More than Male-Gazing: Reflections on Female Fans of Rugby Union in New Zealand, 1870–1920

Abstract

ABSTRACTThe presence of women in and around rugby union in New Zealand remains on the margins of the histories of the game of rugby and the more social and cultural histories that explore rugby’s impact on the formation of a New Zealand national identity. Yet, as this article demonstrates, women have long since engaged with rugby union in ways that may well have assisted in its ascendancy and ultimate claiming of the title of New Zealand’s national game. Through readings of newspapers, magazines, and club histories covering the period from the 1870s through to the Great War a picture emerges: women from both the middle and lower classes of New Zealand society supported the game of rugby as spectators, supporters, and fans. They did so in a manner that was sometimes acceptable but at other times regarded as distinctly inappropriate. In addition, women’s involvement was informal and localized – most obvious at the community level – and it is this feature that helps to explain women’s virtual invisibility in the histories of rugby union in New Zealand.