Women and gender in South African soccer: a brief history

‘Like pulling down Durham Cathedral and building a brothel’: Women as ‘new consumer’ fans?

“…There is a large body of research which has examined women’s experiences of playing football, both in the UK (see, for example, Caudwell, 2000, 2004, 2006; Lopez, 1997; Macbeth, 2005; Scraton et al, 1999, 2005; Williams, 2003, 2007a) and elsewhere (see, for instance, Cox and Thompson, 2000, 2001; Liston, 2006; Pelak, 2010; Skille, 2008). It is a misconception that football crowds have always been almost all male.…”

Politics of Gender (in)Equality Relating to Sport and Development Within a Sub-Saharan Context of Poverty

“…Whilst prioritising ethnicity and race as priority in an agenda of redress through policy and institutional reform driving resource allocation, the focus on gender inequality becomes an inherent category across a wide spectrum of development initiatives. Socio-economic inequalities relating to household and individual survival may disproportionally affect women as a vulnerable population, but is mostly seen as a nuanced manifestation of systemic disenfranchisement and poverty (Pelak, 2010). Only in cases, such as gender-based violence (GBV) where women are specifically identified as most vulnerable, would it become a social issue to be addressed by policy, structures and related practices.…”

Hetero-sexing the athlete: public and popular discourses on sexuality and women’s sport in South Africa

“…In South Africa football is still considered a game for and of men; it is a sport that serves to maintain and support masculine domination (Pelak 2005). The male dominance goes beyond that of monopolising corporate and popular support; it also defines the sport as being essentially 'male' in character, positing men as having a collective entitlement to its leadership (Pelak 2010). As a result, women who do play football receive very little attention from scholars, newspapers and magazines.…”

“…When they are considered, media stories tend to portray "women footballers as victims of bigger and more powerful systems of inequality, discrimination, marginalization and exclusion…[in South African media] there emerges the image of a poor, struggling, usually black, young woman facing problems of under-resourcing, poor training facilities, poor support mechanisms and so on" (Naidoo and Muholi 2010: 107-108). Saavedra (2004Saavedra ( , 2009, Pelak (2005Pelak ( , 2006Pelak ( , 2009Pelak ( , 2010, Clark (2011;Ogunniyi 2013Ogunniyi , 2015 and Engh (2010aEngh ( , 2010bEngh ( , 2011Engh and Potgieter 2015) have made important contributions to scholarship on women's football, focusing, in particular, on the development of the game, as well as historical and current challenges and experiences of marginalisation and under-funding. They have also commented on the persistence and strength of homophobic attitudes towards women footballers, and how heterosexism shapes women's participation and visibility (Ogunniyi 2013, Ogunniyi 2015Engh 2010c;Engh and Potgieter 2015).…”