As with many physically demanding activities, sports have not been able to escape the gendered categorisation system inherently woven throughout our typically patriarchal centric society.
As such, there is often a lot more focus and attention directed towards the male sporting world, including the teams, players and even apparel, as opposed to the attention that the female sports world has received.
Luckily in today’s modern age, things are slowly changing. There has been a gradual and steady shift in attention towards female sports and the topics surrounding female sports (which we love!). Coincidingly, in this article, we will be focusing our attention on women’s sports jerseys.
Join us as we look into the history of how female’s sporting uniforms have changed over the past century. We will also be discussing where you can find some of the best women sports fan jerseys online!
Were Women’s Sports Jerseys Always Around?
It may seem like the question, “Were women’s sports jerseys always around?” has a pretty obvious answer – “No.” But this question has more layers than most will realise because the history of female sports teams goes back further than you might think. Female sports team uniforms were recorded as far back as the 1800s, when female baseball players in 1870 wore long, corseted dresses and accessorised with caps. Yes, they wore dresses!
Dresses were actually the norm in terms of uniforms for female sport players many years before things modernised. But how did we make the leap from dresses to sports jerseys?
- 1870: Female baseball players wear mismatched corseted dresses and caps.
- 1903: Female basketball players wear long dresses and thick tights with laced shoes.
- 1908: Dresses were still the norm, even for fast paced sports like female tennis.
- 1917: We saw a slight shift from the long dresses as skirt lengths begun to rise. Female soccer teams now wore just above the knee skirts paired with high boots, socks, ties and white caps.
- 1932: Tennis outfits become less constrictive as female tennis players now wore sleeveless dresses with a belt instead of a corset.
- 1932: We also saw a shift in the uniforms for female basketball players who wore much shorter skirts/dresses layered over white, short-sleeved tops.
- 1930s: Female professional swimmers started wearing suits with lower cut bottoms.
- 1939: NO MORE SKIRTS! At least for the female football/soccer players who now wore shorts and knee-high socks. Their uniforms were also cohesive and they all matched.
(At the same time in history, female baseball players were dealing with maintaining beauty standards, even during games. They were given beauty kits and classes on ‘charm’ in the evenings. One step forward, two steps back as they say.)
- 1940s: Tennis players uniforms now resembled something closer to what we would recognised today. Female players wore short skirts and short sleeved shirts.
- 1950s: Female soccer teams were seen wearing short shorts and long-sleeve shirts.
- Also seen in the 1950s: was a drastic change in female basketball player’s outfits. Players’ uniforms consisted of matching socks, shorts and collared shirts. These uniforms allowed for easier movements during matches and resembled today’s modern uniforms.
- 1960s: Baseball teams also made the transition from skirts to pants or shorts, with baseball caps. They also wore matching collared shirts and sneakers.
- Late 1960s: female swimmers were also wearing swimsuits with more modern cuts.
- 1980s: In the 1980s, women’s basketball uniforms looked closer to the men’s uniforms as women wore shorts and tank-top style jerseys proudly displaying their team’s colours and logo, as well as the number and name of the player.
- : Women wore tennis uniforms alike to those seen on the court today. The Tank-top dress was popular.
- : Women’s baseball teams also closely resembled their male counterparts and wore jerseys that look exactly like what you would imagine a sports jersey to look like today.
- : Female sports players look almost identical in terms of uniforms to male players. (Sometimes with the added touch of makeup). Sports jerseys for women are now at the height of their popularity.
Prompting Equality Between the Sexes Through Love…
We can see from this timeline that women, for a long time, were held to different standards than male athletes. Women in sports have only really started wearing sports jerseys in very recent years (from about the 1950s).
A lot could be said on this topic regarding a variety of subjects, including feminism and intersectionality, but that is a discussion for a different day.
We will keep it simple instead by saying that one of the best ways to close the gap between the focus that men and women sports teams receive is by being as loud as we can with our support for women’s sport. We think that women’s sports deserve just as much praise and love as men’s sports.
For that reason, see our list below of some places you can buy your women’s sports jerseys fan apparel!
- Nike Shop: Link to women’s Kits & Jerseys
- Adidas.com: Link to Women’s Sports Jerseys
- Zazzle: Link to popular women’s jerseys (Including personalisation options for women and girls)
You can also see Amazon.com and Fanatics.com for many more women’s sports fan jerseys!
To Conclude This Article…
It is evident from history that women in sports have not always gotten the same respect that men in sports have received. For a long time, the focus in women’s sports was on maintaining beauty standards. You can see this clearly from the timeline of women’s uniforms that we have presented above.
However, we did see a drastic change from around the 1950s when women were allowed to start wearing short skirts and shorts.
Eventually, we have come to view women wearing almost identical uniforms as men to be quite normal in today’s times. Now, women’s sports jerseys are almost just as popular as men’s.
We hope that you will find the links to the online stores (where you can get your hands on your own fan apparel) very useful.
Happy Supporting Everyone!