enlightened times!
One of the classic examples of how this “fragility” notion affected women is the 1920 Olympics. It was reported widely that several woman collapsed at the finish of the 800 meter run. Based on that it was assumed they had overexerted. For decades women were not allowed to run more than 200 meters in the Olympics. Maggie explained how the evidence for the collapse at the finish was actually quite dubious.
Another obvious example is that of Kathrine Switzer, the first official female finisher of the Boston Marathon. She was told by various doctors that her uterus would fall out if she continued with such long distance running. I remember enjoying seeing her being interviewed 50 years later and reporting her uterus was still intact!
Maggie goes over these and many other in covering the fascinating history of women and running in this highly recommended book.
Another Ceiling to Break?
I normally avoid covering politics on this forum, but I am excited about the possibility that we can break another glass ceiling on Nov 5 by electing the first woman president of the US. I like her forward-looking policies. People can be reluctant to vote democrat because the conventional thinking is that the economy fares better under republicans. But in the analyses I’ve seen, economists endorse Kamala’s economic proposals compared to those of her rival.
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