Active Bodies: A History of Women's Physical Education in Twentieth-Century America

by Martha H. Verbrugge

During the twentieth century, opportunities for exercise and sports grew significantly for girls and women in the United States. Among the key figures who influenced this revolution were female physical educators. Drawing on extensive archival research, Active Bodies examines the ideas, experiences, and instructional programs of white and black female physical educators who taught in public schools and diverse colleges and universities, including coed and single-sex, public and private, and predominantly white and historically black institutions. Working primarily with female students, women physical educators had to consider what an active female could and should do in comparison to boys and men. Applying concepts of sex differences, they debated the implications of female anatomy, physiology, reproductive functions, and psychosocial traits for achieving gender parity in the gym. Teachers' interpretations were conditioned by the places where they worked, as well as developments
in education, feminism, and the law, society's changing attitudes about gender, race, and sexuality, and scientific controversies over the nature and significance of sex differences. While deliberating fairness for their students, women physical educators also pursued equity for themselves, as their workplaces and nascent profession often marginalized female and minority personnel. Questions of difference and equity divided the field throughout the century; while some teachers favored moderate views and incremental change, others promoted justice for their students and themselves by exerting authority at their schools, critiquing traditional concepts of "difference," and devising innovative curricula.

Exploring physical education within and beyond the gym, Active Bodies sheds new light on the enduring complexities of difference and equity in American culture.

Genres: History

416 pages, Hardcover

First published June 6, 2012

Reviews

[Tara Brabazon · Rating 4 out of 5]

Physical education is a complex phrase. Composed of either an adjective and noun or a compound noun, the relationship between body and mind, fitness and intellect, is ideologically complex. Verbrugge investigates physical education in the United States in the twentieth century. This is a profoundly successful book. Often I am critical of these types of histories as the history of the United States can be insular and inward, blocking an understanding of the rest of the world.

Yet this book takes difference - and the imagining and construction of these differences - as a focus. The attention to the intricate configuration and moderation of femininity is outstanding. Further, there is careful consideration of African American women as they moved into physical education. There is no masking of the discrimination they faced.

This is an impressive book that not only tells the story of physical education teachers, but offers some resonate theoretical tools and tasks for future work, particularly when considering the institutionalized body.

[Gwen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Reading this book, following its examination of physical education for women, white and black, in K-12 and college, in the 20th century, I found myself wondering, "how come there was no gym requirement in college?" To understand the evolution of physical education, women's education is placed in context with men's -- not surprisingly, men's education got more funding, better equipment, and more emphasis on elite (varsity) athletics than women's, at the same institutions. The differences in expectations, and assumptions, about race added an interesting dimension. Too, the normative assumption of heterosexuality pervades, or constrains, behaviors and life choices. In this story, I see many parallels with other areas of women's education that are less well-funded, seen as trivial or unimportant, and not seen as important elements of modern education. I think I need to go for a run to contemplate this ...

[Mills College Library]

613.7082 V479 2012