Creating a Female Athlete: The Power of Societal Reimaging and Advertising in the All-American Girls Professional Baseball Leagu

The All American Girls Professional Baseball League introduced an acceptable form of female sport to the United States during World War II. The All American Girls Professional Baseball League's feminine image and high standards of the league provided a new quality team sport that the ever popular softball diamonds of industrial recreation had failed to reach. One of the reasons for their success was the attention to detail in the visual representation of the baseball league. Appearing in a time of heightened advertising and branding, a visual representation of the League was created to fit within the societal norms of the day by the original owner of the All American Girls Professional Baseball League, Philip K. Wrigley, and his trusting advertising executive, Arthur E. Meyerhoff'. Using a concept I term "societal reimaging," the thesis examines newspapers and organizational documents to view the changes and continuities of the All American Girls Professional Baseball League's administrations and the ability executives to present female athletes as feminine women.