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FIFA, the world governing body of association football, declared 'The Future is Feminine' in a 1995 press release. Since then, football has been claimed as the fastest growing participation sport for women globally. An estimated twenty million women play the game around the world, and that figure is on the rise. However, the history of women's participation goes back to at least 1895 and in our enthusiasm for the present, the memory of that longer history can be overlooked or forgotten. A Beautiful Game, supported by a two-year FIFA/ CIES Jo?o Havelange Research Scholarship, examines contemporary women's football internationally, with case studies from England, the United States, China and Australia. In each case study, Jean Williams considers the evolution of the women's game against a backdrop of issues, such as media representation, access to facilities, lack of resources, coaching, sponsorship, talent identification, training and professionalisation. T he author examines contentious questions, such as why women are absent from the highest levels of professional football, combining source material from archives, oral history and artefacts. A Beautiful Game analyses the status and image of the women's game from the late nineteenth century to the shifting social values of the present.
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A Beautiful Game
A Beautiful Game
International Perspectives on Women’s Football Jean Williams
Oxford • New York
First published in 2007 by Berg Editorial offices: 1st Floor, Angel Court, 81 St Clements Street, Oxford, OX4 1AW, UK 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010, USA © Jean Williams 2007 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced in any form or by any means without the written permission of Berg. Berg is the imprint of Oxford International Publishers Ltd.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Williams, Jean, 1964– A beautiful game : international perspectives on women’s football / Jean Williams. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN-13: 978-1-84520-674-1 (cloth) ISBN-10: 1-84520-674-6 (cloth) ISBN-13: 978-1-84520-675-8 (pbk.) ISBN-10: 1-84520-675-4 (pbk.) 1. Soccer for women—Cross-cultural studies. 2. Soccer—Social aspects—Cross-cultural studies. I. Title. GV944.5.W54 2007 796.334082—dc22 2007037049 British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. ISBN 978 1 84520 674 1 (Cloth) ISBN 978 1 84520 675 8 (Paper) Typeset by Apex Publishing, LLC, Madison, WI Printed in the United Kingdom by Biddles Ltd, King’s Lynn
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Contents Illustrations
vii
Acknowledgements
ix
Abbreviations and Acronyms
xi
Introduction: From A Game for Rough Girls to A Beautiful Game: Dusting the Mirror of Women’s Football
1
1
The Girls of Summer, the Daughters of Title IX: Women’s Football in the United States
33
2
The Iron Roses: Women’s Football in PR China
83
3
A Grass Ceiling: Women’s Football in England
111
4
Waltzing the Matildas: Women’s Football in Australia
157
Conclusion: To Play or Not to Play
177
Bibliography
189
Index
207
–v–
Illustrations Figure 1 Festival of Britain Programme, 21 July 1951, Corinthian versus Lancashire Ladies at Barrow.
105
Figure 2
Programme notes of the players France versus Preston, 1948.
105
Figure 3
Stoke versus Dick, Kerr Ladies Programme cover, 1923.
106
Figure 4
London team, circa 1917