ABSTRACT

The business of sport has always been women’s business. Sometimes the involvement of women in the business of sport has required the employment of subversive tactics. At other times, the interests of women have been best served by acts of outright revolution or, as the alternative, a studied and quiet dismissal of naysayers. Women have pursued roles as administrators, athletes, coaches, fans, journalists, and executives within different sporting spaces. They have found ways over the centuries to own their sport experiences and to make their presence known regardless of prevailing societal views grounded in “scientific proof” of women as the “weaker sex,” who jeopardized their roles as wives and mothers by participating too seriously or zealously in sport. In this chapter, the early roots of women’s sport business as they unfolded in the first half of the twentieth century will be examined through the case example of Constance Applebee’s entrepreneurial influence on women’s field hockey and lacrosse in the United States. Attention is then turned to the impact that Title IX and other gender equity laws have had in envisioning expanded opportunities for women in the sport industry.