Barbara Buttrick and the History of Women’s Boxing in Britain

This paper explores the life and career of Barbara Buttrick but also the way in which her achievements have been remembered (and forgotten). Born near Hull in 1930, Buttrick faced discrimination and disapproval in the UK and was frequently banned and boycotted. Moving to the United States in 1952, she enjoyed greater opportunities and recognition. In 1957, she beat Phyllis Kugler in a bout in San Antonio, Texas, to become the first sanctioned women’s boxing title-holder. In retirement, Buttrick became a key figure in the foundation and development of the Women’s International Boxing Federation.  

Drawing on material from the Barbara Buttrick Collection at the National Fairground Archive in Sheffield among other sources, this paper examines three key phases in the ‘making’ and ‘remembering’ of Buttrick in relation to the history of women’s boxing in Britain. It focuses first on her boxing career in the late 1940s-1960, then examines the interweaving of Buttrick’s story into the narrative of women’s boxing at the 2012 London Olympics, before finally looking at the portrayal of Buttrick in Amanda Whittington’s 2017 play Mighty Atoms.  

Matthew Taylor is Professor of History at the ICSHC and Director of the Institute of History, DMU. He has written widely on the history of sport in Britain and beyond. His last book was Sport and the Home Front: Wartime Britain at Play, 1939-1945 (Routledge, 2020) and he is currently completing World of Sport: Connected and Transnational Histories, which will be published by Routledge in 2024.  

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