This article explores the potential for martial arts to support transformation and community building for women. Findings indicate women can derive many individual benefits from learning martial arts. Yet, the benefits must extend beyond the individual level to create social change. Based on an evaluation of literature on women's experiences…

Background: Female learning of movement in elite combat sports has not been studied enough to date. Literature on movement learning and teaching of complex skills has not, to date, focused on karate, and the scarce literature on the learning of elite karate practitioners mostly does not focus on women. Nevertheless, women fighters participated in…

Presents a lesson plan dealing with women and sport in U.S. history. Discusses the themes of physical capabilities, propriety, and femininity. Describes exercises and projects that can be used to integrate the lesson into different subjects. Includes a reading list, modified rules for women's basketball, and portions of the social debate on women…

This survey report focuses on sex differences in response to 11 attitude items concerning the female opportunity structure in sport, females in traditionally male sports, and sex role socialization in relation to sport. On all items, females were more accepting of women in sports than males were. (Author/SJL)

An empirical research study based upon the expectancy-value model of Eccles and colleagues (1983) investigated the effect of gender-role orientations on psychological dimensions of female athletes' sport participation and the likelihood of their continued participation in a stereotypical masculine activity. The model (Eccles et al., 1983) posits…

This study examined the role of women as portrayed in the mass media, focusing on the depiction of women in the traditionally passive role as compared with men in the traditionally aggressive role. The analysis of media coverage was highlighted by the examination of women and men in magazines, billboards, television, and newspapers between January…

Sport values follow societal values, and, in American society, it is evident that men have determined the social, political, and economic values upon which this country has established its laws. An overview of the social influence of men in comparison to that of women in the development of American society points out how men and women have assumed…

This guide for teachers, in English and Spanish, examines how assigned sex roles affect grade school girls in competitive sports, simple games, pastimes, and other extracurricular activities. A pre-test and post-test are included to measure the user's awareness of sexual stereotypes. Five object lessons cover the following topics: (1) myths that…

Elementary school students were interviewed with the goal of determining characteristics and behavioral patterns they considered appropriate for one sex or the other in participation in sports. Children from kindergarten through the sixth grade were examined and compared by grade, sex, and race in their gender-related attitudes. The instrument…

Sex role stereotyping in physical education is viewed in historical perspective. Though Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 was intended to provide equal opportunities for males and females to develop skills in a full range of activities, its implementation has not eradicated the underlying sex stereotypes. (JN)

Studies of physical education teacher training have already established that hegemonic forms of masculinity are reinforced and reproduced both in the hidden curriculum (Flintoff, 1997) and the informal student culture (Skelton, 1993). Given this, an important feminist concern is whether male PE teachers whose own masculine identities are anchored…

Findings from analysis of television coverage of women in sport during the 1970's and early 1980's suggested that coverage was considerably less than for men's televised sport, and that coverage of women athletes was characterized by stereotypical images and limited information. Trends reported by researchers who examined the status of women…

As women engage more actively in sports, they develop skills necessary for successful achievements in other areas of life. Areas of concern to women participating in sports are: (1) sport boundaries; (2) sex-specific sport behavior; (3) definition and designation of sport roles; (4) recognition of injustice; and (5) resistance to exploitation. (JN)

The relationship between activity and positive self-esteem in girls 9 to 12 years of age was explored in this study. The hypothesis was that the positive relationship between physical activity and positive self-esteem which exists for women also exists for girls. A secondary goal was to gain insight into some of the factors that are associated…

This paper examines the development of women's sports during the first three decades of the 20th century and compares it with the development of the women's movement during the same period. In so doing, the paper focuses on the views of female physical educators and female athletes and on their participation in sport. These views and the…