Women in Sports

Covering a breadth of topics surrounding the current state of women in sports, this two-volume collection taps current events, sociological and feminist theory, and recent research to contextualize women's experiences in sports within a patriarchal society and highlight areas for improvement. Women are continuing to break barriers in all aspects of sports, and a growing number of people are beginning to recognize sex disparities in sports as a social problem. Additionally, women's inclusion and exclusion in sports-and their equitable and inequitable treatment on the playing field-have large-scale social, legal, health, and economic consequences. Women in Sports: Breaking Barriers, Facing Obstacles comprehensively examines the state of women in sports by considering current events, controversies, and trends as well as qualitative and quantitative research. The contributors to this volume take a sociological approach to discussing women in sports by questioning dominant assumptions surrounding notions of women's biological athletic inferiority and by examining other social constructs that affect women's experiences in sports, such as race and ethnicity, socioeconomic status, and sexual orientation. The book offers a complete and up-to-date account of women's experiences in sports through coverage of the history of women's participation in sports (with a focus on exceptional female athletes) and of the increasing number of women who are competing in traditionally male sports, such as football, baseball, and mixed martial arts. Readers will come away with a greater appreciation for the issues of equity that women face, both within the world of sports and in society in general.

Adrienne N. Milner, PhD, is lecturer of global public health at Barts and the London School of Medicine and Dentistry, Queen Mary University of London.
Jomills Henry Braddock II, PhD, is professor of sociology at the University of Miami.

1 What Shall I Play? Individual, Interpersonal, and Contextual Correlates of Girls' Interscholastic Sport Participation
Ashley Beth Mikulyuk, Jomills Henry Braddock II, and Adrienne N. Milner
2 "A Chocolate Chip in a Sea of Milk": Black Women Reflect on the Challenges of Embodying the Runner Identity
Alicia Smith-Tran
3 Working in a Male-Dominated Sport Profession: Female Football Official
Heidi Nordstrom
4 Hyperfemininity and Sexlessness: Women's Strategies for Inclusion in Surfing
Vanessa M. Kauffman
5 Modern Female Fighters: Barriers Women Face in Boxing
Anne Tjønndal
6 Fat and Strong to Thin and Frail: Hyper-regulating the Female Athletic Body
Brittany Harder and Felecia Theune
7 Strength in Numbers: An Explorative Study into the Experiences of Female Strength and Conditioning Coaches in the UK
Nicola Medlin-Silver, Pete Lampard, and Tanya Lynsey Bunsell
8 Identity Development and Postgraduate Aspirations of Female College Student-Athletes
Kristina M. Navarro, Michael J. Salm, and Jennifer Mary Scherer
9 Segregated Bodies: Gender Reproduction within College Sports
Kirsten Michelle Hextrum
10 Out of Our League: Femininity and Athletic Excellence in the French Media's Coverage of Women's Soccer and Basketball Games
Yann Descamps
11 Playing Sports, Wearing Headscarves: Marginalizing versus Mainstreaming Religious Garments as Social Contracts
Olesya Venger
12 The Glass Door: Early-Career Women in Collegiate Athletics
Robin Hardin, Elizabeth Taylor, Jessica Siegele, and Allison Smith
About the Editors and Contributors
Index