Women give a knockout punch to stereotypes

The Olympics aren’t only about breaking records, but also about smashing taboos. By making their debut in London this year, the women boxers have broken the old myth about their unsuitability for the sport. Appropriately, the breakthrough came in Britain which had banned women’s boxing till 1996. Considering that women’s boxing was held as a demonstration sport way back in the 1902 Olympics, the 110-year gap between first attempt of the pioneers and their ultimate success must be one of the longest in history.

However, the summary brushing aside of the old stereotype about women being too gentle to deliver and receive punches has made India’s Mary Kom say, “women have been waiting, waiting, waiting for the day women’s boxing will be included in the Olympics”. Personally, her wait was not in vain because of her victory in the quarter-finals has made sure that this national icon will bring back a medal. Her success has come more than a decade after her participation in the first world championship for women boxers in 2001 in defiance of her father’s objections.

The world championships had followed the success the Swedish amateur boxing association to sanction women’s boxing for the first time for such organisations in 1988. The British association followed in 1997. Their initiative dispelled the prejudice based on gender stereotypes prevalent in the male-dominated sport, which depended on malicious misinformation to keep women out.

Yet, it was obvious that male bias against allowing women into arenas outside the latter’s traditional preserves of cooking and housekeeping blocked their entry. Even if the fact that boxing was one of the roughest of games was used as a background material to favour women’s exclusion, it was a ruse that could not succeed in an age when gender equality has universal approval.