This volume offers a wide-reaching overview of current academic research on women's participation in combat sports within a range of different national and trans-national contexts, detailing many of the struggles and opportunities experienced by women at various levels of engagement within sports such as boxing, wrestling, and mixed martial arts.

1. Approaching The Gendered Phenomenon Of Women Warriors; Alex Channon And Christopher R MatthewsPART I: DISCURSIVE CONSTRUCTIONS AND MEDIATED REPRESENTATIONS OF WOMEN IN COMBAT SPORTS2. Moral Guardians, Mini-Skirts And Nicola Adams: The Changing Media Discourse Of Women's Boxing; Amy Godoy-Pressland3. The Boxers Of Kabul: Women, Boxing And Islam; Hillary Kipnis And Jayne Caudwell4. Chicks Fighting In A Cage: A Philosophical Critique Of Gender Constructions In The Ultimate Fighting Championship; Charlene Weaving5. 'Beauty And Strength': Defining The Female Body In The Ultimate Fighter Season 20 Promotional Campaign;LA JenningsPART II: INSTITUTIONAL STRUCTURES AND ACTORS IN WOMEN'S COMBAT SPORTS6. Gender Inequality In Olympic Boxing: Exploring Structuration Through Online Resistance Against Weight Category Restrictions; George Jennings And Beatriz Cabrera7. The Fight Outside The Ring: Female Boxing Officials In Trinidad And Tobago; Roy Mccree8. Mexican Female Warrior: The Case Of Marisela Ugalde, The Founder Of Xilam; George Jennings9. Women Fighters As Agents Of Change: A Brazilian Jiu Jitsu Case Study From Finland; Anna Kavoura, Stiliani Chroni, Marja Kokkonen And Tatiana V. RybaPART III: RECREATIONAL PRACTICE AND SELF-DEFENCE10. Beautifully Violent: The Gender Dynamic Of Scottish Karate; Chloe Maclean11. Mediating Factors In Martial Arts Practice: A Specific Case Of Young Girls; Jikkemien Vertonghen, Hebe Schaillée, Marc Theeboom And Paul De Knop12. Outlaw Emotions: Gender, Emotion, And Transformation In Women's Self-Defence Training; Jocelyn Hollander13. Resisting The Hegemonic Gender Order? The Accounts Of Female Boxers In South Korea; Yun Jung Kim, Sun Yong Kwon And Jung Woo LeePART IV: COMPETITIVE AND PERFORMATIVE 'WOMEN WARRIORS'14. Reinventing The Body-Self: Intense, Gendered And Heightened Sensorial Experiences Of Women's Boxing Embodiment; Helen Owton15. 'I'm Not The Type Of Person Who Does Yoga': Women, 'Hard' Martial Arts And The Quest For Exciting Significance; Mark Mierzwinski And Catherine Phipps16. Ambivalent Lives, Fighting Bodies: Women And Combat Sports In BrazilJorge Knijnik And Marco Antônio De Carvalho Ferretti17. Unboliviable Bouts: Gender And Essentialisation Of Bolivia's Cholitas Luchadoras; Nell Haynes