There was much discussion about the introduction of events for women. The Stewards felt that they faced a dilemma: on the one hand it was argued that women's rowing would never flourish while there were no women's events at Britain's premier regatta; on the other it was clear that open women's events would be dominated by foreign competitors, while events closed to foreign competitors would not serve the desired purpose. Another difficulty was the length of the course. The standard distance for international women's races was at that time 1000 m. It was clear that races over the full Henley course (2112 m) would not be appealing to women's crews preparing for international championships.