Abstract
This chapter introduces the aim and purpose of this book, which is to question the understanding of sport as a man’s world. We argue that focusing on women’s work in sport, notably as leaders, rather than their participation as athletes, allows new characters to come out of the shadows; more women become visible in the history of sport. Justifying the focus on sporting institutions, we discuss how a biographic approach allows scholarship to focus on individual actors within these organizations. Of course, the call to “find” women in such places raises’ methodological questions that are introduced here and dealt with more thoroughly in the following chapters. The introduction explains the scope and limits of this research, outlines the structure of the collection and draws conclusive links between the various themes and issues in the chapters to follow.
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- 1.
Pascal Delheye, “Prologue,” in Pascal Delheye (ed.), Making Sport History: Disciplines, Identities, and the Historiography of Sport (Abingdon: Routledge, 2014), xiv.
- 2.
Richard Holt, “Historians and the History of Sport: An Interdisciplinary and Critical Survey,” in Delheye (ed.), Making Sport History, 30.
- 3.
E. H. Carr, What Is History? (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1961). Quoted in Holt, “Historians and the History of Sport,” 30.
- 4.
Pascal Delheye, “Prologue,” in Delheye (ed.), Making Sport History, xvi.
- 5.
Patricia Vertinsky, “Mixed Fortunes in an Academic Environment: The Institutional Gendering of Sport History,” in Delheye (ed.), Making Sport History, 151.
- 6.
Carol A. Osborne and Fiona Skillen, “The State of Play: Women in British Sport History,” Sport in History 30, no. 2 (2010): 189–95.
- 7.
Joan Wallach Scott, “Unanswered Questions,” AHR Forum, American Historical Review 113, no. 5 (December 2008): 1423.
- 8.
Susan J. Bandy, Gigliola Gori and Dong Jinxiac, “From Women and Sport to Gender and Sport: Transnational, Transdisciplinary, and Intersectional Perspectives,” The International Journal of the History of Sport 29, no. 5 (2012): 667–74.
- 9.
Margaret Ann Hall, Feminism and Sporting Bodies: Essays on Theory and Practice (Champaign: University of Illinois Press, 1996).
- 10.
Osborne and Skillen, “The State of Play”; Holly Thorpe and Rebecca Olive, “Introduction,” Journal of Sport History 39, no. 3 (2012): 373–7.
- 11.
Jennifer Hargreaves, Sporting Females: Critical Issues in the History and Sociology of Women’s Sport (London and New York: Routledge, 1994).
- 12.
Jean Allman, “The Disappearing of Hannah Kudjoe: Nationalism, Feminism, and the Tyrannies of History,” Journal of Women’s History 21, no. 3 (2009): 13–35.
- 13.
Patricia Vertinsky, “Mixed Fortunes,” 157.
- 14.
Philippe Vonnard and Grégory Quin (eds.), Special Issue: International Sports Organizations, Sport in History 37, no. 3 (2014).
- 15.
Christopher Hill, “Prologue,” in Adrian Budd and Roger Levermore (eds.), Sport and International Relations: An Emerging Relationship (London: Routledge, 2003), 2.
- 16.
Philippe Vonnard and Grégory Quin, “Introduction. Studying International Sports Organizations During the Cold War,” Sport in History 37, no. 3: 266.
- 17.
Neil King, Sport Governance (Routledge, 2016), 1.
- 18.
For instance, most international federations are based in Europe and thus perpetuate European modes of structure, hierarchy and operation, as we see with gender and race.
- 19.
Andrew Davies, Leisure, Gender, and Poverty: Working-Class Culture in Salford and Manchester, 1900–1939 (Open University Press, 1992).
- 20.
Patricia Vertinsky, Eternally Wounded Women: Women, Doctors and Exercise in the Late Nineteenth Century (Urbana and Chicago: Illini Books, 1994); Colette Downings, The Frailty Myth: Redefining the Physical Potential of Women and Girls (New York: Random House Trade Paperbacks, 2000).
- 21.
Albeit some works might be noted to nuance this affirmation, notably in the field of Physical Education, see Roberta Park and Patricia Vertinsky, “Prologue: Reaffirming Mary Wollstonecraft,” in Park and Vertinsky (eds.), Women, Sport, Society. Further Reflections (Abingdon: Routledge, 2011), 1–8. Moreover, Ellig, Hovden and Knoppers note that the first papers were only published in 1985, as Stephan Scholl discusses in more detail in chapter ten. Agnes Ellig, Jorid Hovden, and Annelies Knoppers (eds.), Gender Diversity in European Sport Governance (London: Routledge, 2018).
- 22.
Jo Burr Margadant, The New Biography: Performing Femininity in Nineteenth-Century France (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2000).
- 23.
Michelle Perrot, Les femmes ou les silences de l’histoire (Paris: Champs Flammarion, 2001).
- 24.
Emmanuel Bayle and Patrick Clastres (eds.), Global Sport Leaders: A Biographical Analysis of International Sport Management (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2018).
References
Allman, Jean. “The Disappearing of Hannah Kudjoe: Nationalism, Feminism, and the Tyrannies of History.” Journal of Women’s History 21, no. 3 (2009): 13–35.
Bandy, Susan J., Gigliola Gori, and Dong Jinxiac. “From Women and Sport to Gender and Sport: Transnational, Transdisciplinary, and Intersectional Perspectives.” The International Journal of the History of Sport 29, no. 5 (2012): 667–74.
Bayle, Emmanuel, and Patrick Clastres, eds. Global Sport Leaders: A Biographical Analysis of International Sport Management. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2018.
Carr, E. H. What Is History? Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1961.
Davies, Andrew. Leisure, Gender, and Poverty: Working-Class Culture in Salford and Manchester, 1900–1939. Milton Keynes: Open University Press, 1992.
Delheye, Pascal, ed. Making Sport History: Disciplines, Identities, and the Historiography of Sport. London and New York: Routledge, 2014.
Downings, Colette. The Frailty Myth: Redefining the Physical Potential of Women and Girls. New York: Random House Trade Paperbacks, 2000.
Ellig, Agnes, Jorid Hovden, and Annelies Knoppers, eds. Gender Diversity in European Sport Governance. London: Routledge, 2018.
Hall, Margaret Ann. Feminism and Sporting Bodies: Essays on Theory and Practice. Champaign: University of Illinois Press, 1996.
Hargreaves, Jennifer. Sporting Females: Critical Issues in the History and Sociology of Women’s Sport. London and New York: Routledge, 1994.
Hill, Christopher. “Prologue.” In Adrian Budd and Roger Levermore, eds., Sport and International Relations: An Emerging Relationship, 1–5. London: Routledge, 2003.
Holt, Richard. “Historians and the History of Sport: An Interdisciplinary and Critical Survey.” In Pascal Delheye, eds., Making Sport History: Disciplines, Identities, and the Historiography of Sport, 29–58. London and New York: Routledge, 2014.
King, Neil. Sport Governance. Abingdon and New York: Routledge, 2016.
Margadant, Jo Burr. The New Biography: Performing Femininity in Nineteenth-Century France. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2000.
Osborne, Carol A., and Fiona Skillen. “The State of Play: Women in British Sport History.” Sport in History 30, no. 2 (2010): 189–95.
Park, Roberta, and Patricia Vertinsky “Prologue: Reaffirming Mary Wollstonecraft.” In Park and Vertinsky eds., Women, Sport, Society. Further Reflections, 1–8. Abingdon: Routledge, 2011.
Scott, Joan Wallach. “Unanswered Questions.” AHR Forum, American Historical Review, (2008). http://www.artsrn.ualberta.ca/amcdouga/Hist494_2014/readings/scott_response.pdf.
Thorpe, Holly, and Rebecca Olive. “Introduction.” Journal of Sport History 39, no. 3 (2012): 379–94.
Vertinsky, Patricia. Eternally Wounded Women: Women, Doctors and Exercise in the Late Nineteenth Century. Urbana and Chicago: Illini Books, 1994.
Vertinsky, Patricia. “Mixed Fortunes in an Academic Environment: The Institutional Gendering of Sport History.” In Pascal Delheye, eds., Making Sport History: Disciplines, Identities, and the Historiography of Sport, 151–68. London and New York: Routledge, 2014.
Vonnard, Philippe, and Grégory Quin, eds. Special Issue: International Sports Organizations, Sport in History 37, no. 3 (2012).
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Cervin, G., Nicolas, C. (2019). Introduction. In: Cervin, G., Nicolas, C. (eds) Histories of Women's Work in Global Sport. Palgrave Studies in Sport and Politics. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-26909-8_1
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