The Girls of Central High: How a Progressive Era Book Series for Girls Furthered the Cause of Female Interschool Sport

An increased awareness of the gendered traditions of physical activity portrayed in vintage book series for girls and boys may provide teachers with a deeper understanding of (still) current ideological assumptions affecting female and male participation in sport and recreational activity. This article explores a unique girlsʹ fiction series about competitive high school sport for females during the Progressive Era. These stories are significant in that they enabled young women to explore conventional and resistant viewpoints about competitive sport, usually a strictly masculine preserve. While these struggles occurred nearly one hundred years ago, echoes of these issues reverberate today in contemporary high school physical education and competitive sport programs.