When Football is Feminine!

This book examines the evolving relationship between women and sport, a growing area of study in the 21st century. The connection between women and sport can be understood through three major perspectives: women and sport, women in sport, and women’s sport. Within this framework, the book focuses on the rendezvous between women and soccer, exploring this dynamic across global, transnational, regional, national, and local contexts. It delves into extant literature, contexts, categories, methodologies, and key themes, issues, roles, and questions to uncover her stories in the history of soccer.

The authors provide documentary, discursive, and analytical perspectives on the connection between women and soccer, addressing some of the most critical themes that shape women’s engagement with the sport in different societies. These themes have influenced not only the women’s game but also women’s diverse participation and roles in connection with soccer – both women’s and men’s. The book explores themes such as professionalization, migration, talent, leadership, networks, agency, empowerment, gender, femininity, motherhood, sexism, lesbianism, masculinity, resistance, and identity.

Covering broad subject areas such as gender studies, women’s history, sports history, sociology, and cultural studies, this book is an essential resource for academics, researchers, students, and enthusiasts seeking to understand the multifaceted dynamics of women’s involvement in soccer and its broader societal implications.

The chapters in this book were originally published as a special issue of Soccer & Society and are now accompanied by a newly updated Introduction.