Westminster and Women

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90 – February, 2025

By Caroline Coile

The Westminster Kennel Club is a mix of tradition and innovation in the dog world. And both are plain in the way it has historically treated women. One example of tradition is its exclusion of women members until very recently. One example of innovation was its choice in 1888 of Miss Anna Whitney to judge, the first time a woman officiated at any dog show in the United States.

True, women were already well-established as both breeders and exhibitors–although the latter was not always met with approval. Dog shows were one of the first public activities in which both men and women competed against one another. The fact that none other than Queen Victoria participated in breeding and showing gave credence to the idea that this was an activity women of class could participate in. But while women in Victorian times were generally welcomed as breeders, parading around a show ring was considered by many to be a bit unseemly.

According to Sarah Amato in her book Beastly Possession: Animals in Victorian Consumer Culture, women who showed dogs were taken as examples of women trying to invade male territory and thus destroy Edwardian gender culture. They became unwitting symbols of the suffragette movement and, as such, often the object of mockery.

In the public press woman fanciers were portrayed as frivolous, prone to hysterics if their spoiled dog did not win. Satirical illustrations showed women as bitter spinsters, or as fashion plates with dogs as accessories, or as matrons using dogs as substitutes for the babies they should instead be raising. Caricatures of male exhibitors were far more positive, perhaps showing a man and his hunting hound who resembled one another.

These early feminists were also seen as unladylike. According to an article in the 1905 “Field and Fancy” (reprinted in Anne Hier’s book Dog Shows Then and Now): “The time was that to exhibit dogs was looked upon more or less as an outrage on the part of a society dame or young lady, while to lead a dog into a ring was decidedly ‘fast.’” The author goes on to say that the Ladies Kennel Association in Boston was the first to promote the practice and that other cities followed suit. “Now the custom is general, and there are several women of position and fortune who can today ‘handle’ a dog in the ring with all the ease and finish of the professional man who studies a dog’s pose and watches the judge’s eye.”

While not everyone welcomed women as competitors (at least inside the ring), WKC was quick to capitalize of the image of a beautiful woman and her dog. From 1897 through 1902, they replaced their trademark pointer Sensation cover with covers depicting elegantly attired women with their purebred dogs.

Women, Westminster and Judging

Click here to read the complete article
90 – February, 2025

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