Heroines of Sport: The Politics of Difference and Identity

Description

This text looks closely at different groups of women who have become sporting heroines. It focuses on five specific groups of women from different places in the world and these are: South African women; Muslim women from the Middle East; Aboriginal women from Australia and Canada; and lesbian and disabled women from different countries world-wide. 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. The book illustrates the ways in which the partcipation of women in sport across the world is tied to their sense of difference and identity. Each chapter includes material which relates to significant political and cultural developments and is based on original research.

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.

'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