Shifting perceptions of Women's Boxing

Associate Professor Sarah Crews’s research explores the need for critical scholarship on women’s boxing – a sport that, despite increasing visibility, remains deeply contested.

a woman stands in front of a punch bag, wearing boxing gloves

Her work interrogates the ‘B-side’ of boxing culture, investigating the tension between how female boxers understand their own labour and embodiment, and how they are perceived or narrated by others. At its core, the research asks: whose stories are valued in boxing, and how do cultural memory and representation shape which contributions are made visible – and which are marginalised?

Dr Crews’s research already begun shaping both public and academic conversations around gender and sport. Her research has informed media coverage of gender controversies at the Paris 2024 Olympics and contributed to discussions within advocacy organisations such as Women in Boxing.

Through her work with Women's Boxing Wales and Boxing Is Love, she has collaborated with athletes, coaches, and grassroots communities to amplify underrepresented voices and challenge dominant narratives in sport. These partnerships have helped bridge academic research with lived experience, fostering inclusive dialogue and community-led change.

BY PROVIDING TOOLS FOR ADVOCACY, EDUCATION, AND STORYTELLING, WE ARE HELPING TO ELEVATE THE VISIBILITY AND LEGITIMACY OF WOMEN’S BOXING IN WALES AND BEYOND.

Dr Sarah Crews

Associate Professor in Performance and Physical Culture

Her Leverhulme-funded project, From Undercard to Headliner: Lost Legacies and Hidden Labour in Women’s Boxing, has led to a monograph and digital archive which offers accessible resources for educators, policymakers, and campaigners working toward gender equity in sport. These outputs document and celebrate the lived experiences of female boxers in Wales and internationally, contributing to a more inclusive sporting history.

Dr Crews is also developing a large-scale research and community engagement project, Wear and Tear: Boxing, Bodily Autonomy and Sites of Care and Resistance. This research, undertaken with community boxing gyms, explores how stories are created, held, and transmitted through everyday acts of care, teaching, and support in and through boxing.

It seeks to highlight the vital contributions of women (coaches, mothers, administrators, and caregivers) whose work sustains the social fabric of the gym yet frequently remains invisible. By positioning boxing gyms as cultural sites of care, Wear and Tear will explore resilience, belonging, and communal storytelling in the sport, and consider how recognising hidden labour can transform our understanding of boxing as a living cultural practice in Wales.