Patriarchal Politics of Women Footballers in Australia

Abstract

The recent growth in women's participation in Australian Rules football has been amazing. In 2017, this growth led to the commencement of the Australian Football League Women's (AFLW), the first national semi-professional Australian Rules football competition for women. Yet, both the growth of participation of women in local community leagues and the establishment and success of the AFLW have been portrayed within a patriarchal discourse of women benefitting from welfare provided by governments, the men's fully professional league (AFLM) and local men's sporting clubs and leagues. This chapter explores how the AFLW and community women's leagues have been limited by historically sexist, patriarchal and phallocentric narratives that continue to inform policies and practices of women's football. It then outlines three necessary steps to providing a stronger affirmative narrative for women's football. This affirmative discourse argues that it was actually women's players, teams and leagues that mitigated the decline in community men's football, and thus ‘saved’ community Australian Rules football. This narrative may be useful for consideration in other contexts and with other historically male sports that have recently expanded to include female participants, such as other football codes and ice hockey.