Promotions - Choice's Outstanding Academic Titles 2024 -

Enacted in 1972, the gender equity in education act known as Title IX promised that any educational experience traditionally open only to males, including school sports, would be available for females. Fifty years later, the number of females participating in sports has increased greatly, but sports--particularly collegiate athletics--remains disproportionately male. Druckman (Northwestern Univ.) and Sharrow (Univ. of Masachusetts, Amherst) sent surveys to tens of thousands of respondents--from student athletes and sports administrators to fans of college sports--their analysis of the data revealed that attaining equality in college sports is unlikely given the structures and culture created by the institutions that implement the law. The surveys suggested that dropping gender barriers within sport tends to reduce men's empathy toward gender equality, and that women who acquire positions of power in college sport adopt a more male tolerance of gender inequality. In addition, the authors found that sports fans, trained to view men's college sport as better and more important than female college sport, are less supportive of gender equality. The culmination of years of work, this is a dense book with detailed data. The authors' conclusion--that enforcement or tweaking the law will not result in gender equality in sport without changes at the institutional level--is provocative and well supported.Summing Up: Essential. Upper-division undergraduates through researchers and faculty; professionals.

About so much more than hockey, this book examines the larger societal and cultural forces that perpetuate violence and abuse against women. Debunking popular excuses used to legitimize men's violent behavior, the authors look at why men who participate in revenue-producing professional contact sports like hockey abuse women more than nonathletes and generally go unpunished. An important contribution is the authors' male peer support theory (MPS) in explaining the nuanced connection between playing professional hockey, masculinities, rape culture, and violence against women. Showing how society cultivates abusive behavior among many hockey players, the authors detailing multiple cultural factors in MPS theory that facilitate harm against women. The authors dedicate a particularly powerful chapter to the voices of women survivors of abuse, and they close by presenting several intersectional solutions for meaningful structural and cultural changes in both sport and culture--since one necessitates the other. An important, if sometimes difficult, unflinching look at the culture of sport and violence against women, this book is a powerful call to action to create change in broader society as well as in hockey.Summing Up: Highly recommended. All readers.