Women in Sports Books - Page 4

Playing With the Boys: Why Separate is Not Equal in Sports

Eileen McDonagh, Laura Pappano

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 12 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

From small-town life to the national stage, from the boardroom to Capitol Hill, athletic contests help define what we mean in America by "success." And by keeping women from "playing with the boys" on the grounds that they are inherently inferior to men, society relegates them to second-class status in American life.
In this forcefully argued book, Eileen McDonagh and Laura Pappano show in vivid detail how women have been unfairly excluded from participating in sports on an equal footing with men. Using dozens of powerful examples from the world of contemporary American athletics--girls and women trying to break through in football, ice hockey, wrestling, and baseball to name just a few--the authors show that sex differences are not sufficient to warrant women's coercive exclusion from competing with men; that some sex-group differences actually confer a sports advantage to women; and that "special rules" for women in sports do not simply reflect the "differences" between the sexes, but actively create and reinforce a view that women as a group are inherently inferior to men--even when women clearly are not. For instance, women's bodies give them a physiological advantage in endurance sports like the ultra-marathon and distance swimming. So, why do so many Olympic events--from swimming to skiing to running to bike racing--have shorter races for women than men? Likewise, why are women's tennis matches limited to three sets while men's are best-of-fives? This book shows how sex-segregated sports policies, instead of reflecting sex-group differences, in fact construct them.
An original and provocative argument to level the athletic playing field, Playing with the Boys issues a clarion call for sex-sensible policies in sports as a crucial step toward achieving social, economic, and political equality for men and women in our society.

She Shoots... She Scores: A Complete Guide to Girl's and Women's Hockey

Barbara Stewart

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Subjects -> Sports -> Hockey -> General AAS

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 1 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Excellent Hockey Info that you need!! 5 out of 5 stars.
9 of 10 people found this review helpful.

I would recommend this book if you don't know much or starting out in hockey. It has all the information on equipments all women and girls need for hockey as well on how to skate and so on. There are some interesting information on some players such as Manon Rheaume and Cammi Granato. The book also explains how women hockey began. This is definitely the book all girls should get if they want to be involved in hockey!

Editorial Review:

The first comprehensive guide to girls' and women's hockey -- fully revised and updated.

In She Shoots ... She Scores!, Barbara Stewart offers a comprehensive guide to this fast-growing participation sport. It is an essential tool for players, coaches, parents, and fans of all ages. The first book to explain all angles of interest to the younger player, it includes:

• A history of women's hockey
• Playing tips from some of hockey's top instructors and coaches
• Useful advice on how to select and buy new and used equipment
• Practical information on how to find a team, a league, or a hockey camp
• Numerous photographs and instructive illustrations
• Inspirational profiles of young stars, top-level players, and coaches

Pretty Good for a Girl: The Autobiography of a Snowboarding Pioneer

Tina Basich, Kathleen Gasperini

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 8 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Pretty Good for an Autobiography 4 out of 5 stars.
3 of 3 people found this review helpful.

I don't know anything about snowboarding and wasn't especially interested in it, but the title of this book caught my attention. God knows I heard "pretty good for a girl" often enough when I was growing up. Once I started Tina Basich's book, I was hooked.

She tells of growing up in a Sacramento suburb and going to an alternative school where art and music were stressed. Her parents kept the TV in a closet only to be brought out for special occasions, such as the Olympics. Basich and her younger brother entertained themselves by drawing, composing and playing music, staging shows, skateboarding, and reading. By the time she went to high school (a public high school), she was accomplished in a number of fields and her hero was Nadia Comaneci.

Basich tells of discovering snowboarding, becoming a pro, losing a friend to breast cancer and organizing snowboarding events to raise money for cancer research and education, and having several close calls of her own on the slopes. She talks about competitions, travels, and romances. She has a easy-to-read conversational style and the book is filled with photos and drawings.

Snowboarders will enjoy the story of how she perfected the backside 720 over a 60-foot jump, as well as the descriptions of competitions and the name-dropping. And everyone who has heard (or said) the words "pretty good for a girl" will enjoy the success story of a focused young woman.

Editorial Review:

When Tina Basich grabbed her rented snowboard and headed to the mountains in Lake Tahoe, snowboarding wasn't even considered a sport ... yet. It was the beginning, and could have easily gone the way of many other sports and become dominated by male-driven competition.

But not with Tina on the scene ...

Comments like "You're pretty good ... for a girl" only pushed her harder to be the best and to prove she was more than just a token player on the slopes. Representing for women everywhere, she became a snowboarding all-star, started her own signature board and clothing lines for women, founded Boarding for Breast Cancer, and followed her heart, which led her on the adventure of a lifetime.

This is her story.

Solo: On Her Own Adventure (Seal Women's Travel)

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 7 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Wonderfully inspiring! 4 out of 5 stars.
13 of 13 people found this review helpful.

Anyone who has ever fought to be understood about the extreme peace that is discovered in solo adventures will enjoy these short stories. Anyone who has ever pressed to have their own equipment and not rely upon the men in their life for their outdoor leadership needs will enjoy this collection of inspiring stories. After reading a few of these stories I was so moved to partake in a solo journey of my own. The night before I participated in a 32mile speed hike, I was seen thumbing through my favorite stories under a rainy sky in my tent. It was wonderful to see women experiencing these adventures of great self-importance. I encourage any woman looking for inspriration and female guidance to seek solace here!

Editorial Review:

Back by popular demand, this second edition of Solo adds new stories to the ones readers already love—women pedaling across New Zealand, hiking in the Adirondacks, bodyboarding with dolphins off the California Coast, and driving through the northwestern United States. With plenty of alone-time to contemplate the world, the authors share their adventures, which are collectively humorous and exhilarating, suspenseful and defiant, tranquil and enchanting. Including contributors such as Lucy Jane Bledsoe, Candace Dempsey, Marybeth Holleman, Bridget Quinn, and Laura Waterman, Solo offers an inspiring collection of travel narratives that reveal the complexities of women journeying alone.

Surfing

Linda Chase

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 1 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

"Surfing is art on waves, a form of self-expression." -Lisa Andersen, four-time women's world champion
As the official counterculture sport of the 1960s, surfing was not just a sport but a lifestyle, one long, sun-drenched beach party with endless waves and music, as well as an unapologetically masculine culture. This notion has since been disproved by generations of amazing female surfers who have made an indelible mark on the sport. Surfing: Women of the Waves highlights some of these extraordinary women of surfing, from Linda Benson and Joyce Hoffman in the 1950s and 1960s to Layne Beachley, Sofia Mulanovich, Bethany Hamilton, and the great Lisa Andersen, four-time women's world champion. Today, women of all ages and skill levels have taken their place among the waves-longboarders, shortboarders, goofyfooters, hotdoggers, young girls, and surfer moms-these are the women of the waves!
Women featured include:
Bethany Hamilton, Jessi Miley Dyer, Melanie Redman-Carr and Layne Beachley: Australia Sofia Mulanovich, Punta Hermosa, Peru (small town outside of Lima); won 2006 U.S. Open Lisa Andersen, Florida Megan Abubo, Hartford, Connecticut Emilia Perry and Alana Mock, Northshore, Hawaii Monyca Byrne-Wickey, Hana, Hawaii Kristen Steiner, Big Island, Hawaii Melanie Bartles, Hawaii Lisa Benson, Encinitas, California Kim Hamrock, Huntington Beach, California Jennie Useldinger, Ashley Lloyd, Jamilah Star, Savannah Shaughnessy, Katherine Carter: Santa Cruz, California
Author Bios: Linda Chase attended Occidental College in Los Angeles, where she obtained a degree in economics. Soon thereafter she pursued a career in publishing that included a stint as researcher, writer, and editor, and later as editorial director and publisher. Linda researched the sport while living in Malibu for five years and subsequently wrote an article in Preferred Way magazine on her surfing experience.
Elizabeth Pepin: Elizabeth Pepin currently works as a Producer and Associate Producer at KQED-TV in San Francisco. She is one of four women in the country who specialize in shooting female surfers. She also makes independent documentaries outside of KQED and has won four Emmy Awards for her documentary film work. In addition to filmmaking, Elizabeth is also a photographer and author.

Babe: The Life and Legend of Babe Didrikson Zaharias (Women in American History)

Susan E. Cayleff

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 8 Average rating: 3.5 of 5

A great analysis of Babe's life, times, & women's sports 5 out of 5 stars.
11 of 12 people found this review helpful.

Cayleff has thoroughly researched and documented Babe's life and times. She conducted extensive interviews with surviving members of Babe's family, friends, and partner (Betty Dodd). Cayleff also incorporated massive amounts of journalistic accounts--sports writers, magazines accounts, etc. This is not a fluff biography--the book will teach you about what it meant to be a woman in Babe's time, what it meant to be a female athlete, and how Babe managed--and manipulated--these things. Babe fans will learn more about her, and scholars will be able to follow up on Cayleff's work through her extensive endnotes. This is the first book to tell of Babe's relationship with Betty Dodd, but Cayleff does not label it "lesbian." That is because Babe herself never did. Remember that this was the 1950s. They were life partners, spouses. The loved each other. Cayleff's book is important for bringing this relationship to light, as well as many other hidden realities of Didrikson's life--her heroism as an "out" cancer patient (when it was taboo to talk about it), as well as how Babe manipulated the press. As dozens of published book review has stated (see quotes above at this cite), this is absolutely THE most extensive research ever done on Babe. I've seen rave reviews of the book in SOJOURNER, WEST COAST WOMAN, WOMEN'S REVIEW OF BOOKS, and SPORTS HISTORY REVIEW, among many others.

Editorial Review:

woman who was a great athlete at a time when it was extremely difficult for a woman to be her own person. Cayleff caringly reveals Babe's life, including her involvement with young golfer Betty Dodd, whose for-the-record discussion of their relationship is included.

Built to Win: The Female Athlete As Cultural Icon (Sport and Culture Series, V. 5)

Leslie Heywood, Shari L. Dworkin

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Subjects -> Nonfiction -> Women's Studies -> Feminist Theory

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 1 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

The sculpted speed of Marion Jones. The grit and agility of Mia Hamm. The slam-dunk style of Lisa Leslie. The skill and finesse of these sports figures are widely admired, no longer causing the puzzlement and discomfort directed toward earlier generations of athletic women. Built to Win explores this relatively recent phenomenon-the confident, empowered female athletes found everywhere in American popular culture.

Leslie Heywood and Shari L. Dworkin examine the role of female athletes through interviews with elementary- and high school-age girls and boys; careful readings of ad campaigns by Nike, Reebok, and others; discussions of movies like Fight Club and Girlfight; and explorations of their own sports experiences. They ask: what, if any, dissonance is there between popular images and the actual experiences of these athletes? Do these images really "redefine femininity" and contribute to a greater inclusion of all women in sport? Are sexualized images of these women damaging their quest to be taken seriously? Do they inspire young boys to respect and admire female athletes, and will this ultimately make a difference in the ways gender and power are constructed and perceived?

Proposing a paradigm shift from second- to third-wave feminism, Heywood and Dworkin argue that, in the years since the passage of Title IX, gender stereotypes have been destabilized in profound ways, and they assert that female athletes and their imagery are doing important cultural work to that end. Important, refreshing, and engrossing, Built to Win examines sport in all its complexity.

Leslie Heywood is professor of English at Binghamton University. She is the author of Pretty Good for a Girl: An Athlete's Story (Minnesota, 2000), Bodymakers (1998), and coeditor of Third Wave Agenda (Minnesota, 1997). A former track and cross-country runner who is currently a competitive powerlifter, Heywood is a vice president of the Women's Sports Foundation.

Shari L. Dworkin is a sociologist and works as a research fellow at the HIV Center for Clinical and Behavioral Studies at Columbia University.

Nike Is a Goddess: The History of Women in Sports

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 9 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

A remarkable book about remarkable women ! 5 out of 5 stars.
5 of 5 people found this review helpful.

A MUST for all young women of today -truly inspirational. A comprehensive and significant book.

A must read for sports fans of both genders 4 out of 5 stars.
2 of 2 people found this review helpful.

There are 13 essays about various sports and also includes and introduction and conclusion. Some of the essays were better than others, usually because of the sport the essay examined. Babe Didrikson is featured in more than one essay, which highlights her significance to women's sports. The essays really draw attention to the many contributions many women, who's names are not commonly known, have brought to their sports. As a knowledgeable sports fan I enjoyed learning new things about female athletics. The essay's covered Track and Field, Baseball and Softball, Tennis, Golf, Canoeing Kayaking, Rowing Sailing, Skiing, Figure Skating, Swimming, Equestrian Sports, Gymnastics, Soccer, Ice Hockey, and Basketball. I totally skipped the Boating, Equestrian, and Ice Hockey essays and skimmed the Skiing essay. These sports don't interest me even in men's sport (except Ice Hockey, but I can't buy the women's version of the sport). I would recommend this book and I'll keep it in case my 6 year old daughter one day wishes to learn more about one or more of these sports.

Editorial Review:

In a series of 12 original narratives, each focusing on a particular sport and the top female athletes who were the pioneering figures in their arena, "Nike Is a Goddess" captures the profound changes women's sports have undergone and pays tribute to the remarkable athletes who have led the way.

Women in Baseball

Gai Ingham Berlage

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 2 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

An Amazing History of Women in Baseball 5 out of 5 stars.
1 of 5 people found this review helpful.

All little girls that want to play little league will be inspired by this fabulous writing on the History of Women in Baseball! It is a must read!

An Amazing History of Women in Baseball 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 2 people found this review helpful.

All little girls that want to play little league will be inspired by this fabulous writing on the History of Women in Baseball! It is a must read!

Editorial Review:

Very few people are aware that women were active in baseball in the United States as early as 1866. In this volume, Gai Berlage reports the histories of the umpires, players, owners, and sportswriters as well as the teams. Professional and amateur teams are covered as well as hard and softball.

Women of Steel: Female Bodybuilders and the Struggle for Self-Definition

Maria Lowe

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Total reviews: 5 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

"A lot of people in the general public think female bodybuilding is gross and freaky . . . that that's not what a woman is supposed to look like." So says Michelle, a national bodybuilding judge. In fact, athletic women, especially those in sports where strength, muscle, and sweat feature prominently, are typically viewed by the public as being outside the boundaries of appropriate femininity. And perhaps no group of women athletes embodies this gender outlaw status more than female bodybuilders, who by their bulk and sheer strength challenge our very notions of what it means to be a woman. Why would women choose to look like that? And what does it take to get and stay so muscular?

Maria R. Lowe has interviewed more than one hundred people connected with women's bodybuilding, from the bodybuilders themselves, to trainers, family members, spouses, judges, and sponsors. In Women of Steel, Lowe introduces us to a world where size and strength must be balanced with a nod toward grace and femininity. Lowe, who actually worked out with a couple of the bodybuilders she interviewed, gets at the heart of what it is to be a woman bodybuilder. We learn about "paying the price"--doing the necessary exercise, and sometimes drugs--that allows women to rise to the top of their profession. We follow their successes and failures, and discover the benefits-- including increased self-esteem and physical strength--as well as the sometimes unhealthy effects of their training regimen, from dehydration to baldness to rampant acne to high blood pressure. We travel with the women from competition to competition and find that judges' standards seem to vary alarmingly depending on momentary notions of what constitutes "the overall package"--that elusive perfect body that catches judges' eyes and wins competitions.

Above all, Women of Steel is a keenly observant diary of life in women's bodybuilding, a must-read for people interested in sports, competition, physical culture, and gender.