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== Early life ==
== Early life ==
Alice Joséphine Marie Million was born on 5 May 1884 in [[Nantes]], the eldest of five children. Her parents were grocers. Her mother later worked as a seasmstress and her father was employed in an office.<ref name="CARPENTIER">{{cite book |last=Carpentier |first=Florence |editor1=Bayle, Emmanuel |editor2=Clastres, Patrick |title=Global Sport Leaders: A Biographical Analysis of International Sport Management |chapter=3. Alice Milliat: A Feminist Pioneer for Women's Sport |isbn=978-3-319-76753-6 |publisher=Palgrave Macmillan |year=2018 |pages=61-81 }}</ref> In 1904, Milliat went to England. Here she married Joseph Milliat, who was also from Nantes. They had no children, and he died in 1908. After his death, she travelled widely, developing language skills that enabled her to become a translator when, following the outbreak of the First World War, she returned to France.<ref name="CARPENTIER" /><ref name=":0">{{Cite journal|last=Terret|first=Thierry|date=May 2010|title=From Alice Milliat to Marie-Therese Eyquem: Revisiting Women's Sport in France (1920s-1960s)|journal=The International Journal of the History of Sport|volume=27|issue=7|pages=1154–1172|doi=10.1080/09523361003695819|s2cid=143410313}}</ref><ref name="LEIGHBONIN" />
Alice Joséphine Marie Million was born on 5 May 1884 in [[Nantes]], the eldest of five children. Her parents were grocers. Her mother later worked as a seasmstress and her father was employed in an office.<ref name="CARPENTIER">{{cite book |last=Carpentier |first=Florence |editor1=Bayle, Emmanuel |editor2=Clastres, Patrick |title=Global Sport Leaders: A Biographical Analysis of International Sport Management |chapter=3. Alice Milliat: A Feminist Pioneer for Women's Sport |isbn=978-3-319-76753-6 |publisher=Palgrave Macmillan |year=2018 |pages=61-81 }}</ref> In 1904, Milliat went to England. Here she married Joseph Milliat, who was also from Nantes. They had no children, and he died in 1908. After his death, she travelled widely, developing language skills that enabled her to become a translator when, following the outbreak of the First World War, she returned to France.<ref name="CARPENTIER" /><ref name=":0">{{Cite journal|last=Terret|first=Thierry|date=May 2010|title=From Alice Milliat to Marie-Therese Eyquem: Revisiting Women's Sport in France (1920s-1960s)|journal=The International Journal of the History of Sport|volume=27|issue=7|pages=1154–1172|doi=10.1080/09523361003695819|s2cid=143410313}}</ref><ref name="LEIGHBONIN" /> Whilst in England, Milliat took up [[rowing]].<ref name="FCV">{{cite book |last=Castan-Vicente |first=Florys |editor1=Cervin, Georgia |editor2=Nicolas, Claire |title=Histories of Women's Work in Global Sport: A Man’s World? |chapter=Gender Performances of Sports Organization Leaders: A Comparative (Re)Examination of Alice Milliat's, Suzanne Lenglen's and Marie-Thérèse Eyquem's Trajectories |pages=75-91 |isbn=978-3-030-26908-1 |publisher=Palgrave Macmillan}}</ref>


==Formation of the FSFI==
==Formation of the FSFI==

Revision as of 14:32, 27 August 2021

Alice Milliat
BornAlice Josephine Marie Million
(1884-05-05)May 5, 1884
Nantes, France
DiedMay 19, 1957(1957-05-19) (aged 73)
Paris, France
OccupationWriter
NationalityFrench
Milliat in 1913

Alice Joséphine Marie Milliat, née Million (5 May 1884 – 19 May 1957) was a pioneer of women's sport in France and around the world. Her lobbying on behalf of female athletes forced the inclusion of women's events in the Olympic Games.

Milliat, a translator by profession participated in the sport of rowing.[1] She was also an avid swimmer and hockey player.

A member of Femina Sport, a club founded in 1911, she helped form the Federation Francaise Sportive Feminine in 1917, becoming treasurer and, in March 1919, its president. In 1921 she organized the 1921 Women's World Games, the|first international women's sporting event in Monte Carlo, followed by the 1922 Women's Olympiad and 1923 Women's Olympiad.

She is credited with igniting the pressure on the Olympic Games to allow more female representation in a broader range of sports, a process that is still ongoing today. Her name is engraved on the pediment of a gymnasium in the 14th arrondissement in Paris, thanks to her contributions to athletics. Since the 8th of March 2021, a statue of Alice Milliat has been in place in the French National Olympic and Sports Committee in Paris, to recognize her efforts for the recognition of women's sports.

Early life

Alice Joséphine Marie Million was born on 5 May 1884 in Nantes, the eldest of five children. Her parents were grocers. Her mother later worked as a seasmstress and her father was employed in an office.[2] In 1904, Milliat went to England. Here she married Joseph Milliat, who was also from Nantes. They had no children, and he died in 1908. After his death, she travelled widely, developing language skills that enabled her to become a translator when, following the outbreak of the First World War, she returned to France.[2][3][4] Whilst in England, Milliat took up rowing.[5]

Formation of the FSFI

Pierre de Coubertin, a prominent Frenchman, is credited with reviving the Olympic Games and founding the IOC (International Olympics Committee) in 1894. 1900 was the first Olympics to allow women athletes, but only in the sports of golf and tennis. Eventually, the Olympics integrated women's swimming and other events into the games. However, track and field events for women remained absent from the Olympics.[6] A member of Femina Sport, a club founded in 1911, Milliat helped form the Federation Francaise Sportive Feminine in 1917, becoming treasurer and, in March 1919, its president.[7][8]

In 1919, Milliat asked the IAAF to include women's track and field athletics events in the 1924 Olympic Games. They refused. She then became involved in organising the 1921 Women's Olympiad in Monte Carlo, an event regarded as a response to the refusal include women's events in the Olympicss. Florence Carpentier noted in 2018 that Milliat did not attend the 1921 event, and believes that Milliat created the Fédération Sportive Féminine Internationale and instituted the 1922 Women's World Games in opposition to the 1922 Women's Olympiad to ensure feminist control over women's international sports competitions. French Athletics Federation (FFA) archive records show that that Marcel Delabre, vice-president of the FFA and chair of the 1921 Women's Olympiad organising committee, saw the Women's Olympiad as a means for the FFA to control women's athletics. Further edition of the Women's Olympiad were held in 1923 and 1924.[2][9] The 1921 Women's Olympiad took place on a pigeon shooting field, in the absence of a running track. In 1922, 300 athletes competed, representing seven nations.[10]

Meanwhile, in 1917, Milliat had organised a successful women's association football tournament, and subsequently had articles published in French magazines including Le Soldat de Demain and L'Auto promoting football for women. In 1920 she assembled and managed a football team of women from Paris that toured the UK and, representing France, played the Dick, Kerr's Ladies in the first European international women's football tournament.[8]

Women's World Games

In August 1922, the Jeux Olympiques Féminins (also known as the 1922 Women's World Games), regarded as the first Women's Olympics were conducted in Pershing Stadium in Paris and featured five teams, representing including the United States, Great Britain, Switzerland, Czechoslovakia and host country France.[2][9] Eleven athletics events were conducted and the 20,000 strong crowd saw eighteen athletes break several world records.[1] The choice of venue was influenced by Paris being the home city of Coubertin, who was among the most vocal opponents to women's participation in the Olympics, as Milliat wanted the games to be a showcase to the International Olympic Committee (IOC).[2][4] When Henri de Baillet-Latour succeeded Coubertin as head of the IOC, the intention was to hold the next event in his home country, but the Belgian organisers withdrew their participation.[2]

Infuriated by the use of the term 'Olympic Games', the IOC convinced Milliat and the FSFI to change the name of their event in exchange for adding 10 women's events to the 1928 Olympics.[1] As such, the next edition of the event, held in Gothenburg, Sweden in 1926, was termed the Women's World Games. Ten teams took part in this edition of the Games.[9] Due to pressure from the FSFI, the IOC eventually integrated five women's track and field events into the Olympics in 1928. However, to Milliat, this was not enough, since men were allowed to compete in 22 events. The British women's team boycotted the Amsterdam games for the same reason.[6]

Two further World Games were held in Prague in 1930 (featuring other sports in addition to athletics) and in London in 1934. After these games, Milliat issued an ultimatum: fully integrate the 1936 Olympics, or cede all women's participation to the FSFI. This led the IAAF to appoint a special commission to cooperate with the FSFI, which ceded control of international women's athletics to the IAAF in exchange for an expanded program and a recognition of records set in the Women's Games.[1][6]

Although the FSFI'had staged events with an increasing number of participants, and expanded its membership from the intial five nations to at the 1922 Games to thirty countries in 1936, it never met again after the decision about the 1936 Olympics, [4] and Milliat's engagement with women's sport ended.[2] Under successive IOC presidents, the proportion of women competiors at the Olypmics never rose about 15% until the 1970s.[2]

Legacy

In 1934, Milliat spoke to an interviewer from the Women's Magazine Independent Woman. In her statement, she advocated for women's suffrage in France. She believed women's suffrage would lead to greater support for women's sports.[4] Carpentier believes that Milliat's feminist beliefs have been glossed over or ignored in earlier biographical accounts, and claims that these beliefs were central to inspiring Millait's endeavours on behalf of women's sport.[2] In a 1934 interview, Milliat said:

"Women's sports of all kinds are handicapped in my country by the lack of playing space. As we have no vote, we can not make our needs publicly felt, or bring pressure to bear in the right quarters. I always tell my girls that the vote is one of the things they will have to work for if France is to keep its place with the other nations in the realm of feminine sport."[4]

On 8 March 2021, a statue of Alice Milliat was unveiled in in the French National Olympic and Sports Committee in Paris, in recognition of her efforts for the recognition of women's sports.[11] In The Times later than month, Elgan Alderman wrote that the 1921 Women's World Games was a "seismic moment" for progess in women's sport at the Olympics, and that no=one had contributed more than Milliat in enabling the development.[12] Mary Leigh and Thérèse M.Bonnin concluded in 1977 that without Milliat and the FSFI's efforts, track and field events at the Olympics would only have been opened to women much later.[4]

References

  1. ^ a b c d "Bruce Kidd – The Women's Olympic Games: Important Breakthrough obscured by time". Archived from the original on 15 January 2013. Retrieved 5 March 2008.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Carpentier, Florence (2018). "3. Alice Milliat: A Feminist Pioneer for Women's Sport". In Bayle, Emmanuel; Clastres, Patrick (eds.). Global Sport Leaders: A Biographical Analysis of International Sport Management. Palgrave Macmillan. pp. 61–81. ISBN 978-3-319-76753-6.
  3. ^ Terret, Thierry (May 2010). "From Alice Milliat to Marie-Therese Eyquem: Revisiting Women's Sport in France (1920s-1960s)". The International Journal of the History of Sport. 27 (7): 1154–1172. doi:10.1080/09523361003695819. S2CID 143410313.
  4. ^ a b c d e f Leigh, Mary; Bonin, Thérèse M. (1977). "The Pioneering Role Of Madame Alice Milliat and the FSFI in Estiablishing International Trade and Field Competition for Women". Journal of Sport History. 4. University of Illinois Press: 72–83. Retrieved 27 August 2021.
  5. ^ Castan-Vicente, Florys. "Gender Performances of Sports Organization Leaders: A Comparative (Re)Examination of Alice Milliat's, Suzanne Lenglen's and Marie-Thérèse Eyquem's Trajectories". In Cervin, Georgia; Nicolas, Claire (eds.). Histories of Women's Work in Global Sport: A Man’s World?. Palgrave Macmillan. pp. 75–91. ISBN 978-3-030-26908-1.
  6. ^ a b c Blickenstaff. "Throwback Thirsday: How a French feminist staged her own games and forced the Olympics to include women". Vice Sports. Vice. Archived from the original on 29 March 2017. Retrieved 30 March 2017.
  7. ^ "Columbia College – First international track meet for women". Archived from the original on 25 February 2008. Retrieved 5 March 2008.
  8. ^ a b Tate, Tim (2013). Girls with Balls: The Secret History of Women's Football. London: John Blake. pp. 161–166, 186. ISBN 9781782194293.
  9. ^ a b c "FSFI Women's World Games". gbrathletics.com. Retrieved 27 August 2021.
  10. ^ "Alice Milliat". CNNice. Club Nautique of Nice. Retrieved 30 March 2017.
  11. ^ "Statue to women's sports pioneer Alice Milliat unveiled in Paris". insidethegames.biz. 8 March 2021. Retrieved 18 March 2021.
  12. ^ Alderman, Elgan (24 March 2021). "The pioneer whose rival games paved way for equality at Olympics". The Times. Retrieved 27 August 2021.
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