Cosi (non) Fan Tutte: women’s football ‘made in Israel’

Abstract

This paper, based on field work, focuses on the relationships between football, femininity and gender, specifically on how an Israeli female footballer describes, evaluates and interprets her status. The underlying assumption of this study is that in accordance with the status of women’s football, female players enjoy ‘relative autonomy’ dictated by their surroundings. In practice, their surroundings are male dominated: football institutions (local and international) are predominantly dominated by men, and female players are subjected to the daily operation of their relative autonomy. The female players that were interviewed in this study are conscious of the critical impact of gender, and the restrictions that are imposed upon them because football is ‘a man’s game’. Although they are partially satisfied, at present they do not have much hope regarding their football when compared to their male counterparts: the anticipated future is similar to the present.