This paper examines the development of women's sports during the first three decades of the 20th century and compares it with the development of the women's movement during the same period. In so doing, the paper focuses on the views of female physical educators and female athletes and on their participation in sport. These views and the relationship of these views are then compared to the views of women and of their participation in society held by two groups involved in the women's movement, feminists and reformers. It is argued that, within both movements, both groups of women held different and diametrically opposed views of women and their participation in sport and society. It is concluded that, in both movements, a schism developed between the two groups which held diametrically opposed conceptions of women and their rights. It is also concluded that the lack of unity within each group is responsible, in large measure, for the approximate 40 year period of acquiescence experienced by both the women's sports movement and the women's movement. (Author/JMK)