Reclaiming the 1934 Women’s World Games: Athletic and Gender Performance

The fourth Women’s World Games (WWG) began on August 9, 1934, at the White City Stadium in London. Despite extensive press coverage in 1934, London’s WWG have been neglected by historians, either assimilated into a narrow Olympic trajectory or considered an established and uncontroversial event on the independent women’s athletics calendar. In fact, they were an important moment in the history of sport and gender, both in Britain and internationally. In examining the geo-political and social significance of the 1934 WWG, a new perspective on the shifting understanding of gender performance and bio-medical knowledge about sex during the 1930s, and how these changing ideas were applied to women’s athletics, is revealed. More than just the fourth and final edition of a short-lived independent international women’s athletics movement, the 1934 London WWG and their media coverage were sites of contest, both physical and ideological.