Women in Sports History

This book examines the developments in women's sports history in Britain in the last 10 years, following on from its successful predecessor Women and Sport History (2010). It considers what has changed and what continuities persist drawing on a series of contributions from authors who are active in the field. The chapters included in this book cover a broad time frame and range of topics such as the history of women's football in Scotland and England; women's role in rugby leagues; women's sport during World War II; and female participation in American football, cricket and cycling. Written and edited during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, the book also reflects on the possible implications of the pandemic on women's sport. In doing so, it highlights the diversity of research currently being undertaken in the field and touches on areas which remain overlooked or underdeveloped. The chapters in this book were originally published as a special issue of Sport in History.

Carol A. Osborne is Researcher Developer in the Department of Research, Innovation and Knowledge Exchange (RIKE) at the University of Huddersfield, UK. She has edited and published work in the field of women's sports history and maintains a particular interest in the history of British climbing. She serves on the editorial board of the journal Sport in History. Fiona Skillen is senior lecturer in History in the Department of Social Sciences, in the School for Business and Society at Glasgow Caledonian University. Her research interests concern women's sport during the late 19th and 20th centuries and has published extensively in this area. She regularly contributes to radio and television programmes on the history of sport. She is a former Chair of British Society of Sport History, serves on the editorial board of the journal Sport in History and is an editor of the International Journal of the History of Sport.

1. Introduction: Women in sports history: the more things change, the more they stay the same? 2. Establishing women in sports history: Manchester City football club 3. Sisters doing it for themselves: the rich history of women's football in Scotland from the 1960s to 2020 4. Marguerite Wilson and other 'hard-riding...feminine space eaters': cycling and modern femininity in interwar Britain 5. Women's sport and the feminism conundrum: the case of interwar English cricket 6. Shares, shirts and soap suds: women and rugby league football in Liverpool, 1934-1950 7. Women, sport and the people's war in Britain, 1939-45 8. 'Here's the football heroine': female American football players, 1890-1912