Women's boxing
Although women have participated in boxing for almost as long as the sport has existed, female fights have been effectively outlawed for most of boxing's history until recently, with athletic commissioners refusing to sanction or issue licenses to women boxers, and most nations officially banning the sport. Reports of women entering the ring go back to the 18th century.
Historical overview
One of the earliest mentions of women's boxing is in the travelogue of a German man who visited London in 1710. While taking in a men's boxing match, he met a woman in the audience who claimed to have previously boxed another woman in the same venue.One of the earliest known women's boxing matches to have been advertised in print was in London between Elizabeth Wilkinson and Hannah Hyfield in 1722. Billing herself as the "European Championess", Wilkinson and her husband would also fight other mixed couples as a pair, with Wilkinson fighting the other woman, and her husband fighting the other man. In those days, the rules of boxing allowed kicking, gouging and other methods of attack not part of today's arsenal.
Women's boxing first appeared in the Olympic Games as a demonstration sport in 1904, in St. Louis.
During the 1920s, Professor Andrew Newton formed a Women's Boxing Club in London. However women's boxing was hugely controversial. In early 1926, Shoreditch borough council banned an arranged exhibition match between boxers Annie Newton and Madge Baker, a student of Digger Stanley. An attempt to hold the match in nearby Hackney instead was defeated by a campaign led by the Mayor of Hackney, who wrote, "I regard this proposed exhibition of women boxers as a gratification of the sensual ideals of a crowd of vulgar men." The Home Secretary Sir William Joynson-Hicks was among those opposing the match, claiming "the Legislature never imagined that such a disgraceful exhibition would have been staged in this country." The story was reported across the country and even internationally.
In 1988 the Swedish Amateur Boxing Association sanctioned events for women.
In 1997 the British Amateur Boxing Association sanctioned its first boxing competition for women. The first event was meant to be between two thirteen-year-olds, but one of the boxers dropped out because of hostile media attention. A month later, an event was held between two sixteen-year-olds.
The British Boxing Board of Control refused to issue licenses to women until they issued one to Jane Couch in 1998. By the end of the century, however, they had issued five such licenses. The first sanctioned professional bout between women in the U.K. was in November 1998 at Streatham in London, between Jane Couch and Simona Lukic. Couch won.
The International Boxing Association accepted new rules for women's boxing at the end of the 20th century and approved the first European Cup for Women in 1999 and the first World Championship for women in 2001. In October 2001 the first women's world amateur boxing championships, called the 2001 Women's World Amateur Boxing Championships, were held in Scranton, in the United States.
File:LuciaRijker.jpg|thumbnail|Lucia Rijker and Jane Couch boxing, 2003
Women's boxing was not featured at the 2008 Olympics; however, on 14 August 2009, it was announced that the International Olympic Committee's Executive Board had approved the inclusion of women's boxing for the Games in London in the 2012 Olympics, contrary to the expectations of some observers. Around these hearings, in conjunction with AIBA, the International Olympic Committee agreed to include three additional women's weight classes to the 2012 London Olympic Games. A new "gender-appropriate" women's boxing uniform was being created at the time, which would have required women to wear skirts during competition. The issue was widely ignored by the public until amateur boxer and London student Elizabeth Plank brought the issue to light. She created a petition at Change.com to end the gender-based mandatory uniforms. It was eventually decided to give women boxers the option of wearing shorts or a skirt.
Women were allowed to competitively box for the first time at the Olympics during the 2012 Summer Olympics, in London, producing the world's first 12 female Olympic medalist boxers. Nicola Adams of Great Britain won the world's first Olympic women's boxing gold medal.
On 14 September 2014, after defeating Croatian Ivana Habazin, Cecilia Brækhus became the first Norwegian and the first woman to hold all major world championship belts in her weight division in boxing history.
In 2015 the World Boxing Federation unified various women's titles to have one title holder.
In 2024, Cindy Ngamba became the first boxer chosen for the Refugee Olympic Team; later that year she became the first medalist for the Refugee Olympic Team at the Olympics, having won bronze in women's 75 kg boxing at the 2024 Summer Olympics.
Algeria
On 9 August 2024, Algerian boxer Imane Khelif defeated Yang Liu of China in the final to win an Olympic gold medal. Khelif therefore became Algeria's first female gold medalist in boxing, as well as the country's first boxer of any gender to win a medal since Mohamed Allalou in 2000 and the first to win a gold medal since Hocine Soltani in 1996.Khelif had been disqualified from the 2023 Women's World Boxing Championships organized by the Russian-led International Boxing Association after failing unspecified gender eligibility tests, along with boxer Lin Yu-ting. The International Olympic Committee and its Paris Boxing Unit criticized the disqualification as "sudden and arbitrary" and taken "without any due process". The Washington Post stated, "It remains unclear what standards Khelif and Lin Yu Ting failed to lead to the disqualifications." The IBA did not reveal the testing methodology, stating the "specifics remain confidential". The IBA's Olympic status was revoked in June 2023, due to governance issues and perceived judging and refereeing corruption.
In May 2025, World Boxing announced the implementation of sex verification testing for all athletes in events sanctioned by the group; its announcement specifically singled out Khelif by saying she would be barred from competing until she underwent genetic sex screening. World Boxing's president Boris van der Vorst apologized to the Algerian federation for what it perceived as a violation of her privacy. Khelif had intended to return to international competition at the Eindhoven Box Cup in June 2025. However, following World Boxing's announcement of mandatory sex testing, tournament officials reported that Khelif had not registered for the event. In August 2025, she appealed the World Boxing decision. On September 1, the Court of Arbitration for Sport publicly acknowledged the appeal, but refused her request to suspend the World Boxing decision until the case was heard. As a result, Khelif was unable to participate in the World Boxing championship that started on September 4, 2025.
Argentina
In Argentina, women's boxing has experienced a notable rise in popularity, due in part to the presence of boxers such as Alejandra Oliveras, Marcela Acuna, Yesica Bopp and Erica Farias.Australia
While not being urged to avoid competition, women had few opportunities to compete in sport in Australia until the 1880s. After that date, new sporting facilities were being built around the country and many new sport clubs were created. Boxing classes were being offered to women in Australia by 1892, at locations such as the Brisbane Gymnasium on Turbot Street, close to the city's railway station. While classes may have been offered for women, serious training was not permitted for women by the 1900s and women were banned from pursuing the sport in a competitive way. Women were also barred from attending boxing matches. New South Wales banned women's boxing from 1986 to 2009. Women's boxing was resumed in NSW with an exhibition fight between Kaye Scott and Ramona Stephenson in October 2009. Women's boxing was legalized in Queensland in 2000.In 2002, Desi Kontos of South Australia became the first Australian woman to represent the country at the boxing world championships.
Naomi Fischer-Rasmussen was the first female boxer to represent Australia at the Olympics when she competed at the 2012 Summer Olympics.
Caitlin Parker became the first Australian female boxer to win an Olympic medal when she won bronze at the 2024 Summer Olympics.
Canada
In 2023, women competed in boxing at the Canada Games for the first time. Talia Birch of Team Quebec and Emily Vigneault of Team Alberta won the first Canada Games gold medals for boxing in their divisions; Birch won in the 52-kg female division and Vigneault won in the 60-kg female division. Those were the only female divisions in boxing in the 2023 Canada Games.China
In 2024, Ruru Yang Sheau-ru became Hong Kong's first woman professional boxer to win a world title, due to winning the Women's International Boxing Association super bantamweight belt by defeating Tanwarat Saengiamjit from Thailand. The match was held in Bangkok.Later that year, Chang Yuan defeated Turkish boxer Hatice Akbaş by 5–0 to win the gold medal in women's 54 kg boxing at the 2024 Summer Olympics, which made Chang the first Chinese female boxer to win a gold medal at any Olympics.
Cuba
In 2022 women became allowed to participate officially in the sport of boxing in Cuba, for the first time since they were banned from doing so during the Revolution of Fidel Castro in 1959.Cuba’s national school of boxing opened to women in January of 2023.