Description
Book SynopsisThe global professionalisation of women’s football has gathered momentum in the twenty first century, and professional women footballers are now more prevalent and evident in cultures around the world. Despite increased professionalisation and record-breaking viewing and participation figures for women’s football, there are persistent challenges for women in the game. Professional football is now a viable career opportunity for women globally; however, as Women’s Football in a Global, Professional Era demonstrates, there are pressing issues and unanswered questions that remain in the game.
In this collection, a range of scholars contribute research covering three key areas as women’s football shifts into a global, professional era: issues surrounding the historical development of professional women’s football, documentation of the lived experiences of women in an emerging professional space and, finally, discussions around commercialisation and media coverage of the sport.
Women’s Football in a Global, Professional Era is an important addition to discussions on sport as work for women, and an essential reference point for students, researchers and sports professionals interested in the debates around the professionalisation of women’s football internationally.
Table of ContentsChapter 1. Introduction: Women’s Football in a Global, Professional Era; Alex Culvin and Ali Bowes
Section A. Emerging Professionalisation
Chapter 2. Responsibility and Progress: The English Football Association's Professionalisation of the Women's Game; Beth Fielding-Lloyd and Donna Woodhouse
Chapter 3. Obrigatoriedade and the Professionalisation of Women’s Football in Brazil; Mark Biram
Chapter 4.Professional Women’s Football in Norway - A Field of Empowerment and Discrimination; Bente Ovedie Skogvang
Chapter 5. On the Road to Empowerment? An Uneven Path to Professionalisation in Japanese Women’s Football; Elise Edwards
Chapter 6. Women’s Football in the Arab Region: Local Perspectives and Global Challenges; Hussa K. Al-Khalifa
Section B. Lived Experiences of Professionalisation
Chapter 7. Gender and Football in Brazil: The Impact of the Paulistana over a Generation of Brazilian Women Players; Jorge Knijnik
Chapter 8. Changing Tides or Freedom Fallacy? A Foucauldian Cautionary Reading of Women’s Professional Football’s Evolving Contexts; Luke Jones, Zoe Avner, Joseph Mills, and Simone Magill
Chapter 9. Negotiating the Transition from Amateur to Semi-professional Football Status in the FA Women’s Championship; Ally Forbes, Kay Biscomb, and Jean Williams
Chapter 10. Being ‘in’ and ‘on the field’: An Auto-ethnographic Reflection on Elite Women’s Football in Argentina; Gabriela Garton
Chapter 11. Representation Matters: Race and the History of the England Women’s National Football Team; Jean Williams
Section C. Commercialisation and Media Coverage
Chapter 12. Power at Play – Women’s Football and Commercialisation as a Sociological Problem; Katie Liston
Chapter 13. Equal Pay Debates in International Women’s Football; Ali Bowes, Alex Culvin, and Sarah Carrick
Chapter 14. A New Age for Media Coverage of Women’s Sport? An Analysis of English Media Coverage of the 2015 FIFA Women’s World Cup; Kate Petty and Stacey Pope
Chapter 15. ‘Pink Hair, Don’t Care’: A Print Media Analysis of Megan Rapinoe at the 2019 Women’s World Cup; Rachael Bullingham and Rory Magrath
Chapter 16. (De)Weaponized for Change: How US Sport Nationalism Contributes to the Professionalisation of Women’s Sports and Positive Social Change; Kayla Cloud and Erica Tibbetts
Chapter 17. Conclusion: Research Agendas for Professional Women’s Football; Alex Culvin and Ali Bowes
