The Girl and the Game: A History of Women's Sport in Canada - Softcover

Hall, M. Ann

9781551112688: The Girl and the Game: A History of Women's Sport in Canada

Softcover

ISBN 10: 155111268X ISBN 13: 9781551112688

Publisher: University of Toronto Press, Higher Education Division, 2002

The Girl and the Game traces the history of women's organized sport in Canada from its early, informal roots in the late nineteenth century through the formation of amateur and professional teams to today's tendency to market women athletes, especially Olympians, as both athletic and sexual. When women actively participate in the symbols, practices, and institutions of sport, what they do is often not considered "real" sport, nor in some cases are they viewed as "real" women. What follows from this notion of sport as a site of cultural struggle is that the history of women in sport is also a history of cultural resistance.

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About the Author:

M. Ann Hall is a Professor Emeritus in the Faculty of Physical Education and Recreation at the University of Alberta, where she taught for over 30 years. She is the author of several books, including The Grads Are Playing Tonight!: The Story of the Edmonton Commercial Graduates Basketball Club (2011).

Review:

At last we have a comprehensive history of women and sport in Canada, sensitively written and reflecting a spirit of passionate enthusiasm for the sporting efforts, small and large, local and national, famous and unheralded, of Canadian girls and women. In The Girl and the Game: A History of Women's Sport in Canada, Ann Hall demonstrates an intimate involvement with women's sporting endeavors and celebrates their aspirations and achievements, as well as sympathizing with their continuous difficulties in confronting the male preserve of sport. This is a rich tapestry of women's stories and sporting experiences in twentieth-century Canada—a wonderful piece of feminist history showing clearly how the history of women's sport is a history of cultural resistance. (Patricia Vertinsky, University of British Columbia)

The Girl and the Game goes well beyond the customary chronicling of women in sport. Ann Hall examines the big picture: Canadian women's sport history in its rightful context as a cultural struggle. These are the stories of ordinary women and extraordinary athletes who challenged the status quo. Meticulously researched and richly crafted. (Mary Jollimore, sports writer)

Hall's treatment of women's sport history is by far the most comprehensive ever written. More than simply a compendium of names, dates, events and athletic accomplishments of the coffee table book variety, unfortunately so common in the sporting book tradition, Hall contextualizes emerging sporting traditions in terms of hegemonic class, patriarchal and, to a lesser degree, race-based social relations. [...] The Girl and the Game can safely be considered the quintessential work. (Ian Ritchie, Topia: Canadian Journal of Cultural Studies)

The Girl and the Game details women's resistance to masculine hegemony and significantly contributes to feminist history. It provides a comprehensive overview of the cultural context of women's sport in Canada, and it creates a desire in the reader to learn more about those marginalized women's groups who resisted and challenged hegemonic systems in sport. I would highly recommend this text to those wanting to expand their knowledge of women's contributions to the development of sport in Canada. (LeAnne Petherick, University of Toronto, Resources for Feminist Research)

The Girl and the Game is a fantastic book! It was inspiring to read about women who, starting in the 1890s, were trailblazers in challenging for the social acceptance of women's participation in sport, redefining their independence in the process. (Tanya Dubnicoff, World Champion sprint cyclist and three time Olympian)

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