The American Woman in Sport

Abstract

Don Mills, Ontario, 1974, pp. 562 &dquo;The American Woman in Sport'' is a work which seeks to give a thorough picture of the subject it is dealing with. Use is made here of an interdisciplinary approach, the components of which are: the following methods: a historical survey in the descriptive part a.s well as a sociological, psychological and physiological (biological) approach.In this way the book reviewed here is a &dquo;thorough interdisciplinary analysis&dquo; of problems, models and processes, related to the participation of the American woman in sport as well as an analysis of the social motivation and the effects of the participation of the American woman in sport as part of American culture.The book is made up of four parts and eleven chapters. Part one, entitled &dquo;Chronicle of Participation&dquo; (pp.:3-1?G) may in principle be treated as an extensive historical background for the actually underdeveloped social models of women's participation in sport and thus in American culture. The problems outlined here will interest above all the historian of physical culture and less the sociologist in his capacity of an empiricist. Some excerpts of this part have genuine popularizing values. Particularly strongly felt can be a lack, and that is true of the entire book, of intercultural or international comparative context. In the second sociological part we find three chapters (pp. 178-279) : &dquo;The Dialectic of Women and Sport&dquo;, &dquo;The Status of Women and Sport&dquo; and &dquo;Social Commentary&dquo;. Part four presents us with the problem of the participation of American women in sports life approached from the psychological point of view (pp. 283-400). Subject of discussion was here the specific aspect 0'£ women's personality traits. Special attention is paid in this part to motivational factors, which to a considerable extent define the degree and intensity of the involvement of women in sports activity. The last part, entitled &dquo;Physical Per-formance&dquo; (pp. 403-529)presents the physical picture of a woman, her anatomy and specific physiological processes, connected with the functioning of the biological organism of the woman in general (such as menstruation and pregnancy). This chapter undoubtedly lays sufficient stress on the physiological barriers for women regarding physical performance in sport in general and competitive sport of sportswomen. The conclusion is only several pages long and has the optimistic title &dquo;Toward the Fut.ure&dquo;. Note also that each part is followed by a rich biblioat SIMON FRASER LIBRARY on June 9, 2015 irs.sagepub.com Downloaded from