Playing With the Boys
Why Separate is Not Equal in Sports
Eileen McDonagh and Laura Pappano
Reviews and Awards
2008 CHOICE Outstanding Academic Title
"Playing with the Boys dismantles the common assumption that women must be inferior to men when it comes to sports. McDonagh and Pappano impressively show how this deep stereotype has no grounds and why it's so important we get rid of it."--Donna Brazile, author of Cooking with Grease: Stirring the Pots in American Politics
"This is one of those rare gems of a book that makes you entirely reassess what you thought you knew. Provocative, absorbing and meticulously argued, Playing with the Boys questions the received wisdom about Title IX and women's sports from the most unexpected perspective. Read the book."--Mary Fainsod Katzenstein, Stephen and Evalyn Milman Professor of American Studies, Cornell University and author of Faithful and Fearless: Moving Feminist Protest inside the Church and Military
"McDonagh and Pappano hit a home-run! This book shows that coerced sex segregation in sports does not benefit women, and in fact holds back women who are fully capable of competing with men--and that flies in the face of U.S. ideals of equality. Readers will never think of Title IX in the same way again."--Kim Gandy, President, National Organization for Women (NOW)
"A strong case history about the inequalities that existed for female athletes not only in the 1800s and 1900s, but also today."--The Chicago Sun-Times
"Makes a dynamic case for reshuffling our gendered assumptions about sports."--Bust Magazine
"Start thinking about the issues they raise and you may never stop."--The New York Times
"This exhaustively researched, historically informed book represents an important step in the debate surrounding gender equity in sport." --Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society
