May 2007

Sign over door of gymnasium at Smith College.

Opportunity is everything.

Senda Berenson took advantage of an opportunity and in so doing unwittingly set off a revolution. Born in Vilna, Lithuania in 1868, in 1892 she found herself the Director of the Gymnasium and Instructor of Physical Culture at Smith College in Northampton, Massachusetts.

Within months after James Naismith had invented the game of basketball for his male students at nearby Springfield College in Springfield, Mass, Berenson was busy considering how to modify the game for the benefit of her students at Smith. The women's game had to fit not only into the category of acceptable recreational sport - that is, rules that dictated no physical contact - but, the women's game had to be different enough from the men's game so as to not pose a threat in any way to the male sport establishment.

But while Berenson was aware of the need to avoid creating a game that would lead to unwomanly behavior, her writings reveal a recognition that the game "combined... gymnastics and delight of true play" and that the game "requires the action of every part of the body, that develops physical courage, self-reliance, quickness, alertness; and no one who has ever seen it played can question the enthusiasm it arouses."

Berenson was a creature of her times, and created and promoted the game of basketball for women for reasons consistent with the values and attitudes of those times. She would unwittingly set in motion forces that would ultimately challenge those very same values and attitudes.

In the 1890s, some women, often referred to as the New Woman, enjoyed a variety of sports, mostly of the individual variety: riding horses, hiking, rowing, swimming, bicycling, bowling, fencing, archery, roller skating, ice skating, tennis and any number of informal games. Berenson's game would have women play against other women on teams. In a letter written years later, Berenson noted that basketball would bring out "certain characteristics that are so necessary to the modern woman - such as, self-reliance, quickness of mind and body, self-control, the sacrifice of the individual to the team - the cause; elements that make for character..."

In addition, basketball would foster physical well-being and health through exercise, mental and intellectual health through knowing the rules and engaging in game decision-making, emotional development through exercising self-control during games, and social skills through teamwork and cooperation. Unlike the characteristics of the male version that rewarded expressions of aggressiveness, power, and competition, the women's game would foster healthful exercise, participation, cooperation, and play. The game would help women develop health and endurance which would reduce illness and healthier woman would be much more worthy of equal wages with men. The game would foster physical and moral health for women; women would acquire agility, quickness, an appreciation and respect for teamwork, and, most importantly, self-control. There would be no interscholastic competition. Intramurals would be the location of the sport, maximizing participation and de-emphasizing competition. In other words, the game would be played "ladylike."

Much of the game Berenson was to create was a consequence of societal attitudes about women. For example, Berenson was concerned about the rule that allowed for stealing the ball from opponents. In her view, this encouraged a rough style of play and raised concerns that women would enter a murky moral world of deception and theft. So rules were adopted to prevent this and other forms of roughhouse play that would be decidedly unladylike. So in the women's game there would be a rule against snatching or batting the ball from opponent's hands.

A player could not hold the ball for longer than three seconds.

The basketball court was divided into three sections to be defended by two players from each team in each section to help players avoid physical contact. Players were forbidden to leave their section. The three-section court would be reduced to two sections in 1938 and, in 1971, women would officially play full court with teams of five.

As the popularity of the women's game spread during these early years different rules were adopted in various parts of the country to accommodate the values and needs of those areas. At the same time there emerged a consensus as to the import of the sport for women. To many, participation in the sport was good for women because it would combine pleasure with exercise, help their physical development, promote cooperation and teamwork, develop good judgment and perception, and "physical and moral courage, self-reliance and self-control, that ability to meet success and defeat with dignity." While Berenson feared that competitive basketball would lead to among other things, professionalism, only a few ever seemed to have thought that women might make money from playing the game of basketball.

The broader cultural and social context would change in a variety of ways over the next century. There would be ongoing debates and discussions about rules and decorum. The debate between the Victorian woman and the New Woman would give way to the clash between the domesticated feminine woman and the physically strong athletic woman. Temperatures would rise as enthusiasts of the game would argue over six vs five players, three vs two court game and so on.

The period 1920 to 1970 was a particularly tumultuous period as the intensity of the debates over what women could and could not do escalated. Looking for ways to ensure that women would remain in their place, many would cite the four "evils" as the reasons to restrict women's participation in the game of basketball: physical contact, mixed audiences, overexcitement, and exhaustion. Yet, throughout this period girls and women continued to participate in the game of basketball on many different levels. Some of these women found new avenues of success, with the opportunity to play the game of basketball for money. Given the immense power of cultural socialization during this period, it would take women of uncommon strength and fortitude to explore the world of competitive basketball via the AAU, industrial leagues, and semi- and professional barnstorming teams throughout the country.

There have been numerous professional women basketball leagues that have passed in and out of existence since the 1970s. Prior to that there were professional barnstorming teams, most notably the All American Red Heads. And of course the event that promised so much, the passage of Title IX, would usher in a new era of women's athletics in general and basketball in particular. This new era would continue to offer women what Berenson's innovations did over 100 years ago: opportunities.