Almost 100 years ago, in August 1920, the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was ratified, finally giving women the right to vote. While women's suffrage is without question one of the most significant human rights advancements in the history of the United States, most people probably don't realize that swimming — yes, swimming — played an important role in women's march toward greater political and social equality.
Back in the 1910s, growing numbers of women were turning to beachwear as a way to express their independence. Prior to that, women were not always allowed at the beach or beside a public pool without laughably modest "swimming costumes" made of bulky materials unsuitable for swimming or personal comfort.
Women were disallowed from participating in competitive swimming and other aquatic activities, especially in public settings. Dictated by both law and social convention, women who wanted to swim simply did not enjoy the same freedoms as men.
But the times were rapidly changing back in the early 20th century, and some women who challenged the social norms of the day became known as "swimming suffragists." They chafed at the oppressive status quo and were willing to fight for greater freedoms at both the beach house and in the voting booth.
Groups such as the National Women's Life-Saving League and the Women's Swimming Association were established to provide venues for organized aquatics programs, and they served as a collective platform to push for greater freedoms, including the right to wear swimsuits that were far more conducive to swimming (and often considerably more physically revealing).
Female swimmers in the U.S. took cues from similar movements in other countries. For example, just after the turn of the century, Annette Kellerman, also known as the "Australian Mermaid," developed a new type of swimsuit: the one-piece, which scandalously exposed the lower part of her legs and discarded the Victorian-era trappings of traditional women's bathing costumes. The suit quickly caught on as women's swimming activists embraced it and normalized the one-piece on beaches and in other public aquatic settings.
"There is a direct link between suffrage and other rights for women, a correlation between our participation in voting and our fight for swimming equality," writes the author Jenny Landreth in her book, "Swell: A Waterbiography." "Women needed to combat the same conventions in order to get access to sports, the same issues around social class and imposed cultural roles."
Shortly after ratification of the 19th Amendment, female swimmers from the U.S. debuted in the 1920 Olympics in Antwerp, Belgium. They wore the one-piece swimsuits that so recently would have caused an uproar.
The first American gold was won by Ethelda Bleitbrey in the 100m freestyle with a time 1:13.6. To borrow the cliche, women were off to the races, both in the pool and at the ballot box.
