Recent critical texts on education and the feminist critiques of schooling have neglected physical education as a subject area which contains strong gender messages yet possesses the potential to challenge myths concerning women's bodies, strength and physicality. The study upon which this book is based questions the contribution of P.E. to the reinforcement of images of femininity and to the development of gender-appropriate behaviour among girls.

The book opens with an accessible account of feminist theoretical perspectives, uniquely applying this work to girls' P.E. It traces the foundations and traditions of girls' P.E. identifying ideologies of physical ability/capability, motherhood/domesticity and sexuality which form the legacy inherited by contemporary P.E. The main section of the book is an in-depth study of the teaching and practice of P.E. today based on long-term observation in schools. Key issues which emerge from the research include: the relationship between sexuality and the body; the implications for girls of mixed-sex grouping; young women's subcultures, leisure and P.E.

While providing the first critique of girls' P.E. in schools the book offers positive alternatives of value to all concerned with education, highlighting P. E. as having real potential in challenging women's subordination and in developing anti-sexist schooling.