Fédération des sociétés féminines sportives de France
{{Short description|French women's sport organisation}}
{{DISPLAYTITLE:Fédération des sociétés féminines sportives de France}}
{{Use British English| date=February 2021}}
{{Use dmy dates| date=February 2021}}
{{Expand French|Fédération des sociétés féminines sportives de France|date=February 2021|topic=sport}}
{{Infobox organization
| name = Fédération des sociétés féminines sportives de France
| image = File:Alice milliat.jpg
| alt = Picture of women in a single seater rowing boat
| caption = Alice Milliat, president of the FSFSF from 1919–25 and 1930–36.
| abbreviation = FSFSF
| formation = 1917
| dissolved = 1936
| founder = {{flatlist|
- Alice Milliat
- Pierre Payssé
- Albert Pelan
}}
| founding_location = France
| purpose = Promotion of women's sport
| headquarters =
| location_country = France
}}
The Fédération des sociétés féminines sportives de France (FSFSF, later the Fédération feminine sportive de France (FFSF)) was a French organisation set up to promote women's sport. The FSFSF was responsible for the French women's football championship from 1919 until 1932, and organised the Women's Olympiad, an alternative to the Olympic Games, between 1921 and 1923.
History
The {{Lang|fr|Fédération des sociétés féminines sportives de France}} (FSFSF) was founded in December 1917. In January 1918, the French Athletics Federation refused to take responsibility for women's sport, and the FSFSF was officially recognised as an organiser of women's sport. Alice Milliat,{{cite web |url= https://uefaacademy.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2019/05/20110622_Williams-Jean_Final-Report.pdf |type=PDF |title=Women's Football, Europe and Professionalization 1971–2011 |last=Williams |first=Jean |publisher=De Montfort University |via=UEFA |page=18}} Pierre Payssé and Albert Pelan, were founding members. Payssé and Pelan were both organisers of existing women's sports organisations.{{cite book |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=dQ3dAAAAQBA |title=Women, Sport, Society |last=Vertinsky |first=Patricia|publisher=Taylor & Francis |date=2013 |page=53|isbn=9781317985808}} The first president of the FSFSF was surgeon Fauvre de Bouvet,{{cite book |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=pOTOCwAAQBAJ |title= Sport and the Emancipation of European Women: The Struggle for Self-fulfilment |last1=Gori |first1=Gigliola |last2=Morgan |first2=J.A. |publisher=Taylor & Francis |date=2016 |pages= |isbn=9781134932498}} and the FSFSF's initial board contained only two female members: Milliat and Marie Surcouf. In 1919, Milliat became the FSFSF's president,{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=HFBVDwAAQBAJ |title= Global Sport Leaders: A Biographical Analysis of International Sport Management |last1=Bayle |first1=Emmanuel |last2=Clastres |first2=Patrick |publisher=Springer Publishing |date=2018|pages=66, 68, 73–74, 80|isbn=9783319767536}} and from that time, the organisation was only run by women. The FSFSF did not class itself as a feminist movement.{{cite book |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=yo2ZnpOQc7AC |title=Women, Football and Europe: Histories, Equity and Experience |last1=Cauder |first1=Jayne|last2=Magee|first2=Jonathan|last3=Liston|first3=Katie|last4=Scraton|first4=Sheila|publisher=Meyer & Meyer Sport |date=2008|pages= 29–33|isbn=9781841262253}} In 1921, the organisation officially renamed itself the {{Lang|fr|Fédération feminine sportive de France}} (FFSF).{{cite book |first1=Raymond |last1=Barrull |title=Les étapes de la gymnastique au sol et aux agrès en France et dans le monde |language=fr |publisher=French Gymnastics Federation|date=1984 |page=294 |isbn=978-2-9500603-0-3}} Milliat resigned as president in 1925, and later became president again from 1930 until 1936. The FSFSF was disbanded in 1936, after Milliat resigned as president of the organisation.
Sports
File:Französisches Auswahlteam der Frauen 1920.jpg
The FSFSF sought to promote sports that were seen as "unfeminine" at the time. Its sports included athletics, pushball, field hockey, basketball, swimming, rowing, and cross country running. These sports had been disregarded by another women's sports organisation, the {{ill|Union française de gymnastique féminine|fr|Fédération féminine française de gymnastique et d'éducation physique}}, which chose to focus on "feminine sports".{{cite book |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=anEsBgAAQBAJ |title= Soccer, Women, Sexual Liberation: Kicking Off a New Era |last1=Hong |first1=Fan |last2=Morgan |first2=J.A. |publisher=Taylor & Francis |date=2004 |pages=138, 153|isbn=9781135770587}} The FSFSF collaborated with existing women's sports clubs Fémina Sport, and {{ill|En Avant (women's football)|lt=En Avant|fr|En avant (club de football)}}, which were both founded in 1912,[http://www.la84foundation.org/SportsLibrary/JSH/JSH1977/JSH0401/jsh0401f.pdf Journal of Sport History] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110523095508/http://www.la84foundation.org/SportsLibrary/JSH/JSH1977/JSH0401/jsh0401f.pdf |date=23 May 2011 }}, page 75 and {{lang|fr|Académia}}, which was founded in 1913.{{cite book|pages=146–147|first1=Fabienne|last1=Legrand |first2=Jean |last2=Ladegaillerie |title=L'éducation physique au XIX et XX siècle |language=fr |publisher={{ill|Bourrelier|fr}} |date=1970}}
{{Infobox football league
|name = {{lang|fr|Championnat de France de football féminin}}
|organiser = FSFSF
|founded = 1919
|folded = 1933
|country = France
|teams = 2–16
|champions = Fémina Sport
|season = 1932
|most_champs = Fémina Sport (11)
}}
{{anchor|Championnat de France de football féminin}}
From 1919 until 1932, the FSFSF were responsible for the French women's football championship, the {{lang|fr|Championnat de France de football féminin}}.{{cite web |url=https://www.rsssf.org/tablesf/fran-womchamp.html |title=France – List of Women Champions and Runners-Up |website=RSSSF |access-date=10 February 2021}} The first championship in 1919 featured two teams: Fémina Sport and En Avant. They competed in a two-legged tie, which was won on aggregate by Fémina Sport. In 1924, 16 teams competed in the league, which reduced to eight teams in 1931. There was criticism of the effects of playing football on women's health, and a concern that the league was heavily orientated towards Paris, where most teams were based. In 1933, women's football was banned by the French Football Federation, and the {{lang|fr|Championnat de France de football féminin}} was ended.{{cite web |url=https://www.liberation.fr/sports/2019/06/10/femina-sport-aux-sources-du-foot-des-femmes-en-france_1732338/ |title= Fémina sport : aux sources du foot des femmes en France |language=fr |work=Libération |date=10 June 2019 |access-date=11 February 2021}} In total, Fémina Sport won the championship 11 times, En Avant won twice, and {{ill|Les Sportives de Paris|fr|Sportives}} won the title once.
In 1920, a French XI organised by the FSFSF travelled to England to play four football matches against Dick, Kerr Ladies F.C. Dick, Kerr Ladies travelled to France later in the year to play four more matches against a French XI; the match at Stade Pershing in Paris attracted 22,000 supporters. In 1922, an FSFSF team played matches against a British XI in Plymouth and Exeter, United Kingdom and a Cornish XI in Falmouth, Cornwall, United Kingdom.{{cite web |url= http://donmouth.co.uk/womens_football/football_feminin.html |title= Football Féminin |publisher=Donmouth.com |access-date=10 February 2021}}
In 1921, after it was announced that women could not compete in athletics events at the 1924 Summer Olympics,{{cite book |editor=Barbara L. Drinkwater |author2=IOC Medical Commission |author3=International Federation of Sports Medicine |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rPXr-0PUk5gC&pg=PA5 |first1=Gertrude |last1=Pfister |title=Women in Sport |publisher=Blackwell Science |date=2008 |chapter=Women and the Olympic Games |series=The Encyclopaedia of Sports Medicine |volume=VIII |pages=5–6 |isbn=9780470756850}} Milliat and the FSFSF organised the {{lang|fr|Olympiades Feminines}} (Women's Olympiad). The FSFSF-organised events ran from 1921 to 1923.{{cite web |url= https://www.comite-olympique.mc/index.php/en/history/the-womens-olympic-games |title=The Women's Olympic Games |publisher=Monégasque Olympic Committee |access-date=10 February 2021}} They were superseded by the Women's World Games, organised by the International Women's Sports Federation (FSFI); the FSFI and the British Women's Amateur Athletic Association also jointly organised the 1924 Women's Olympiad.{{cite web |url=http://library.la84.org/OlympicInformationCenter/OlympicReview/1997/oreXXVI15/oreXXVI15u.pdf |last=DeFrantz |first=Anita Lucette |title=The changing role of women in the Olympic Games |work=Olympic Review |year=1997 |volume=XXVI |issue=15 June–July |pages=18–21 |access-date=14 February 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160912062154/http://library.la84.org/OlympicInformationCenter/OlympicReview/1997/oreXXVI15/oreXXVI15u.pdf |archive-date=12 September 2016 |url-status=dead }} The FSFI had been founded at a meeting following the 1921 Women's Olympiad.{{cite web |url=http://www.dosb.de/en/olympia/detail/news/vom_ausschluss_zur_integration_frauen_und_olympische_spiele/printer.html |title=Gertrud Pfister: Frauen und Olympische Spiele |language=de |publisher=German Olympic Sports Confederation |date=2000 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170202002659/http://www.dosb.de/en/olympia/detail/news/vom_ausschluss_zur_integration_frauen_und_olympische_spiele/printer.html |archive-date=2 February 2017}}