At the beginning of the twentieth century, women played sports a lot, but few women participated in competitive sports. One reason was that women's clothing had to be adjusted to be able to properly exercise the sport. Women had to be able to move freely, but the clothes should not be 'immoral'. Stereotypes stuck to 'the woman with the pants'. Opponents of women's sports found that women were physically not capable of exercising or that they would be muscled by too much sport and therefore less feminine. In recent years, more attention has been paid to female pioneers in sport. Female top athletes are role models and ensure greater participation of women in (competitive) sport. But to this day, there is still much to be gained in the sports world in terms of equality between men and women.
For years, there were other rules for women in sport. Women's sport is often subordinate to men in sports. At the Olympic Games in 1928, women's gymnastics were allowed for the first time. Nowadays, women's soccer is the fastest growing sport in the world, even in the Netherlands.
