When
Panini stickers issued its first edition for the Women’s World Cup in 2011 in
Germany, it was hailed by many as progress and an important innovation. Like
Hope Solo appearing on Dancing with the
Stars, the Panini range was considered an encouraging sign that women stars
were moving beyond sport into the cultural industries. But are what appear to
be ‘firsts’ really markers of progress? Should we consider how continuity can
be as important as change? How does change differ from progress? And what vital
role does history play in public perceptions of female sport?
The
simple thesis for my blog post is that recovering the history is so crucial because,
without this evidence we accept the chronology constructed by governing bodies
who, for a long time, have considered women’s sporting interests beneath their
contempt. The historiography of football has tended to neglect women’s
contribution to the sport based on the gendered labour markets developed by the
FA (Football Association) in 1863 and the professional game since the mid
1880s. The world governing body FIFA (Fédération Internationale de Football Association)
formed in 1904 but oversaw women’s football only since 1969.
However,
the increasing academic study of football as part of the wider cultural and
entertainment industries, is now beginning to nuance this picture. In the
August 1869 edition of Harper’s Bazaar,
a group of fashionably dressed young women were shown kicking a football about
with great verve, and holding off their opponents in pursuit of the ball.[1] Subtitled, ‘The Girls of
the Period-Playing Ball’ this illustration suggests that ‘kick-abouts’ or
‘pick-up’ games could involve girls and women as well as men and boys at this
time.
Few
popular or academic historians now write about the history of World War One
without acknowledging that football was a big part of the story of sport
maintaining morale on the Home Front. The Arts and Humanities Research Council,
the BBC and Imperial War Museums ran a project World War One At Home which highlighted women’s changing lives.[2] Increasingly, the effect
of the conflict and ensuing peace on European women’s sport and leisure are
receiving the attention that they deserve.[3]
The
FA changed the culture of world football in 1921 when it issued a ban on
women’s football. This redefined men’s football as much as the game for women.
The ban was in response to large paying crowds of up to 55,000, mainly
comprised of working men, who routinely supported women playing football and
paid to do so. This speaks to the myth that women’s sport is not, in itself, as
lucrative as a sporting spectacle as men’s sport. Rather it was the threat of
the popularity of women’s football that resulted in the ban. The ban was not
supported by all national football associations, but the idea was influential
for the next fifty years.
When
FIFA, very grudgingly, took control of the women’s game in 1969, it then delayed
a women’s world championship tournament until 1991. The first FIFA
Women’s World Championship was held in PR China in 1991 with twelve national
teams. Perhaps surprisingly, FIFA insisted that the hosting country should make
no money from the occasion, but guaranteed that the national football
association would not suffer a financial loss either.
This effectively defined women’s football as an
amateur spectacle rather than a professional mega event. There were 26 matches
in total, with 5 double-headers so 21 matches were hosted in stadia at Tianhe
(4 matches, with a capacity of 30,000 spectators per match); Provincial (4
matches, capacity 15,000 per match); Panyu (4 matches, capacity 10,000 per
match); Jiangmen (3 matches, capacity 10,000 per match), Nanhai (3 matches,
capacity 10,000 per match) and Zhongshan (3 matches, capacity 10,000 per
match).
FIFA used the symbolic phoenix, indicating beauty in
Chinese culture, as the key theme for the opening ceremony and the trophy.
However, officials were not convinced of the public appetite for the
competition, as 124,000 of the total 310,000 tickets, priced at just one US
dollar, were given away gratis. The confectionary company Mars, which was keen
to enter the Chinese market at the time, sponsored the tournament with its
M&Ms brand.
As part of a continuing campaign to integrate PR China
into world football, the country also hosted the 2007 Women's World Cup. The
United States has held two Women’s World Cup competitions in 1999 and 2003.
Sweden hosted the Women’s World Cup in 1995 and an Olympic Games tournament
first showcased women’s football at Atlanta in 1996. Thereafter, Sydney;
Athens, Beijing and London became important milestones in the cross-cultural
transfer of Olympic women’s football. Women’s World Cup, hosted by Germany in
2011 was intended as a record-breaking all-female sports tournament in Europe.
Women
constitute less then ten per cent of football players today, with some
countries still not perceiving the sport as ‘suitable’ for female spectators
and players. Female administrators, owners, medical experts, lawyers, player
agents, media specialists are all marginalized by the formal and informal
processes of world football. So, is it the
global game? The symbolic gesture of playing Women’s World Cup Football on
artificial turf suggests not.
Just
as the 2015 Panini stickers are part of a much longer history of cultural
representation of women’s football, I also hope we can see that the media scape
in which Canada 2015 takes place is as important to our understanding as sport.
As US player Meg Rapinoe has indicated in her blog, FIFA made a $338 million
profit on the 2014 Men’s World Cup in Brazil, to say that it is not
logistically possible to install real grass in all of the stadiums for the 2015
Women’s World Cup in Canada, is clearly not accurate.[4]
So
what symbolic gender differences are being expressed, if money is no object?
Women’s football remains second-rate, ‘other’ to malestream soccer and is still
being undermined by the governing bodies who claim to be promoting it. It’s no
accident that some of the strongest nations for women’s football (the US,
China, Norway, more recently Japan and South Korea) are countries without
traditionally strong male football cultures. It’s also likely that England will
never host a future men’s or women’s world cup, given the FA’s continuing
snobbery about its centrality to the world game. The FA seems to have forgotten
that the rest of the world has moved on.
I await the first female President of FIFA with some
anticipation. I hope that she will be an admirable woman who will appoint her
colleagues on the basis of competence rather than gender and will replace the
'little men in grey suits' who currently run the world game. Even more, I look
forward to a time when gender is one of many differences celebrated in and
through the world game, that better reflects global diversity.
*
Jean Williams @jeanmwilliams
[2] See
‘Highfield Road Coventry: The Rise of Women’s Football’ World War One At Home http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p02b2j88, first
broadcast 6 November 2014.
[3] The
Greater Game’ National Football Museum http://www.nationalfootballmuseum.com/whats-on/event/2014/the-greater-game-football-and-the-first-world-war/19-12-14/
launched 19 December 2014.
Thanks for your great work. keep doing.
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