What do you think?
Rate this book
No Girls in the Clubhouse: The Exclusion of Women from Baseball
Even though teenaged girl Jackie Mitchell once struck out Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig, women are still striking out on the hardball diamond. This book builds on recently published histories of women as amateur and professional players, umpires, sports commentators and fans to analyze the cultural and historical contexts for excluding females from America's pastime. Drawing on anthropological and feminist perspectives, the book examines the ways that constructions of women's bodies and normative social roles have pushed them toward softball instead of baseball. Sportswriter accounts, Title IX sex-discrimination suits, and interviews with players explore the obstacles and the social isolation of females who join all-male baseball teams, while also discussing policies that inhibit the practice.
- GenresBaseballNonfictionSports
228 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2009
2 people are currently reading
59 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
August 17, 2020
Very informative book covering 125 years of women in organized baseball. Most of the history and details are probably unknown to even the most well read baseball fans. I particularly enjoyed the sections on the first women to play at the highest levels of baseball, the Negro Leagues, and the section on Little League where girls were banned until 1974.
We had a girl who pitched for our team in Little League in the late ‘70’s and she was selected to our All Star Team. I had no idea that five years earlier she would not have been allowed to play.
4 stars.
We had a girl who pitched for our team in Little League in the late ‘70’s and she was selected to our All Star Team. I had no idea that five years earlier she would not have been allowed to play.
4 stars.
March 26, 2018
I thought I knew almost everything there was to know about women and girls in baseball until I read this book. Great research with primary source material cited. Cohen successfully exposes the coercive gender segregation in baseball. Cohen puts the segregation in context which is easy to understand. Must read for any woman who loves the game or has dreamed of being in the big leagues as a player, coach, umpire, manager, or broadcaster.
November 17, 2016
Knowing very little about women's baseball other than "A League of Their Own" and the Coors Silver Bullets from the 90's, I was pleasantly surprised by such a detailed history of women's exploits in professional baseball.
The author can't help but compare the roadblocks that women have faced to the barriers that Jackie Robinson and others were up against when they broke the color barrier in 1947 - they just "weren't good enough to compete", their "bodies are made differently" and ultimately "separate but equal". It all comes off as woefully misogynistic and yet here we are in 2016 and women still have very little support in their pursuit of baseball after Little League.
Most of all, it really made me think of what is really being accomplished by pushing women towards softball as a "she-sport" rather than encouraging them to stay with baseball. It's more complicated than I expected, and you'd have to read the book to see why.
The book is very dry and reads like a thesis (maybe it is? I don't know), and at times can be repetitive but if you're curious about the history of the sport and women's place in it between the lines, this is a valuable tool to start with. I'm looking forward to looking through the women's baseball archives in Cooperstown with much greater understanding.
The author can't help but compare the roadblocks that women have faced to the barriers that Jackie Robinson and others were up against when they broke the color barrier in 1947 - they just "weren't good enough to compete", their "bodies are made differently" and ultimately "separate but equal". It all comes off as woefully misogynistic and yet here we are in 2016 and women still have very little support in their pursuit of baseball after Little League.
Most of all, it really made me think of what is really being accomplished by pushing women towards softball as a "she-sport" rather than encouraging them to stay with baseball. It's more complicated than I expected, and you'd have to read the book to see why.
The book is very dry and reads like a thesis (maybe it is? I don't know), and at times can be repetitive but if you're curious about the history of the sport and women's place in it between the lines, this is a valuable tool to start with. I'm looking forward to looking through the women's baseball archives in Cooperstown with much greater understanding.
January 16, 2017
This should be required reading.
June 9, 2021
Fabulous. A first-rate treatment of the underlying social conditions in baseball when it comes to gender and sex. A powerful academic treatment of the topic with much more depth than a list of women ballplayer. Well done.
December 6, 2018
Very informative. My blood started to boil towards the end with the discussion of Little League. Girls can't play because they are physically weaker and will get hurt. Boys will be emotionally damaged if they lose to girls. Grrrr. Ignorance!
May 14, 2009
The subject sounded great, but the text was so dry I could only finish a couple of chapters.
Read
February 2, 2023couldn’t get into it; however, seems well researched and thorough
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews