For starters, in the Regency period of England, Jane
Austin's era, women did not take part in sporting events as we understand them today.
There were no women's basketball teams, cricket teams etc. P.E. was not taught in
school.
So, women were to stay at home, tend to home making
tasks such as wash-day, cooking, child rearing etc. Women were allowed to take the air
by walking or bicycling. Women who were part of the peerage (royalty) could be quite
accomplished horse riders and might participate in the fox hunt. The country dance was
also a way that women might be active.
Men on the other
hand had a wide variety of sporting events with which to pass the time. The pugilistic
art (bare knuckle boxing) or as some aficionados called it, the sweet science, was very
popular among the lower and middle class males. The poorer men and boys found a way to
advance their living by winning at boxing events (which were illegal and often held in
secret locations throughout the rural countryside near London and Great Britain). Other
sporting pursuits that men engaged in would be golf (gentlemen only ladies forbidden),
rowing, swimming, running, etc. Most sporting events were exclusive and required
admission to a club, a price that many of the working class and poorer persons could not
afford.
Women and men did not swim or "take the waters"
together in mixed company as a general rule. Women wore full coverage "neck to ankle"
bathing costumes to the shore, and were carried into the water by young men who watched
over the ladies to be sure they did not drown.
Activities
that men and women engaged in together included dancing, walking, bicycling, and croquet
as well as lawn tennis which was a much slower game than the tennis game we know
today.
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