Family matters: football playing daughters, gender and bonding.

Hanya Pielichaty

www.lincoln.ac.uk

What we ‘Know’

• In 2002 football overtook netball as the most popular sport for girls to play in the UK (Williams, 2013).

• Football continues to be managed, monitored and owned by men and boys globally (Renold, 2005; Pielichaty, 2014; Ben-Porat, 2009; Jeanes, 2011).

• Football in the UK is synonymous with masculine identity (Swain, 2000; Mean, 2001; Stirling & Schulz, 2011).

• The relationship between dads and their football playing sons is the most stereotypically masculine (Kay, 2009).

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Football & Auntie Pat

Auntie Pat – my Grandma’s sister, playing football for Yorkshire Copperworks in 1953 – aged 17 – Staff vs Workers

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What don’t we know?

• How female footballers understand gender and their own identity in relation to family.

• Significance of family relationships to young people (Wyn et al, 2011).

• How girls within different settings (school, club and home) experience football.

• How siblings impact upon a female footballer's understanding of self.

• The role parents play in influencing and shaping their daughter’s sense of self and vice versa.

• The way in which space and the body is negotiated within female footballers’ lives.

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Finding out

• Ethnography– autoethnography

• Volunteer coach• Observations• Conversations• Group conversations• Informal • Explorative approach• ‘Snack-time’

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Relationships and levels

Institutional Level

Institutional Level

Institutional Level

Individual Level

Interactional Level

Risman (2004)

Interactional Level

Interactional Level

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What’s happened so far?

• Men and boys as the gatekeepers – dads, brothers, friends, PE Teachers.

• Girls inspiring girls – friends watching, encouraging others to play.

• Proud parents and parental identity.

• The same old rhetoric comes up – girlie girl and tomboys.

• The same old rhetoric doesn’t fit – ‘something between both’, ‘girlie-ish’.

• Super Mums.• Loyal Dads.• Multiple-parent roles.• ‘Man-on’, ‘be a man’, ‘be

strong’ – the intangible presence of men and masculinity.

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What’s happened so far?

• The car as an important transitional space.

• Financial, social and economic sacrifices – jobs, free-time, petrol money.

• Football as who they are; committed, dedicated and passionate.

• Normalising of football.• Girls must still prove

themselves to the boys first.

Singing to music.

Getting in ‘the zone’

Parental coaching

Praise and Improvements

Sibling rivalry

BONDING

What did they Say?Kay: If I don’t play well I just sit there and look out of the window the whole way home and won’t talk to anybody, headphones are put back in. And then I’ll probably when I get home I’ll go back upstairs and not talk to anyone for the rest of the day.

HP: So does it affect you for that long then?

Kay: Oh yeah, it just sort of knocks you back quite a bit.

-Kay (17 years)

Joanne: I think it’s [football] brought a lot to me.

HP: What do you mean?

Joanne: You know to have that quality time with them, just in the car, to sit in the car and talk with them.

-Joanne (49 years)

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What did they Say?HP: Do you chat about football, when you’ve finished playing, with your mum and dad?

Steph: Yes, in the car, if we play badly they shout at us and if we play good they praise us and get us McDonalds.

HP: Do you like talking about football after you play or would you prefer not to talk about it anymore?

Steph: I do when I’ve played well but not when I’ve played bad because they just like, sometimes just like give you grief all the time.

HP: What about you Grace?

Grace: Erm no, they’re always like ‘well you could have played better, but it’s over’.

- Steph and Grace (U’11s)

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Summary

• The car journey as an important space for bonding, singing and chatting.

• Girls and women are aware, influenced and moulded by societal views regarding football and masculinity.

• Families play a significant role in supporting and assisting girls’ identity formation through football.

• The match-day car journey is an important transitional space needed to create, recreate and negotiate family relationships in connection to football.

• Football players and their families share, influence and impact upon each other’s identity/self formation.

Thank You

Contact Details:

Email: hpielichaty@lincoln.ac.uk

Twitter: @HanyaUoL

Address:

Lincoln Business School

College of Social Science

University of Lincoln

Brayford Wharf East

Lincoln

LN5 7AT

Any questions?

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References

Ben-Porat, A. (2009) Not just for men: Israeli women who fancy football. Soccer and Society, 10 (6), pp.883-896.

Jeanes, R. (2011) “I’m into high heels and make up but I still love football”: exploring identity and football participation with preadolescent girls. Soccer and Society, 12 (2), pp. 402-420.

Mean, L. (2001) Identity and discursive practice: doing gender on the football pitch. Discourse and Society, 12 (6), pp.789-815.

Pielichaty, H. (2007) Football versus femininity: does it have to be a battle? MSc. University of Sheffield.

Risman, B.J. (2004) Gender as a social structure: theory wrestling with activism. Gender and Society, 18 (4), pp.429-450.

Stirling, L. and Schulz, J. (2011) Women’s football: still in the hands of men. Sport Management International Journal, 7 (2), pp.53-78.

Swain, J. (2000). ‘The money’s good, the fame’s good, the girls’ are good’: The role of playground football in the construction of young boys’ masculinity in junior school. British Journal of Sociology of Sport, 21 (1), pp. 95-109.

Williams, J. (2013) Globalising women’s football: Europe, migration and professionalism. Oxford: Peter Lang.

Wyn, J. Lantz, S. and Harris, A. (2011) Beyond the ‘transitions’ metaphor: family relations and young people in late modernity. Journal of Sociology, 48 (1), pp.3-22.