“It is a good thing for a girl to learn to box”

The first record about a boxing class for women. “It is a good thing for a girl to learn to box,” says an article in the beauty column of the “New York Evening World.” Why? Because “poise, grace and buoyancy of movement result from this exercise.” Techniques that schoolgirls were told to practice with their maids included hooks to the face and solar plexus punches. According to the “New York World”, young ladies attending the Madison Academy in New York City also boxed and wrestled. “Annie Lynch, the boxer, was said to hit a harder blow than the average young man. Every blow comes straight from the shoulder, not with awkwardness and lack of speed one would expect, but with the weight of the body behind it.”