Heroines of Sport: The Politics of Difference and Identity

Jennifer Hargreaves

Psychology Press, 2000 - Social Science - 284 pages

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.

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.

Bibliographic information

• Title: Heroines of Sport: The Politics of Difference and Identity
• Author: Jennifer Hargreaves
• Publisher: Psychology Press, 2000
• ISBN: 0415228492, 9780415228497
• Length: 284 pages
• Subjects: Social Science / Feminism & Feminist Theory; Social Science / General; Social Science / Sociology / General; Social Science / Women's Studies; Sports & Recreation / General