'This book deserves to read by as many people as possible. It is easily the most comprehensive and wisest examination of women's sporting experience in Britain. More than that, it is a major contribution to a significant and growing international debate.' - Social History of Medicine'A must for those teaching and researching in the area of sport and leisure Sporting Females also makes an important contribution to an area which for some reason remains largely underdeveloped in Women's Studies.' - Womens Studies Intl Forum Vol 18 No 1'...a highly readable and very useful text for women and sport courses at the post-secondary level...it is a fine piece of scholarship leadin to a real possibility that sports can be important contexts for feminist intervention.' - The International Journal of the History and Sociology of Women's Sports

• Introduction; Chapter 1 Theories of sports; Chapter 2 Sports feminism; Chapter 3 Nature and culture; Chapter 4 The legitimation of female exercise; Chapter 5 Recreative and competitive sports; Chapter 6 The inter-war years; Chapter 7 Femininity or 'musculinity'?; Chapter 8 Gender relations of power; Chapter 9 Olympic women; Chapter 10 Sports for all women; Chapter 11 Into the twenty-first century;