Women, Sport, Society

During the last four decades women’s and gender history have become vibrant fields including studies of attitudes regarding the limited physical and other abilities of females as well as studies of the accomplishments of notable female athletes. We have become increasingly aware that women have made contributions to physical education, dance and sport that go far beyond being teachers, athletes and coaches. They have created and implemented an astonishing variety of programs intended to serve the needs of large numbers of children and youth sometimes organizing student health services, as well as chairing departments of physical education. They have worked as directors of sport, physical education and dance, running playgrounds and recreational facilities and have created and/or served as important officers of a variety of sporting organizations.

This book explores the contributions and achievements of women in a variety of historical and geographical contexts which, not surprisingly opens opportunities for additions, revisions and counter-narratives to accepted histories of physical education and sport science. It seeks to broaden our understandings about the backgrounds, motivations and achievements of dedicated women working to improve health and bodily practices in a variety of different arenas and for often different purposes.

This book was previously published as a special issue of the International Journal of the History of Sport.

1. Prologue: Reaffirming Mary Wollstonecraft: Extending the Dialogue on Women, Sport and Physical Activities 
ROBERTA J. PARK and PATRICIA VERTINSKY

2. From Physical Educators to Mothers of the Dance: Margaret H’Doubler and Martha Hill 
PATRICIA VERTINSKY, University of British Columbia, Canada

3. Recreation and Racial Politics in the Young Women’s Christian Association of the United States, 1920s -1950s 
MARTHA VERBRUGGE, Bucknell University, USA

4. The Physical is Political: Women’s Suffrage, Pilgrim Hikes, and the Public Sphere 
JAIME SCHULTZ, University of Maryland, USA

5. From Alice Milliat to Marie-Therese Eyquem: Revisiting Women’s Sport in France, 1920s-1960s 
THIERRY TERRET, University of Lyon, France

6. Eliza Maria Mosher. Pioneering Woman Physician and Advocate for Physical Education 
ALISON M. WRYNN, California State University, Long Beach, USA

7. Leading the Way in Science, Medicine and Physical Training: Female Physicians in Academia, 1890-1930 
SUSAN G.ZIEFF, San Francisco State University, USA

8. Empowering Women Through Sport: Women’s Basketball in Brazil and the Significant Role of Maria Helena Cardoso 
CLAUDIA GUEDES, San Francisco State University, USA

9. Strong, Athletic and Beautiful: Edmondo De Amicis and the Ideal Italian Woman 
DAVID CHAPMAN AND GIGLIOLA GORI, University of Urbino, Italy

10. Achievements that Women Attained In and Through the Field of Physical Education (And Some That They Have Lost Since the 1970s) 
ROBERTA J. PARK, University of California, Berkeley, USA

11. Epilogue: Retrospectus 
J.A.MANGAN