Research for the GDPW project was drawn from markedly varied resources, including pro wrestling websites, academic journals, The Paris Review, a doctoral thesis, and feature films. The scope of our sources speaks to how professional wrestling, in all its melodrama and gaudy glitz, can work its way into our collective consciousness; as Roland Barthes wrote in his famous 1972 essay The World of Wrestling,  “What is thus displayed for the public is the great spectacle of Suffering, Defeat, and Justice.”  But In women’s professional wrestling it is injustice that is, unfortunately, not simply part of the show.  

The history of women’s professional wrestling–a history almost as long as the men’s–reveals that, as most everywhere, a gender disparity favors the men. It’s been there since the early 1900s when women’s wrestling was declared illegal (it was legalized in New York in 1974). It’s evident in the fact that women’s matches were originally held only as carnival sideshows, and only first televised in 1984. It can be seen in the exploitation of women pro wrestlers, especially Black women wrestlers, that began in the 1950s.  And, despite industry attempts to portray a greater sense of equality in today’s sport, men’s championship matches at pro wrestling’s top venue, Madison Square Garden, are still held ten times as often as women’s matches. 

The latter was the starting point for examination into other areas of inequity in women’s professional wrestling: salaries, length of matches, and more.  GDPW is grateful for the many books, articles, blogs, essays, films and projects we have found to help us make our case for increased equity and opportunity for women professional wrestlers. 

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