Title: The female tradition in physical education : 'Women first' reconsidered /
Authors: Kirk, David, 1958-
Year: 2016
Subjects: Fletcher, Sheila.; Physical education for women History.
Abstract: "The Female Tradition in Physical Education re-examines a key question in the history of modern education: why did the remarkably successful leaders of female physical education, who pioneered the development of the subject in late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century England, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, lose control in the years following the Second World War? Despite the later resurgence of second wave feminism they never regained a voice, with the result that male leadership was able to shift the curriculum in ways that neglected the needs and interests of girls and young women. Drawing on new sources and a range of historiographical approaches, and touching on related fields such as therapeutic exercise and dance, the book examines the development of physical education for girls in a number of countries to offer an alternative explanation to the dominant narrative of the 'demise' of the female tradition. Providing an important contextualization for the state of contemporary female physical education, this is fascinating reading for anybody with an interest in the development of sport and physical education, womens and gender history, and physical culture more generally"--Publisher's website.
Contents: 1. Re-examining 'Women First': Re-writing the history of the "End of an Era" -- 2. The displacement of Ling for Laban: A growing alliance of dance with the arts -- 3. Dancing in new directions: Transatlantic connections -- 4. Under the critical eye: An insider's experience of the female tradition -- 5. Behind and beyond 'Women First': Hidden histories and silences in the female tradition -- 6. Moving to the "Midway Model": The longer term development of dance education -- 7. "Masculinisation", "Sportification" and "Academicisation" in the men's colleges: A case study of the Carnegie curriculum -- 8. Transformation or accommodation? The entry of women students into Carnegie -- 9. Refuge: The female tradition, gender, class, sex, and sport in Northern England, 1960s-1970s -- 10. Gender dynamics in the making and breaking of a female PETE culture in Sweden -- 11. The rediscovery of a female tradition in the physical activity field: The case of therapeutic exercise -- 12. 'Women First' revisited: Recent historical research and perspectives on U.S. physical education -- 13. Troubling the progress and loss narratives: Insiders and outsiders, silences and omissions, signs and route-markers.