The successes of 2012 in women's sports are worth celebrating--but professionals should not forget the important issues that still need to be addressed.

This longitudinal study revealed that the last 15 years have seen a significant downward change in the percent of female coaches and administrators in college athletics. The need for sex role models and methods which may make a difference in women's representation are discussed. (MT)

Various Chinese "physical culture" programs are recounted along with observations regarding the role of girls and women in the multilevel sports activities. (LH)

Pursuing excellence in sport discriminates against women. Alongside the primary texts of the glories of excellence runs a subtext of inequality and discrimination. The paper traces the idea of sport as a quest for excellence through various interpretations of the meaning of sport, discussing excellence as a socially constructed concept. (SM)

A court decision rejecting the charge of the Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women (A.I.A.W.) that the National Collegiate Athletics Association forced it out of operation by engaging in anticompetitive actions to induce members to leave the A.I.A.W. is discussed, including excerpts of the court's opinion. (MSE)

Criticizes Syracuse University's construction of the Carrier Dome sports facility as being in violation of Title IX, which requires that women and men have equal access to athletic participation and facilities. Calls for greater adherence nationwide to the spirit and the letter of Title IX. (GC)

Introduces theme issue of this journal on the psychosocial influences on girls and women in sport and physical activity, focusing on the work of Dorothy V. Harris who battled for equal sporting opportunities and benefits for females. The papers are written from a feminist perspective. (SM)

This article briefly sketches the background and outcomes of national legislation to eliminate sex discrimination in sports at educational institutions. It calls upon those involved in women's athletics to work towards realizing the goal of bringing equal opportunity to girls and women in sports. (IAH)

Considers constructs and operation of homophobic discourse surrounding female athletes, employing Foucauldian notions of discipline and discourse and feminist critiques of the gendered body to depict female athletes as nonconformist to the discipline of femininity. The paper argues that homophobic discourse exists in response to this nonconformity…

This paper presents a discussion of events within national sport organizations that have recently addressed the problem of homophobia in sports; in particular, the social, professional, and political harassment of lesbian women who are career athletes. A brief overview is given of the stance of feminists, both liberal humanist and radical, on the…

Discusses controversial issues that have arisen in children's sports, including infant exercise programs, trampolines, amenorrhea in the adolescent athlete, coed contact sports, and sport participation by children with Down Syndrome. Policy statements are included from the American Academy of Pediatrics. (JD)

Although the women's sports movement has opened up unprecedented opportunities for some women, it has left completely untouched other pervasive inequalities in male programs and may actually have widened these inequalities. (Author)

This paper uses Peggy McIntosh's (1983) interactive phase typology as a descriptive model within which to characterize contemporary sport with respect to certain gender issues, accepting gender as dynamically and culturally constituted. The paper discusses possibilities for transforming sport by enhancing the appreciation of sport and enriching…

A number of factors have led to the dearth of qualified high school athletic coaches: an aging faculty, the gender equity promoted in Title IX, a shrinking pool of new teachers willing to coach, meager budgets, the explosive growth of sports such as soccer, and a hyper-competitive attitude among many students and parents. (MLF)

Discusses a Title IX action brought against Rhode Island's Brown University as a result of the university's demotion of two women's varsity teams to unfunded status. Reports that the court rejected Brown's argument that women are less interested in sports than men, ordering it to comply with the law. (AJL)