Abstract
Noting that participation in the Olympics by women increased slightly from about 1930 to the 1990s, this paper examines changes occurring within the IOC from 1960 to 1979 by using IOC minutes as the primary historical source and focuses first on who participated in debate and how the debate was with regard to concerning requests for the addition of women's sports and events as a reflection of changes in conditions, and second on what types of discussions took place in the background leading to the these types of requests and what types of changes in the IOC were brought about by the gradual increase in participation by women.
In the undercurrent to the issue of participation by women was the expansion of the Olympics as another issue. This referred to diversification among men, who had been the subject of the Olympic movement promoted by the IOC as a result of the popularization and increase in competing populations and the increase in IOC member countries. The issue of participation by women was a part of the changes, that is, the generalization of the movement sought through re-definition of the ideals of the Olympic movement necessitated by responses to the diversification of values. Prior research pointed out that the direct impact regarding participation of women in the Olympic Games as a result of membership in the IOC by eastern European countries was that the eastern European
members made intensive requests during the period from 1955 to 1967 to include additional sports and events in the Games. The research also pointed out that it was President Brundage that had a positive impact on the increased participation by women. Konstantin Andianov, IOC member from the Soviet Union and later IOC vice president played a more important role in the increase in sports and events. Recruitment of women to the decision-making body within the IOC was first emphasized in the Brundage era, but substantive change was driven by President Killanin.
