A BBC programme about the rise of the lady in Victorian and Edwardian England will highlight the role of the University of Greenwich in the pioneering of women’s Physical Education.

The Executive Editor of The Lady, Rachel Johnson, interviewed Dr Jackie Farr from the university’s School of Education, for the Timeshift programme, to be shown on Tuesday 26 March at 9pm on BBC4.

Jackie, a Senior Lecturer in Physical Education & Sport, discussed her research on the work of Martina Bergman Österberg, founder of Dartford College of Physical Education which later became part of the University of Greenwich.

The invention of the gym slip and netball at the college, together with how Madame Österberg created the new profession of teaching for middle class women, were among the topics looked at during the programme.

Jackie says: “After seeing a period photo of students exercising on a piece of gym equipment, Rachel Johnson asked what I thought Madame Österberg would make of pole dancing today.  I replied that she was a stickler for appropriate dress and behaviour so would have probably been less than amused. She told her students that they were only well-dressed if they could walk down the street unnoticed.”

The BBC production team used the extensive archive of the Bergman Österberg Union with its huge range of original material dating from the late 1880s, supported by the archivist, Rosemary Moon.

The university has enabled the digitisation and preservation of much of the material used in the making of the programme. The university has acknowledged the impact of Madame Österberg’s work by dedicating a campus sports hall to her memory – her portrait can be seen in the David Fussey building on the university’s Avery Hill campus.

Jackie trained as a teacher of Physical Education at Dartford College in the 1970s, and specialises in the history of women in physical education. She has been invited to speak in April at the 90th anniversary celebrations of the Japan Women’s Physical Education College in Tokyo, founded by students who originally trained under Madame Österberg at Dartford.

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