Heroines of Sport: The Politics of Difference and Identity

by Jennifer Hargreaves

Overview

Heroines of Sport looks closely at different groups of women whose stories have been excluded from previous accounts of women's sports and female heroism. It focuses on five specific groups of women from different places in the world: Black women in South Africa; Muslim women from the Middle East; Aboriginal women from Australia and Canada; and lesbian and disabled women from different countries worldwide. It also asks searching questions about colonialism and neo-colonialism in the women's international sport movement.
The particular groups of women featured in the book reflect the need to look at specific categories of difference relating to class, culture, disability, ethnicity, race, religion and sexual orientation. In her account, Jennifer Hargreaves reveals how the participation of women in sport across the world is tied to their sense of difference and identity. Based on original research each chapter includes material which relates to significant political and cultural developments.
Heroines of Sport will be invaluable reading for undergraduate and postgraduate students of sport sociology, and will also be relevant for students working in women's studies and other specialized fields, such as development studies or the politics of Aboriginality, disability, Islam, race and sexuality.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780415228497
Publisher:	Taylor & Francis
Publication date:	12/14/2000
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	298
Product dimensions:	6.12(w) x 9.19(h) x (d)

About the Author

Jennifer Hargreaves is Professor of Sport Sociology at Brunel University. She wasone of the early pioneers of sport sociology and has edited the watershed text Sport, Culture and Ideology and written Sporting Females: Critical Issues in the History and Sociology of Women's Sports, both published by Routledge.

Table of Contents

1. Introducing Heroines of Sport: Making Sense of Difference and Identity 2. Race, Politics and Gender: Women's Struggle for Sport in South Africa 3. The Muslim Female Heroic: Shorts or Veils? 4. Aboriginal Sportswomen: Heroines of Difference or Objects of Assimilation? 5. Sporting Lesbians: Heroic Symbols of Sexual Liberation 6. Impaired and Disabled: Building on Ability 7. Struggling for a New World Order: The Women's International Sport Movement

Editorial Reviews

'This is a marvellous book, ... which is timely, superbly researched, very well written, and enormously engaging, ... a substantial contribution to women and sport literature.' - Dr M. Ann Hall, Professor Emertitus, University of Alberta, Canada

From the Publisher

Hargreaves, one of the early pioneers of the field of sport sociology, looks at different groups of women whose stories have been excluded from previous accounts of women's sports and female heroism. She focuses on South African women, Muslim women from the Middle East, Aboriginal women from Australia and Canada, and lesbian and disabled women from around the world. She reveals how the participation of women in sport is tied to their sense of difference and identity, and asks questions about colonialism and neo-colonialism in the women's international sport movement. Hargreaves teaches sport sociology at Brunel University. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

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