Wonder Girl by
Experience the extraordinary story of a nearly forgotten American superstar athlete. Texas girl Babe Didrikson never tried a sport too tough and never met a hurdle too high. Despite attempts to keep women from competing, Babe achieved All-American status in basketball and won gold medals in track and field at the 1932 Olympics. Then Babe attempted to conquer golf. One of the founders of the LPGA, Babe won more consecutive tournaments than any golfer in history. At the height of her fame, she was diagnosed with cancer. Babe would then take her most daring step of all: go public and try to win again with the hope of inspiring the world. A rollicking saga, stretching across the first half of the 20th century, Wonder Girl is as fresh, heartfelt, and graceful as Babe herself.
Women in Sports by
Providing key data, insights, and ways of thinking about women and sports, this book is an excellent resource for high school and undergraduate students as well as for sport organizations serving girls and women.Women are participating in sports in record numbers, and thanks in part to Title IX and a growing interest in women's sports, they're breaking records and achieving remarkable success in sports in every conceivable manner. However, women still struggle for equitable treatment in a variety of sports and face different obstacles than do their male counterparts. How can these issues be solved? Are women in sports being treated fairly?This book provides a comprehensive yet accessible overview of the state of women's participation in sports by referencing both current events and research. Additionally, it offers a breadth of information pertaining to work in sports made available to girls and women. Key aspects include a detailed history of women in sports since 1900 as well as a discussion of current issues surrounding their participation in high school and college athletics, recreational sports, physical activity, and leadership in sports organizations. In particular, the material not only recounts history and analyzes issues but also presents perspectives as to how and why sports continue to be simultaneously a means of empowerment and a conduit for the marginalization of girls and women.
Sisterhood in Sports by
Sisterhood in Sports: How Female Athletes Collaborate and Compete tells the stories of all kinds of female athletes in a variety of sports. Their natural tendency to use talking as a primary form of communication is essential to their experiences and successes in sports. Women and girls tend to have BFFs, collaborate during periods of stress, express empathy for one another, worry about themselves and others, and desire to have fun in sports, which makes their experiences of sports and competition different from their male counterparts. Female strengths are grounded in both mind and body, and they take these strengths onto the court, field, and track. There are now dozens of studies showing how the female brain and hormones operate quite differently than those of men. This book reveals the ways in which these differences confirm that intense emotions about relationships are part of the sporting life for female competitors. Joan Steidinger uses real stories to show that women and girls compete at very high levels, but also have a different view of their teammates and opponents, one based on relationships and communication, that impacts performance both on and off the field. They enjoy and revel in sisterhood, even as they fight to win. Understanding this need for connection helps us better understand how female athletes succeed and perform both in sports and in life. Female athletes and anyone who works with them will learn how to better facilitate mastery, competition, collaboration, and connection on and off the field the practice of female collaborative competition.
Built to Win by
Leslie Heywood is professor of English and cultural studies at Binghamton University.
The All-American Girls after the AAGPBL by
The hit 1992 film A League of Their Own made the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League famous. But the players' stories remain largely untold. The 600 women who played for the AAGPBL through the 1940s and 1950s enjoyed a rare opportunity to lead independent lives as well-paid professional athletes. Their experiences in the league led many to education and careers they never imagined. As teachers, coaches and role models, they strove to broaden the horizons of girls and young women. Many continued to be involved in athletics, supporting the efforts leading to Title IX and the women's sports revolution. Today, they are dedicated to preserving the history of women in baseball and creating opportunities for girls to play.
Women's College Softball on the Rise by
Sidestepping the inflated egos and scandal that have infiltrated many men's sports, college female softball players exhibit power and grace on the field as well as camaraderie, high achievement and vulnerability off the field. This balance not only makes the game compelling to watch, but it also elevates women's softball as an aspirational model for other sports. Focusing on the 2018 season, this book explores gender performance and sexuality in softball, how the influx of money from the sport's growth has reshaped expectations of success, and traditional media coverage of women's sports.
Shattering the Glass by
Over the past decade, women's basketball has exploded onto the national sports scene. WNBA and NCAA television ratings have skyrocketed; movies, magazines, and clothing lines showcase female players. But as the authors of Shattering the Glass show, women's basketball has a much longer history, reaching back over a century of struggle, liberation, and gutsy play. Shattering the Glass offers a sweeping chronicle of women's basketball in the United States, from its invention in the late nineteenth century to its dominant position in sports today. Offering vivid portraits of forgotten heroes and contemporary stars, it also provides a broader perspective on the history of the sport, exploring its relationship to changing ideas of womanhood, efforts to expand women's economic and political rights, and definitions of sexual equality. Based on original interviews with players, coaches, administrators, broadcasters, and extensively illustrated, Shattering the Glass provides a moving, gritty view of the game on and off the court, and an empowering story of the generations of women who have shaped women's basketball.
Game, Set, Match by
When Billie Jean King trounced Bobby Riggs in tennis's "Battle of the Sexes" in 1973, she placed sports squarely at the center of a national debate about gender equity. In this winning combination of biography and history, Susan Ware argues that King's challenge to sexism, the supportive climate of second-wave feminism, and the legislative clout of Title IX sparked a women's sports revolution in the 1970s that fundamentally reshaped American society. While King did not single-handedly cause the revolution in women's sports, she quickly became one of its most enduring symbols, as did Title IX, a federal law that was initially passed in 1972 to attack sex discrimination in educational institutions but had its greatest impact by opening opportunities for women in sports. King's place in tennis history is secure, and now, with Game, Set, Match, she can take her rightful place as a key player in the history of feminism as well. By linking the stories of King and Title IX, Ware explains why women's sports took off in the 1970s and demonstrates how giving women a sporting chance has permanently changed American life on and off the playing field.
(Re)Presenting Wilma Rudolph by
Wilma Rudolph was born black in Jim Crow Tennessee. The twentieth of 22 children, she spent most of her childhood in bed suffering from whooping cough, scarlet fever, and pneumonia. She lost the use of her left leg due to polio and wore leg braces. With dedication and hard work, she became a gifted runner, earning a track and field scholarship to Tennessee State. In 1960, she became the first American woman to win three gold medals in a single Olympic Games. Her underdog story made her into a media darling, and she was the subject of countless articles, a television movie, children's books, biographies, and she even featured on a U.S. postage stamp. In this work, Smith and Liberti consider not only Rudolph's achievements, but also the ways in which those achievements are interpreted and presented as historical fact. Theories of gender, race, class, and disability collide in the story of Wilma Rudolph, and Smith and Liberti examine this collision in an effort to more fully understand how history is shaped by the cultural concerns of the present. In doing so, the authors engage with the metanarratives which define the American experience and encourage more complex and nuanced interrogations of contemporary heroic legacy.
Crossing Boundaries by
Crossing Boundaries: An Anthology of Women's Experiences in Sportwill help you discover, understand, and appreciate the depth and complexity of the female experience in sport. This is a journey to the center of feminine identity, a survey of past and present voices that lead you into the minds, hearts, and souls of women in sport. The largest literary compilation of writings on and by women in sports, Crossing Boundariesserves as a chronology of attitudes and a catalog of experiences. International in scope, some of these pieces have been translated into English for the first time, thus expanding the sports canon. All genres are represented-poems, short stories, prose memoirs, journalistic accounts, plays, and novels-to illustrate the broad reach of the literature written by women from a variety of historical and cultural perspectives. This is the female story in and out of sport, one told by outsiders, insiders, spectators, recreational athletes, and transnational sports heroes. Crossing Boundariesstarts with an important historical perspective dating back to Cynisca, the first female victor in the ancient Olympic Games. The book goes on to examine themes which have long been included in women's writings yet have been long overlooked by both feminists and literary critics. These themes include: -the significance and centrality of the body; -the impact of exclusion and the female reaction to it; -the role of the female spectator as an outsider; -the female identification, connection, and ultimate merger with nature; -the connections women make with others in and through sport; -the athlete's identity; and -the metaphorical uses of sport. Because women had for so long been excluded from official sports, relegated for centuries to the role of passive spectator, you will find literature about play, dance, movement, games, and exercise-activities often considered ancillary to and preparatory for the more important activity of sport. Similarly, since the editors extended their search to other countries to expand the limits of the contemporary Western perceptions of sport, you can widen your understanding of the female sporting experience. The young women who took advantage of the passing of Title IX by the NCAA in 1972 to take part in high school and college sports have now become mothers, and their daughters are following in their footsteps. A new atmosphere of acceptance and encouragement for female athletes of all ages means more and more women are experiencing the joy of sports participation. This book connects generations of women and girls with a vivid, compelling sporting heritage.
Kicking Off by
There's a battle being fought. It's raging on the sports fields, in the newsrooms, and behind the scenes at all the major broadcasters. It's a battle that dates back further than any of us can remember, and yet it has lost none of its momentum--in fact, it's being fought with more vigor now than ever before. The warriors are women in sports, and in this book their battles will be broken down to discover if and how they can ever be won. It will ask the questions that can no longer be ignored and tell the stories that can no longer be overlooked. It will be a vital tool in helping women switch their focus from the battlefield to the sports field, once and for all. Why do the most successful female athletes earn less than their male counterparts? Why are fewer women competing in top flight sports? Why are viewing figures for women's sporting events so low? All this and more, covered in a smart, feisty book, written by the features editor at Sport magazine.
A Spectacular Leap by
When high jumper Alice Coachman won the high jump title at the 1941 national championships with "a spectacular leap," African American women had been participating in competitive sport for close to twenty-five years. Yet it would be another twenty years before they would experience something akin to the national fame and recognition that African American men had known since the 1930s, the days of Joe Louis and Jesse Owens. From the 1920s, when black women athletes were confined to competing within the black community, through the heady days of the late twentieth century when they ruled the world of women's track and field, African American women found sport opened the door to a better life. However, they also discovered that success meant challenging perceptions that many Americans-both black and white-held of them. Through the stories of six athletes-Coachman, Ora Washington, Althea Gibson, Wilma Rudloph, Wyomia Tyus, and Jackie Joyner-Kersee-Jennifer H. Lansbury deftly follows the emergence of black women athletes from the African American community; their confrontations with contemporary attitudes of race, class, and gender; and their encounters with the civil rights movement. Uncovering the various strategies the athletes use to beat back stereotypes, Lansbury explores the fullness of African American women's relationship with sport in the twentieth century.
Greatest Female Athletes of All Time by
Learn more about the best of the best in the history of women's sports. The title also features informative sidebars, a glossary, and further resources. SportsZone is an imprint of Abdo Publishing Company.
Greatest Moments in Women's Sports by
Learn more about the most exciting and important moments in the history of women's sports. The title also features informative sidebars, a glossary, and further resources. SportsZone is an imprint of Abdo Publishing Company.
Women in the Olympics by
Learn more about the accomplishments of the greatest female Olympic athletes from around the world. The title also features informative sidebars, a glossary, and further resources. SportsZone is an imprint of Abdo Publishing Company.
Invisible seasons : Title IX and the fight for equity in college sports by 
Icons of Women's Sport by
Icons of Women's Sport identifies and examines the individuals who have impacted history, challenged the status quo, influenced sport culture, and garnered wide public interest. Including stars from the past and present, ranging from Babe Didrikson Zaharias and Billie Jean King to Dara Torres and Venus and Serena Williams, the featured athletes are iconic not only because of their achievements in the sports arena, but also because of their contributions to society: advancing cultural diversity and gender equity, breaking class barriers, and transcending stereotypes. The book contains biographies of 36 women athletes--American and international--who excelled in competitive sports from the post-World War I era through the modern era in a dozen different sports. Icons of Women's Sport spotlights athletes across a wide range of women's sports, with appropriate attention given to the major sports. Readers will enjoy learning about stars from both amateur and professional sports arenas, including Olympic athletes, as well as female competitors who have reached the top of their game in newer arenas such as golf and snowboarding.
Playing Ball with the Boys by
Female sideline reporters are the fastest-growing trend in broadcasts of professional and college football: names like Suzy Kolber, Erin Andrews, and Andrea Kremer are now as well known as any of the men in the booth. But even more has been going on. In recent years women have garnered spots as sports columnists and reporters, talk-show hosts, and even coaches and team administrators. Yet there has never been a book about this phenomenon. Former ESPN news anchor Betsy Ross fills this gap with Playing Ball with the Boys, a fascinating, behind-the-scenes look at the emerging role that women play in sports broadcasting and reporting, as well as in the business of sports. The book features interviews with the legendary women’s sports activist Billie Jean King, as well as Women’s Professional Soccer League leader Tonya Antonucci and ESPN College Basketball Analyst Rebecca Lobo. Prominent women working in the media are also featured in the book, including WFAN’s Ann Ligouri, CBS’ Lesley Visser, ESPN’s Pam Ward, USA Today’s Christine Brennan and Sports Illustrated’s Selena Roberts. Playing Ball with the Boys delivers firsthand accounts of the struggles and triumphs of women succeeding in what has long been a man's game.
Serena Williams: Tennis Icon by
Serena Williams: Tennis Icon examines the life of the most successful female tennis player of the modern era, a woman who redefined greatness on the court while balancing a career in fashion design and raising a family. Features include a timeline, a glossary, further readings, websites, source notes, and an index. Aligned to Common Core Standards and correlated to state standards. Essential Library is an imprint of Abdo Publishing, a division of ABDO.
Thrill Seekers by
"Ann McCallum Staats has written an uplifting book profiling a handful of extraordinary women whose example proves that nothing can or should hold women back. These women push the boundaries of what was believed possible, achieving the impossible." --Milbry Polk, author of Women of Discovery, and member of the Explorers Club board of directors Encompassing a diverse selection of women in extreme and unique sports, this book shares the stories of bold and daring thrill-seekers What is the allure of the extreme? Who are the women who seek out and excel at sports outside the conventional, such as cave diving, wingsuit flying, or Formula 1 racing? This collection of adventure dynamos is as fascinating as it is empowering. Thrill Seekers introduces readers to a diverse and fascinating selection of women whose determination, grit, and courage have propelled each of them into a life far from the sidelines. Each chapter introduces readers to modern role models and leaders, change-makers who opt into a life of risk--but one of astonishing rewards. Inspire young people to approach life with the same bold resolve. Women of Power. Bold books to inspire bold moves. Thrill Seekers is the debut title in the new Women of Power series. Women of Power is a timely, inclusive, international, modern biography series that profiles 15 diverse, modern women who are changing the world in their field while empowering others to follow their dreams.
The Ponytail by
This open access book adopts a cultural sociology of materiality to explore the hallmark of the female athlete: the ponytail. Studying a wealth of news articles about ponytails in sports and society, Broch uncovers this hairstyle's polyvocality and argues that it is a total social phenomenon. By separating his approach from the cultural studies tradition, Broch highlights how hair is imbued with codes, narratives, and myth that allow its wearers to understand, maneuver, and criticize social gender relations in deeply personal ways. Using multiple theories about hair, bodies, myths, and icons, he creates a multidimensional method to show how icons are imitated and used. As women navigate their practical lives, health issues, and gendered expectations, the ponytail materializes their dynamic maneuvering of cultural and social environments. Sporting a ponytail--itself an embodiment of movement--is filled with a performativity of social movements: a cultural kinetics that is never apolitical.
Kicking Off by
There's a battle being fought. It's raging on the sports fields, in the newsrooms, and behind the scenes at all the major broadcasters. It's a battle that dates back further than any of us can remember, and yet it has lost none of its momentum--in fact, it's being fought with more vigor now than ever before. The warriors are women in sports, and in this book their battles will be broken down to discover if and how they can ever be won. It will ask the questions that can no longer be ignored and tell the stories that can no longer be overlooked. It will be a vital tool in helping women switch their focus from the battlefield to the sports field, once and for all. Why do the most successful female athletes earn less than their male counterparts? Why are fewer women competing in top flight sports? Why are viewing figures for women's sporting events so low? All this and more, covered in a smart, feisty book, written by the features editor at Sport magazine.
Sidelined by
"Sidelined is the feminist sports book we've all been waiting for." --Jessica Valenti Shrill meets Brotopia in this personal and researched look at women's rights and issues through the lens of sports, from an award-winning sports journalist and women's advocate In a society that is digging deep into the misogyny underlying our traditions and media, the world of sports is especially fertile ground. From casual sexism, like condescending coverage of women's pro sports, to more serious issues, like athletes who abuse their partners and face only minimal consequences, this area of our culture is home to a vast swath of gender issues that apply to all of us--whether or not our work and leisure time revolve around what happens on the field. No one is better equipped to examine sports through this feminist lens than sports journalist Julie DiCaro. Throughout her experiences covering professional sports for more than a decade, DiCaro has been outspoken about the exploitation of the female body, the covert and overt sexism women face in the workplace, and the male-driven toxicity in sports fandom. Now, through candid interviews, personal anecdotes, and deep research, she's tackling these thorny issues and exploring what America can do to give women a fair and competitive playing field in sports and beyond. Covering everything from the abusive online environment at Barstool Sports to the sexist treatment of Serena Williams and professional women's teams fighting for equal pay and treatment, and looking back at pioneering women who first took on the patriarchy in sports media, Sidelined will illuminate the ways sports present a microcosm of life as a woman in America--and the power in fighting back.
Good for a Girl by
A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER Fueled by her years as an elite runner and advocate for women in sports, Lauren Fleshman offers her inspiring personal story and a rallying cry for reform of a sports landscape that is failing young female athletes "Women's sports have needed a manifesto for a very long time, and with Lauren Fleshman's Good for a Girl we finally have one." --Malcolm Gladwell, author of Outliers and David and Goliath "Good for a Girl is simultaneously a moving memoir and a call to action in how we think about--and train--girls and women in elite sports. It's a must-read--for anyone who loves running, for anyone who has a daughter, and for anyone who cares about creating a better future for young women." --Emily Oster, author of Expecting Better, Cribsheet, and The Family Firm Lauren Fleshman has grown up in the world of running. One of the most decorated collegiate athletes of all time and a national champion as a pro, she was a major face of women's running for Nike before leaving to shake up the industry with feminist running brand Oiselle and now coaches elite young female runners. Every step of the way, she has seen the way that our sports systems--originally designed by men, for men and boys--fail young women and girls as much as empower them. Girls drop out of sports at alarming rates once they hit puberty, and female collegiate athletes routinely fall victim to injury, eating disorders, or mental health struggles as they try to force their way past a natural dip in performance for women of their age. Part memoir, part manifesto, Good for a Girl is Fleshman's story of falling in love with running as a girl, being pushed to her limits and succumbing to devastating injuries, and daring to fight for a better way for female athletes. Long gone are the days when women and girls felt lucky just to participate; Fleshman and women everywhere are waking up to the reality that they're running, playing, and competing in a world that wasn't made for them. Drawing on not only her own story but also emerging research on the physiology and psychology of young athletes, of any gender, Fleshman gives voice to the often-silent experience of the female athlete and argues that the time has come to rebuild our systems of competitive sport with women at their center. Written with heart and verve, Good for a Girl is a joyful love letter to the running life, a raw personal narrative of growth and change, and a vital call to reimagine sports for young women.
Female Football Players and Fans by
This volume draws upon social science and historical approaches to provide insights into the world of women's football and female fans. It gives an in-depth analysis of the development of the women's game in different European countries and examines the experiences of female fans. An overview about women's football in Europe shows the rise and development of the game and the increasing inclusion of girls and women in football and fan communities. To date, there has been a lack of research on female participation in football, but drawing on research studies from various European countries, the volume explores a range of issues, including how girls and women become football fans and players, how women combine football with their everyday lives, and how they may encounter stereotypes and barriers when they challenge male dominance by entering this traditionally male sport. This collection will be of interest to students and scholars in a range of fields, including sports sociology, sport sciences, gender studies, leisure studies, women's studies as well as fandom and cultural studies.
