Pugilism in Petticoats: Women and Prize-Fighting in Victorian Britain

Abstract

Prize-fighting culture in the Victorian period was a male-dominated arena. As such, women’s involvement in pugilism – save for their role as spectators – has been largely overlooked by historians. This article casts light on the neglected experiences of nineteenth-century female prize-fighters, drawing attention to the ways in which women engaged in pugilism as well as the methods used by reporters, police officers and magistrates to shape public perceptions of female violence. It is argued that female prize-fighters received an overwhelmingly hostile reception, their very involvement in the masculine fighting environment resonating with contemporary anxieties over public immorality, violent crime, and the emergent movement for women’s emancipation.