Authors

Cosmin-Ștefan Dogaru¹;  ¹ University of Bucharest, Romania

Discussion

Particular sports in pre-1918 Romania developed under the guidance of whealthy young and fervent sportsmen who discovered the importance of sport through their studies and travels abroad (mostly in France, Germany and Great Britain). At that time, the Romanian elites established modern sports associations (clubs) labelled as venues of leisure and male sociability. But soon enough, also women marked their entrance in the field of sport as members of particular sports clubs or just players at various sports competitions (e.g. cycling, tennis, ice-skating, sledging, bobsleigh, and motor racing after the First World War). Hence, this paper aims to examine the women’s successes in the field of sport by assessing relevant articles from the interwar sports magazines. Women from the upper and rising middle classes discovered various sports initially as means of socialisation and leisure time. Some of them became even players at various sports contests which led to social progress and elite integration. As the same time as various sports developed in Romania in the interwar period, the number of women engaged in leisure and sporting activities increased considerably allowing them to expand their roles into public life.