ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on gender concepts and theories as well as the development and the situation of women. It explores long journey with gender theories as a starting point and current sport policies and practices as the goal. The chapter provides a short outline of theoretical approaches to gender. This will support an in-depth understanding of the opportunities and challenges which women face. The chapter deals with women and their sport related activities in Western countries. This focus implies that other important topics, Muslim females, in sport and exercise could not be covered. The chapter helps to locate the experiences and developments in the following Latin American chapters theoretically, and inspires others to explore these and other important topics in the field of gender and sport. The theoretical considerations which follow attempt to link some of the issues and strands of research stated above, placing particular emphasis on the dependence of gender on the cultural and societal contexts.
