Within a framework that challenges dualistic ways of thinking about the body and mind, the work of all teachers is considered 'embodied'. This is magnified in the context of physical education (PE) where the teachers' bodies are tools of their work. For example, PE teachers use their bodies to demonstrate skills and to manipulate student's bodies in giving kinaesthetic feedback. In addition, PE teachers are often expected to be appropriate physical, healthy 'role models'. This free communication reports results from case study research considering the influence of embodiment on the careers of female PE teachers and their under-representation at leadership levels in PE. Despite the increased focus on the importance of embodiment and the body in the social sciences, teachers' bodies, and how teachers' identities are constructed within and through discursive practices of PE, have been largely neglected (Evans, Davies & Penney, 1996; Sparkes, 1999). It is important to increase this focus of research, because PE is an important location in and through which bodies are inscribed with gender differences (Wright, 1996). Sixteen qualitative case studies of female and male PE teachers and leaders were completed. Data collection included non-participant observation and interviews supplemented by member checks. The audio recordings of the interviews were transcribed and entered into the N.U.D.I.S.T. program (Non-numerical, Unstructured Data: Indexing, Searching and Theorising; Qualitative Solutions and Research, 1993). Data analysis identified themes and underlying theoretical threads. The data themes included career issues (paths, aspirations, perspectives and strategies), teachers' work (times issues, work-life balance, job feedback, authority and independence), the culture and context of the school (staffroom environment, status of PE), family responsibilities and leadership. The theoretical threads running throughout the data included the influence of space and place; shifting identities; absence and erasure from networks; power, agency and resistance; and embodiment. In summary, without the prompting of specific questions, the female participants mentioned body issues and the male participants did not. Some of the body issues mentioned by the female participants included concerns about pregnancy and the physical nature of PE teacher work (i.e. planning pregnancy around the demands of the PE school year), concerns about aging and the physical nature of the work, concerns about the expectations of students and feelings of having to maintain a certain body image. Body issues were part of a complex range of factors that influenced women's careers and aspirations for leadership. Keyword(s): gender issues, leadership development