Title: Women, Football and History: International Perspectives
Abstract: AbstractThis paper provides an overview of a collection of works related to women and football from international perspectives. After a general discursive introduction, the material discussed has its emphasis on studies connected to women and football that occur outside the locus of established scholarship. In particular, it is noted that the works concentrate on the geographic locations of New Zealand, Australia and the USA, and four major football codes are covered. The investigations are also not limited to women playing football, but female spectators and coterie groups are also considered. In terms of variety, different methodological and theoretical approaches are adopted, and a range of time periods are reflected on. Given the existing state of play, it would seem there is still much to be uncovered, documented and written about when it comes to women and the football codes. The conclusion is that any research agenda that emerges from observations on international perspectives concerning the relationship of women with football will continue to resonate and add value to wider understandings of sport and gender.Keywords: women and footballsoccerrugby unionAmerican footballAustralian Rules football Notes1. Jane Austen, cited in David Whyte, The Three Marriages: Reimagining Work, Self and Relationship (New York: Riverhead Books, 2009), 217.2. FIFA, Minutes of the First UEFA Women's Football Conference, 22 March 1972 (Zurich: FIFA Archive, 1972), 21–2.3. Jean Williams and Megan Chawansky, 'Namibia's Brave Gladiators: Gendering the Sport and Development Nexus From the 1998 2nd World Women and Sport Conference to the 2011 Women's World Cup', in Michelle Sykes and John Bale (eds), Women's Sport in Africa, a Special Edition of Sport in Society: Cultures, Commerce, Media, Politics 17, no. 4 (2013), 550–62.4. Jean Williams, A Game for Rough Girls? A History of Women's Football in Britain (London: Routledge, 2003), 4.5. Lois Bryson, 'Gender', in Wray Vamplew, Katherine Moore, John O'Hara, Richard Cashman and Ian Jobling (eds), The Oxford Companion to Australian Sport, Revised Second Edition (Melbourne: Oxford University Press, 1997), 179.6. Bryson, 'Gender', 179–80.7. Anonymous, 'The Girls of the Period, Playing at Ball', Harper's Bazaar (August 1869), in Chris Unger (ed.), The History of Women's Football, http://thehistoryofwomensfootball.com/1800s.html (accessed 6 February 2015).8. André Odendaal, '"Neither Cricketers Nor Ladies": Towards a History of Women and Cricket in South Africa, 1860s–2000s', The International Journal of the History of Sport 28, no. 1 (2011), 116.9. Colin Bundy, cited in Odendaal, '"Neither Cricketers Nor Ladies"', 116.10. Odendaal, '"Neither Cricketers Nor Ladies"', 116.11. Odendaal, '"Neither Cricketers Nor Ladies"', 122.12. See discussion and reproductions of relevant press sources in Patrick Brennan, Women's Football, available at http://www.donmouth.co.uk/womens_football/womens_football.html (accessed 6 December 2015).13. Alethea Melling, '"Ray of the Rovers": The Working Class Heroine in Popular Football Fiction 1915–25', The International Journal of the History of Sport 15, no. 1 (1998), 97–122; Alethea Melling, 'Cultural Differentiation, Shared Aspiration: The Entente Cordiale of International Ladies' Football 1920–45', European Sports History Review 1, no. 1 (1999), 27–53.14. 'Dick, Kerr's Still Winning', Lancashire Daily Post, 2 March 1921, 4.15. 'Health Giving Kicks–Girl Footballer Who Scored 368 Goals Saw Doctor Only Once', Daily Mirror, 9 December 1921, 7.16. UEFA, 'UEFA Executive Committee, 17 June 2011', UEFA.com: The Official Website for European Football, www.uefa.com/uefa/aboutuefa/organisation/executivecommittee (accessed 27 September 2014).17. Mari Haugaa Engh, 'Tackling Feminity: The Heterosexual Paradigm and Women's Soccer in South Africa', The International Journal of the History of Sport 28, no. 1 (2011), 137.18. Brenda Elsey and Joshua Nadel, 'Marimachos*: On Women's Football in Latin America', The Football Scholars Forum, 6 December 2014, http://footballscholars.org/tag/brenda-elsey/ (accessed 28 March 2016); Brenda Elsey, Citizens and Sportsmen: Fútbol and Politics in Twentieth-Century Chile (Austin: University of Texas Press, 2011).19. Melissa C. Wiser, 'Lacrosse History, a History of One Sport or Two? A Comparative Analysis of Men's Lacrosse and Women's Lacrosse in the United States', The International Journal of the History of Sport 31, no. 13 (2014), 1656.20. Ibid., 1658.21. Ibid., 1665.22. Martha Saavedra, cited in Engh, 'Tackling Feminity', 140.23. Engh, 'Tackling Feminity', 140.24. Engh, 'Tackling Feminity', 149.25. Engh, 'Tackling Feminity', 149.26. Sue Lopez, Women on the Ball: A Guide to Women's Football (London: Scarlet Press, 1997).27. Fan Hong and J.A. Mangan (eds), Soccer, Women, Sexual Liberation: Kicking Off a New Era (London: Frank Cass, 2004).28. Williams, A Game for Rough Girls?; Jean Williams, A Beautiful Game: International Perspectives on Women's Football (London: Berg, 2007).29. Jonathan Magee, Jayne Caudwell, Katie Liston, and Sheila Scraton (eds), Women, Football and Europe: Histories, Equity and Experiences (Oxford: Meyer & Meyer Sport, 2007).30. James Lee, The Lady Footballers: Struggling to Play in Victorian Britain (London: Routledge, 2008).31. Jayne Caudwell (ed.), Women's Football in the United Kingdom (London: Routledge, 2012).32. D.J. Williamson, Belles of the Ball (Devon: R&D Associates, 1991); G.J. Newsham, 'In a League of Their Own': Dick, Kerr Ladies Football Club, 1917–1965 (Corley: Pride of Place Publishing, 1994); Barbara Jacobs, The Dick, Kerr's Ladies (London: Robinson, 2004).33. Gertrud Pfister, 'Reconstructing Femininity and Masculinity in Sport – Women and Football in Germany and France During the Inter-War Years', in Ken Hardman and Joy Standeven (eds), Cultural Diversity and Congruence in Physical Education and Sport (Aachen: Meyer and Meyer Sport, 1998), 81–100; Gertrud Pfister, Kari Fasting, Sheila Scraton and Benilde Vazquez, 'Women and Football – A Contradiction? The Beginnings of Women's Football in Four European Countries', Sheila Scraton and Anne Flintoff (eds), Gender and Sport: A Reader (London: Routledge, 2002), 66–77. For other material not included in previously mentioned collections, see, for example, Ali Melling, 'Wartime Opportunists: Ladies' Football and the First World War Factories', J.A. Mangan (ed.), Militarism, Sport, Europe: War Without Weapons (London: Frank Cass, 2003), 120–41.34. See, for instance, Matthias Marschik, 'Offside: The Development of Women's Football in Austria', Occasional Papers in Football Studies 1, no. 2 (1998), 69–88; Jayne Caudwell, 'Women's Experiences of Sexuality Within Football Contexts: A Particular and Located Footballing Epistemology', Football Studies 5, no. 1 (April 2002), 24–45.35. Jean Williams Globalising Women's Football: Migration and Professionalisation, 1971–2011 (Bern: Peter Lang, 2013); Sine Agergaard and Nina Clara Tiesler (eds), Women, Soccer and Transnational Migration (London: Routledge, 2014).36. Kim Tofoletti and Peter Mewett (eds), Sport and its Female Fans (London: Routledge, 2014); Stacey Pope, 'Female Football Fans and Gender Performance', Eric Anderson and Jennifer Hargreaves (eds), Routledge Handbook of Sport, Gender and Sexuality (London: Routledge, 2014), 245–53.37. See, for example, Peter Burke, 'Patriot Games: Women's Football During the First World War in Australia', Football Studies 8, no. 2 (2005), 5–19, Rob Hess, 'Playing With "Patriotic Fire": Women and Football in the Antipodes During the Great War', The International Journal of the History of Sport 28, no. 10 (2011), 1388–408; Rob Hess, 'Missing in Action? New Perspectives on the Origins and Diffusion of Women's Football in Australia During the Great War', The International Journal of the History of Sport 31, no. 18 (2014), 2326–44, and Rob Hess, 'Women's Australian Football', in David Nadel and Graeme Ryan (eds), Sport in Victoria: A History (Melbourne: Ryan Publishing, 2015), 267–9.