Women, Sport and Modernity in Interwar Britain

Fiona Skillen completed her PhD in the department of Economic and Social History at the University of Glasgow. She is currently a lecturer in Sport Management, Glasgow School for Business and Society, Glasgow Caledonian University.

• Contents: ‘A sound system of physical training’: The development of girls’ sports education in interwar Britain – ‘We all wanted to win, but we were nice to each other’: The growth of organized sport – ‘To make them men or women of character and worthy citizens of our great Empire’: Public provision of sports facilities – ‘Brightening the lives and making less monotonous the daily toil of the workers’: Work and sport – ‘Women and sport: a change in taste’: Sportswomen and modernity.

«Skillen has here produced a study which provides an important contribution to the debate surrounding women and modernity; as well as one which both adds to the literature on women’s sports and history and takes it in interesting new directions.» (Rafaelle Nicholson, Twentieth Century British History, 2014)