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Whatever It Takes: Women on Women's Sport
The first anthology of women's personal essays on sports, from Elizabeth Cady Stanton on bicycling to Anna Seaton Huntington on rowing
With edge, passion, and depth, Whatever It Takes demonstrates the enormous importance of sports for girls and women. These essays deal with everything from finding a mentor - whether it's an Olympic gold winner or a neighborhood coach-to reveling in female team spirit. There are historical selections, as well as discussions of such developments as Title IX. The contributors, including world-class athletes and celebrated writers from Mariah Burton Nelson and Grace Butcher to Diane Ackerman and Maxine Kumin, tackle traditional favorites such as basketball and softball as well as more exotic sports from boxing and motorcycle racing to rock climbing.
Both timely and riveting, Whatever It Takes will appeal to the rapidly growing ranks of female athletes and to their enthusiastic followers.
With edge, passion, and depth, Whatever It Takes demonstrates the enormous importance of sports for girls and women. These essays deal with everything from finding a mentor - whether it's an Olympic gold winner or a neighborhood coach-to reveling in female team spirit. There are historical selections, as well as discussions of such developments as Title IX. The contributors, including world-class athletes and celebrated writers from Mariah Burton Nelson and Grace Butcher to Diane Ackerman and Maxine Kumin, tackle traditional favorites such as basketball and softball as well as more exotic sports from boxing and motorcycle racing to rock climbing.
Both timely and riveting, Whatever It Takes will appeal to the rapidly growing ranks of female athletes and to their enthusiastic followers.
- GenresSportsNonfiction
352 pages, Paperback
First published August 19, 1999
33 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
March 12, 2020
My ratings of books on Goodreads are solely a crude ranking of their utility to me, and not an evaluation of literary merit, entertainment value, social importance, humor, insightfulness, scientific accuracy, creative vigor, suspensefulness of plot, depth of characters, vitality of theme, excitement of climax, satisfaction of ending, or any other combination of dimensions of value which we are expected to boil down through some fabulous alchemy into a single digit.
July 30, 2012
Some stories were interesting, others were just boring. I found the book interesting mostly for the eye-opening perspective on how things used to be - swimmers training without goggles? Girls running in "slacks" before all the types of athletic clothing became available?
January 11, 2013
This book is a great book about women playing more sports. Some stories are really interesting and some are really boring. The stories foreshadow that women will one day compete with men and compete in more sports like men do
February 3, 2015
I read this book over the weekend, and it reminded me of what a difference sports and physical competition can make in girls' lives and self-perceptions. Especially a propos after the Superbowl #likeagirl.
What do you do #likeagirl?
What do you do #likeagirl?
May 4, 2008
B+ Good for athletic womyn to read
February 18, 2011
A few inspiring stories about women in athletics, and many forgettable ones. I also wish there had been a wider variety of sports represented.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews