Much writing on gender and sport is focused upon the negative impact of girls’ exclusion from the arena, suggesting by inference that current practice in sport and physical education offers an uncomplicatedly positive sport experience for boys, and that gender, in and of itself, offers a simple starting point for research into young people’s experience of sport.

Rethinking Gender and Youth Sport articulates certain themes which, it is suggested, might contribute to broadening and furthering discussion in the area of gender, youth sport and physical activity. This collection considers a number of themes relating to gender in sport, including:

• the body


• competence, ability and school physical education


• cultural change and diversity


• gendered spaces


• human rights and well-being.

Authoritative writers have contributed thought provoking chapters which will prompt the reader to re-think the ways in which gender is understood within the context of youth sport.