Women Run the World: A Feminist Victory at the London Marathon

Women really are running the world — or at least they were last weekend, as the London Marathon marked a feminist victory 50 years in the making.

Did you know that just 50 years ago women couldn’t run more than 6000m in official competitions- that’s not even 4 miles!

So I just thought, what better way to celebrate how far we have come than now? At Sunday’s Marathon, tens of thousands of women laced up their trainers and crossed the finish line.

Shoulder to shoulder with over 56,000 people, all running towards a shared goal. With approximately 44.5% of those who registered being women, this shows a step in the right direction towards women's liberation in the world of sport and a visible reminder that we do belong here.

I’m not a sports person, but I love seeing progress for women in Sport, an area we have fought long and hard to enter. So I just felt a little reflective and thought let’s look at how far we've come, and how much further we still have to go in the fight for equality.

The London marathon not only set record-breaking participants this year (beating previous records held by the New York City marathon) but also set a new women-only world record, with elite runner Tigst Assefa completing the race in an astounding time of 2:15:50.  

While women were always able to compete in the London marathon, the first one being held in March 1981. This was actually considered progressive for its time, with women's marathons only entering the Olympics in 1984.

Just 50 years ago, in 1975, women's marathon running was finally recognised on a broader scale. 2025 marks half a century of women's defiance and endurance.

A landmark moment in women's running came in 1967, when Kathrine Switzer became the first woman to officially enter and complete the Boston Marathon, even though women were banned at the time.

She registered under her initials ‘K.V. Switzer’, and was able to avoid detection throughout the registration process.

The infamous pictures of officials trying to drag her off the race course became a beacon of hope and a symbol of resistance for women against outdated beliefs that stopped women from gaining the right to run a marathon.

The Battle To Run

Women in sport are surrounded by myths, these myths date back to the dawn of the Olympics 2,800 years ago.

Fun fact: Did you know it wasn’t until 2012 that women were officially allowed to enter all Olympic sports? That genuinely blows my mind.

Anyway, let’s get back to those myths and debunk some of them.

1.       Women were too fragile to run

It was genuinely believed that a woman's uterus may fall out if she ran too far and pushed herself too much…

That’s not just bad science; it was a way to control women's bodies, and by branding them too fragile to run, it allowed society to continue pushing the idea that a women's place was in the home.

2.       800m was far enough

800m, not even a mile.

In 1928, the longest race a woman could compete in was the 800-meter. However, after the race, when women were seen looking visibly exhausted rather than celebrating their effort, the officials used it as ‘proof’ that women were too fragile to run.

The race was scrapped immediately, and it was another 32 years before change occurred.

This was not about protecting women but rather continuing male dominance in sport.

3.       Sports would make women "unfeminine"

Ok, to be fair, these are still ideas that exist.

But this myth has little to do with biology and more to do with the patriarchy, a scared system. Scared of anyone who could appear ‘fit’ to challenge ideas surrounding the fragile, dependent image of women and the female body that society needs to maintain male dominance.

These myths weren’t harmless — they were tools to police women's bodies and keep them out of public life.

Still Running Against The Odds

While yes, we are getting close to the 50% mark in this instance, equality in sports has a long way to go. Women’s sports still receive shockingly low media coverage compared to men, with a recent report showing that women's media coverage globally only receives about 4% of all sports media coverage.

Sponsorship deals reveal the same disparities. For example, despite her world-record performances, marathon runner Mary Keitany earned far fewer sponsorships than her male counterparts during her peak years.

Running remains a radical act.

Running alongside many other sports remains a radical act for women. We must continue to push against harmful stereotypes. When we take up space in race courses, on pitches, on rugby fields, in boxing rings, or gyms, or even just running through our own streets, we defy the harmful myths that once told us we didn’t belong.

We defy these harmful myths that society socialised us to believe, that we were too weak, fragile, or unfeminine if we took part.

Watching women train for the London Marathon this year, and its record-breaking registration, inspired even me, a non-runner, to sign up for my first half marathon.

It reminded me that being a mother and a runner are not contradictions of one another and that we are all capable of nurturing and chasing personal victories.

Plus, my older children are totally egging me on and are proud of me, and it feels amazing to set a good positive example for them.

 𝒵𝒾 𝑀𝒶𝓂𝒶