Coming on Strong

January 3, 1994
Cahn, who teaches history at the State University of New York, here reworks her Ph.D. dissertation and comes up with a winner. Readers will be either amused or infuriated by her discussion of patronizing male attitudes toward the moral and physical dangers of female athletic activity during the 19th and early 20th centuries. And while subsequent years brought more enlightenment, women athletes have always had extra obstacles to overcome: in the 1920s and '30s, physical ed teachers preached ``moderation,'' downplaying or banning competitive sport. The '40s and '50s were marked by the attitude that all sports were mannish and the women who excelled in them were probably lesbians; it also brought the WW II phenomenon of the short-lived All-American Girls Baseball League. Following the '60s, a decade of progress and acceptance, women are still trying to wrest control over their athletic activities from men.