عنوان

'Get fit - keep fit'? :

Number

TLets572162

Title Proper

'Get fit - keep fit'? :

General Material Designation

[Thesis]

First Statement of Responsibility

Macrae, Eilidh H. R.

Title Proper by Another Author

exercise in the female life-cycle in Scotland, 1930-1970

Name of Publisher, Distributor, etc.

University of Glasgow

Date of Publication, Distribution, etc.

2013

Dissertation or thesis details and type of degree

Ph.D.

Body granting the degree

University of Glasgow

Text preceding or following the note

2013

Text of Note

This thesis looks into the complex relationships which women have had with their bodies throughout the twentieth century. It uses oral history evidence, medical sources, and official government material to examine women's experiences of and access to physical recreation and sport throughout the life-cycle. It argues that despite the official view that throughout the twentieth century women's sporting bodies were essentially fragile bodies, unsuited to competitive and manly sports, there were a number of alternative discourses available to women during these years. Women who had strong sporting identities, and confidence in their own physical abilities, were able to test the capabilities of their bodies and maintain their exercise participation throughout adolescence, menstruation, pregnancy and during motherhood, despite the advice of state officials, and many doctors, which advised them against participation. This thesis makes a powerful contribution to what at present is a largely uncharted historical landscape of female participation in and experience of physical recreation in Scotland and the UK in the mid-twentieth century. In a global context, it contributes to our understanding of the relationship between the female body and physical activity throughout the physically and culturally guided female life-cycle, and the particular ways in which women interacted with sport and exercise throughout the twentieth century.

DA Great Britain

HM Sociology

HQ The family. Marriage. Woman

Macrae, Eilidh H. R.

University of Glasgow

Electronic name

p

[Thesis]

276903

a

Y