Women and Sports

With the passage of Title IX legislation in the 1970s, women and girls have encountered fewer barriers to their participation in sports at all levels—community, high school, college, and professional. Some women have successfully lobbied to play traditionally male sports—such as football, ice hockey, and boxing. Women athletes still face discrimination and double-standards, and their teams and programs suffer from underfunding and lack of exposure. Women athletes also face unique challenges, such as rigid gender expectations, eating disorders, and body image problems. Readers are offered a thorough and ultimately inspiring survey of the complex history of female athletes, the current lay of the land, and the hopeful but by no means assured future of women's participation in sports. Most important, readers may be inspired to further the ongoing fight for women's full access and right to participation in sports at every level.