In 1889, the Los Angeles Times announced the opening of an athletic club for women in the city. The reporter insisted that the training of women in self-defence was essential to protect them from mashers. One mother explained that she would feel more comfortable knowing that her three daughters were physically capable of defending themselves: “Our girls would not be insulted so often on the streets if the brainless puppies who make a business of annoying unprotected females know that our girls can strike out from the shoulder with telling effect.” She further argued, “The average women of today, except in England and some of the Eastern States, are as helpless as infants when they are alone; but how different it would be if they were taught the science of self-defence.” She clearly saw self-defence training as a way of preparing her daughters to stand up for themselves against male aggressors and assert their right to walk down public streets safely.
Stories of women successfully protecting themselves and fending off violent assaults fuelled the trend of female self-defence training. Sordid tales of women’s victimisation appeared in print media along with successful accounts of brave women fighting back through their own will and power. Newspapers reported that Blanche Bates fought off an attacker in the streets of New York in 1901.
Bates, who credited her boxing training for her success in defending herself, stated, “I would not advocate any woman going through life leaving a trail of bruised masculinity in her wake, but if a man insults her, she ought to know where to use her fist on him where it will do the most good.”
Bates insisted that all women should be able to protect themselves from such insults by training in the art of self-defence.
Law enforcement and the courts increasingly showed support for women who chose to act as their own protectors. Alexander Mullowney, a police court judge in Washington, DC, urged women to protect themselves on the streets and promised them impunity in his courtroom. Mayor George W Dilling and chief of police Claude Bannick of Seattle similarly insisted that if “a masher accosts a woman she is certainly justified in giving him a good, stiff punch on the point of the jaw.” This endorsement of women’s self-defence contributed to a general change in attitude regarding the rights of women over their own bodies and the ability of women to defend themselves.
The organisation of self-defence clubs suggested the formal ways that some women chose to empower their bodies and claim their right to freely occupy public spaces. In 1906, Virgie Drox determined to form a jiu-jitsu club for the women of Los Angeles after having seen similar clubs organised in New York. Her intent, she stated, was to allow women the security of defending themselves on the street: “The girls in New York who are members of the club never think of having an escort if they want to visit one another after dark and from examples of their prowess I would think it inadvisable for any masher to attempt to speak to them.”
The idea that self-defence training eliminated the need for a male escort was especially empowering to women like Drox who were socially and politically active and frequently traveled throughout the city.
The rising popularity of jiu-jitsu and boxing classes was a trend that was especially common among native-born white women of the upper classes. Young women may have learned some self-defence in high school or college. In 1914, fifty girls at Lewis and Clark High School in Spokane, Washington, enrolled in a self-defence class in which the instructor, Jack Carnahan, told them they would learn techniques to stop attackers: “A couple of short hooks to the jaw, a jab from a skilfully handled umbrella, or a forced back flip on a hard pavement will do much more than moral suasion to repulse unwelcome attentions.” Similar courses were offered in other high schools across the nation from New Jersey to Los Angeles. Universities also provided opportunities for women to learn self-defence. Women at Nebraska State University were encouraged to enrol in boxing classes, and images from Temple University and Barnard College show female students practicing both boxing and jiu-jitsu. After these elite women graduated from college, many joined athletic clubs for society women. In 1904, women in Boston started the New Hub Athletic Club, which offered classes in jiu-jitsu. By 1920, more than 200 girls were reportedly studying boxing at the Albert Barnes Club in Philadelphia. Older women found opportunities to learn self-defence through their churches and social clubs. The women of Wesley Methodist Church in Chicago formed their own jiu-jitsu classes. Motivated by a concern about arming themselves with techniques to prevent victimisation, the church ladies advocated carrying cayenne pepper as a means of defending themselves against potential attackers.
Working-class women also eagerly signed up for free self-defence courses when the opportunity presented itself. Responding to the demands of women who complained about harassment as they traveled to and from work, some companies offered self-defence classes for employees. A department store in Newark, New Jersey, hired a professional boxer to teach its female employees self-defence. This on-the-job training provided additional tools to safeguard women from threats that prevented them from freely pursuing public occupations. Although middle- and upper-class women had more access to self-defence training, the fact that women of all social classes trained in self-defence when they could suggested a common sense of female solidarity in their efforts to resist gender-based violence.
Women who did not take formal self-defence courses could pursue a program of home training. The Yabe School of Jiu-Jitsu in Rochester, New York, offered free lessons through the mail.
According to advertisements for this programme, learning these simple techniques would enable “a little woman to overthrow a big, powerful man,” affording “sure protection from attack by thieves and thugs.”
Books offered in-depth tutorials on how women could privately prepare themselves for defensive combat. In 1904, Harry Hall Skinner insisted that the purpose of his book Jiu-Jitsu was to teach any man or woman how to defeat “a more powerful assailant.” Harrie Irving Hancock wrote three books in 1904 and 1905 designed to teach men, women, and children self-defence through jiu-jitsu.
Films could also serve as primers on self-defence. A short film, starring the vaudeville actress and boxer Vera Roehm and produced by Paramount-Bray Pictograph, promised to teach “the Womanly Art of Self-Defense.” In an article in the 1918 Toronto World, Roehm was quoted as saying, “Women would do well to learn boxing...It would teach them to take care of themselves at all times. The vast majority are helpless at present if insulted or attacked as often happens in cities and country.” In the film, Roehm “gives a forceful illustration of how with such a knowledge a woman may maintain her right to sit on a park bench unmolested.”
Excerpted with permission from Her Own Hero: The Origins Of The Women’s Self-Defense Movement, Wendy L Rouse, SAGE Vistaar.