Biomedical Discourse on Women's Physical Education and Sport in France (1880–1922)

Résumé En

This article aims at studying the contradictions in scientific discourse on physical education for women in France from 1880 to 1922. In 1880 a law made gymnastics compulsory at school, and physical practices became a topic of public and scientific debate. 1922 is the date of the first medical congress on women's and children's physical education. Our study is based on a corpus of more than 200 scholarly texts about physical education or sport. They discuss women, exclusively conceived in their biological functions as procreators, thus physiologically qualifying the socially constructed properties of femininity. However, as soon as the first steps towards female physical practices appeared, contradictions came up. On the one hand, some doctors wanted to preserve reproductive organs from any violent exercises. On the other hand, other doctors wanted to reinforce female bodies through sport practices.