Baseball game adapted for women by educators who believed that the women’s game should differ from the men’s in terms of the size of the ball, the pitching (which, though underarm, can be a fastpitch game at the top levels) and the vigor with which it was played. Only the first two strictures remained as the game spread rapidly in the industries that employed women during the Second World War (as many as 40,000 teams existing around the country in 1944). Following the war, softball remained largely unsupported in colleges and universities until the passage of Title IX in 1972, but by the 1990s an estimated 40 million men and women were playing softball in the US. Among men the game is normally given recreational status, but for girls and women it has become a major school and college sport, especially noted for being a new source of scholarships for women athletes at the larger universities.

Efforts to internationalize the game occurred throughout the 1970s, with a simultaneous attempt to have softball accepted as an Olympic sport. Softball was introduced at the Atlanta games of 1996 as a full Olympic sport. Led by shortstop Dot Richardson, the American team defeated seven other nations in a round-robin tournament, securing the gold medal.