Big brother’s little sister: the ideological construction of women’s super league

Abstract

This article explores the structure and culture of the Football Association (FA) in relation to the development of England's first semi-professional female soccer league -Women's Super League (WSL). Through observations at games and interviews with stakeholders, we examined the planning and operationalisation of the WSL. Drawing on critical feminist literature and theories of organisational change, we clearly demonstrate that the FA has shifted from initial tolerance of the women's game, through opposition, to defining and controlling elite female club football as a new product shaped by traditional conceptualisations of gender. It reveals how the archaic, labyrinthine structures of the FA abetted the exclusion of stakeholders involved in the pre-WSL era. This allowed the FA to fashion a League imagined as both qualitatively different to elite men's football in terms of style of play and appeal to a different group of fans, yet inextricably bound to men's clubs for support. The article concludes by providing recommendations for how organisational change might offer correctives to the current FA approach to developing the WSL.

Covid-19: Reflections on threat and uncertainty for the future of elite women’s football in England

“…As the FA is a non-profit organisation, this will impact the ability of the governing body to reinvest in all levels of the game. Worryingly, when the FA has previously been faced with "financially turbulent times", it has cut investment in the women's game (Woodhouse et al, 2019(Woodhouse et al, , p. 2007). Yet, investment allocation in executive positions has been protected and steadily increasing over recent years (Maguire, 2020).…”

“…FIFPro (2020) identify the Covid-19 pandemic as an existential threat to elite women's football if no specific protections are given to the industry. Described as the "little sister" of English football (Woodhouse et al, 2019), the fragility of professional elite women's football in England (and globally) will likely be exposed during the current pandemic and any inequities facing women's football will undoubtedly be further exacerbated by this pandemic. Ambiguity exists between growing professionalisation of elite women's football and the uncertain work conditions in which players operate (Culvin, 2020).…”

Mobilising gender equality: A discourse analysis of bids to host the FIFA Women’s World Cup 2023™

“…With regard to football, conversely, women and gender have been studied extensively. Much of the literature focuses on histories of resilience and repression (Brus and Trangbaek, 2003;Cox and Pringle, 2012;Cox and Thompson, 2003;McGowan and Downes, 2018;Williams, 2003Williams, , 2006, the increasing professionalisation of the women's game and the consequences (Allison, 2016(Allison, , 2018Dunn and Welford, 2017;Williams, 2013;Woodhouse et al, 2019) and on sexism and misogyny within football structures (Caudwell, 2017;Knijnik, 2012;Scraton et al, 1999;Woodward, 2017). Because this article studies how gender discourses are used in the bid books, the primary focus of analysis is on the ways in which gender is mobilised as part of the bidding nations' rhetorical sales pitches.…”

Integration between women’s and men’s football clubs: a comparison between Brazil, China and Italy

“…This is of particular importance to women's football, due to it being positioned within a complex and gendered environment (Pfister 2010, Allison 2016. Nonetheless, literature to date has dedicated limited attention to analyse NAs' engagement with policies aimed at furthering the growth of women's football (Bell 2012, Kjaer and Agergaard 2013, Woodhouse et al 2019, Añorve 2020.…”

“…However, a long-lasting debate exists around the issue of male and female integration in sport (e.g. Hargreaves 1990) and on whether the development of women's football should be tied to the men's game (Welford 2018, Woodhouse et al 2019. Conducting an analysis on this policy initiative is therefore in line with the ultimate objectives of international football governing bodies to commercialise the women's game, and offers the opportunity to expand the debate on its development.…”