Women Playing Football at Clubs in England with Socio‐Political Associations

Abstract

The documentation of women’s experiences of football continues apace. Since the mid 1990s, authors have highlighted the complexities of gender and gender relations and the impact on girls’ and women’s relationship to the ‘people’s game’. The burgeoning literature tends to adopt a feminist theoretical approach and successfully exposes the significance of football in the everyday lives of women. In addition, the accounts contest the study of football as male academic terrain and challenge the tradition of football studies. This essay makes a new contribution to the literature through an engagement with football clubs with political associations. The focus on women’s lived experiences of playing for clubs with political associations continues the tradition of feminist methodology and demonstrates the complexities of gender, sexuality, class and ethnicity.