A Fine Balance

Margaret Bell's life illustrates the limited opportunities for women in higher education in addition to the restrictions they faced when attempting to control their narrow sphere of professional influence. Bell's career is also an outstanding exemplar of connections physical education had with health and medicine in its early years and the shift that occurred by the mid 20th century that made physical education an increasingly separate, specialized field. Her service ethic, interest in research on menstruation and physical activity, and work as a university health service physician provides an interesting illustration of the balancing act that women in physical education at the university level were expected to live in the middle decades of the 20th century.