Cricket Witness No 4 - Women at the WIcket

113 and value of the sport, and represented an evolution in the language used by the likes of Jane Frances Dove and Bergman-Österberg three decades earlier, that had often focused on the biological over the social. Rather than ‘Amazons’, these bodies marketed themselves and cricket as an expression of democratic, voluntary citizenship. The game was a critical, modern educational tool for young women that not only aided physical development, but moral character as newly enfranchised citizens. Reshaping citizenship Women’s civil rights progressed in the interwar years as they were granted equal political status with men for the first time. The vote was granted in 1918 to most women over the age of 30, and this was extended to all women over 21 years in 1928. Legal and political headway was also made as women gained the right to run for Parliament (1918), divorce on equal grounds (1923), receive a widow’s pensions (1925), obtain equal guardianship of children (1925), legitimise children by marriage to the father (1927), and through the relaxation of divorce laws (1937). Although parity was not achieved in employment, as unequal pay, marriage bars and a lack of upward mobility restricted female advancement, new and higher-paid employment opportunities (especially after the professions were opened to them in 1919) bettered the living standards of large numbers of women. While historians in the late 1980s and early 1990s emphasised continuity with the pre-war period, especially as no real challenge was mounted to the domestic ideal, recent historians are more positive about the interwar years. 9 Emancipation was not only political but was experienced in the greater diversity of leisure activities and the relaxation of bodily restraints. Women’s cricket was an expression of their newly endowed freedom, but also helped to broaden it. If greater political equality with men was achieved, full, equal citizenship remained elusive. ‘Social’ citizenship, or the right to equal welfare and economic rights, and ‘civil’ citizenship, defined in terms of individual freedoms, were persistent battlegrounds for the women’s movement. Groups that educated women on their newfound political citizenship, such as the National Council of Women, operated democratically and used this concept of education to lobby for further progress. Contemporary social reformers like Constance Brathwaite spoke of the need for ‘voluntary citizenship’ – active participation in social welfare through public-spirited acts of self-sacrifice. One important way of performing this was via ‘recreational, educational, and charitable activities.’ In short, a good citizen made a visible and positive impact on public life beyond the home. 10 As the threat of totalitarianism loomed heavy over Europe in the 1930s, concerns over the survival of democracy and the pressing need to instil its benefits and processes became an issue of national importance. As the majority of British voters had achieved this only after the First World War, this threat was particularly acute as mass democracy was still in its infancy. An everyday democratic process, like on a cricket field or through the administration of a cricket club or organisation, was one way girls could More than a Game: Citizenship and Cricket