Opportunities for women to participate on professional women’s football teams have expanded over the past decade. Still the experiences of these players have largely gone unnoticed by the general public in the United States and underanalyzed by scholars. Using a feminist interactionist framework, this research examines how women on a successful Midwestern football team developed and maintained their identities as football players. The major themes that emerged from participant observations and semistructured interviews include play the right way, recognize uniqueness, and demand respect.
BealB. (2002). Symbolic interactionism and cultural studies: Doing critical ethnography. In MaguireJ.YoungK. (Eds.), Theory, sport and society (pp. 353-373). Boston, MA: JAI.
2.
BergB. L. (2001). Qualitative research methods for the social sciences (4th ed.). Boston, MA: Allyn and Bacon.
3.
BirrellS.DonnellyP. (2004). Reclaiming Goffman: Erving Goffman’s influence on the sociology of sport. In GiulianottiR. (Ed.), Sport and modern social theorists: Theorizing homo ludens (pp. 49-64). New York, NY: Palgrave MacMillan.
4.
BlanchardK. (1995). The anthropology of sport: An introduction. Westport, CT: Bergin & Garvey.
5.
BlumerH. (1969). Symbolic interactionism: Perspective and method. Berkeley, MD: University of California Press.
6.
CoakleyJ. (2007). Sports in society: Issues and controversies. Boston, MA: McGraw-Hill.
7.
ConquergoodD. (1991). Rethinking ethnography: Towards a critical cultural politics. Communication Monographs, 58, 179-194.
8.
CorbinJ.StraussA. (2008). Basics of qualitative research. Los Angeles, CA: Sage.
9.
CoxB.ThompsonS. (2000). Multiple bodies: Sportswomen, soccer, and sexuality. International Review for the Sociology of Sport, 35(1), 5-20.
10.
DonnellyP. (2002). George Herbert Mead and in interpretive sociology of sport. In MaguireJ.YoungK. (Eds.), Theory, sport & society (pp. 83-102). Boston, MA: JAI.
11.
DonnellyP.YoungK. (1988). The construction and confirmation of identity in sport subculture. Sociology of Sport Journal, 8, 223-240.
12.
GoffmanE. (1959). The presentation of self in everyday life. New York, NY: Anchor Books.
HnidaK. (2006). Still kicking: My journey as the first woman to play Division I college football. New York, NY: Scribner.
17.
JacksonJ. S.KeiperS.BrownK. T.BrownT. N.ManuelW. (2002). Athletic identity, racial attitudes, and aggression in first-year Black and White intercollegiate athletes. In GatzM.MessnerM. A.Ball-RokeachS. M. (Eds.), Paradoxes of youth and sport (pp. 159-172), Albany, NY: State University of New York Press.
18.
JonesR. L.GlintmeyerN.McKenzieA. (2005). Slim bodies, eating disorders and the coach-athlete relationship: A tale of identity creation and disruption. International Review for the Sociology of Sport, 40, 377-391.
19.
KnappB. (Fall2011). Becoming a football player: Identity formation on a women’s tackle football team. Women in Sport and Physical Activity Journal, 20(2), 35-50.
MeadG. H. (1934). Mind, self, and society (MorrisC. W., Ed.). Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.
22.
MessnerM. (2002). Taking the field: Women, men and sports. Minneapolis, MI: University of Minnesota Press.
23.
MigliaccioT. A.BergE. C. (2007). Women’s participation in tackle football: An exploration of benefits and constraints. International Review for the Sociology of Sport, 42, 271-287.
24.
MilesM.HubermanA. M. (1994). Qualitative data analysis: An expanded sourcebook. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
25.
MorseJ. M. (1991). Strategies for sampling. In MorseJ. M. (Ed.), Qualitative nursing research: A contemporary dialogue (pp. 127-145). Newbury Park, CA: Sage.
MurrellA. J.GaertnerS .L. (1992). Cohesion and sport team effectiveness: The benefit of a common group identity. Journal of Sport & Social Issues, 16, 1-14.
28.
National Federation of State High School Association. (2011). 2010-2011 high school athletics participation survey. Retrieved from http://www.nfhs.org
29.
NelsonM. B. (1994). The stronger women get, the more men love football: Sexism and the American culture of sports. New York, NY: Avon Books.
30.
OriardM. (2001). King football: Sport and spectacle in the golden age of radio and newsreels, movies and magazines, the weekly & the daily press. Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press.
31.
PikeE. (2005). “Doctors just say ‘rest and take ibuprofen’”: A critical examination of the role of “non-orthodox: health care in women’s sports. International Review for the Sociology of Sport, 40, 201-219.
32.
SaboD. F.PanepintoJ. (1990). Football ritual and the social reproduction of masculinity. In MessnerM. A.SaboD. F. (Eds.), Sport, men, and the gender order: Critical feminist perspectives (pp. 115-126). Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics.
33.
ShaffirW.StebbinsR. A. (1991). Experiencing fieldwork: An inside view of qualitative research. Newbury Park, CA: Sage.
34.
SilkM. L.AndrewsD. L.MasonD. S. (2005). Encountering the field: Sports studies and qualitative research. In AndrewsD. L.MasonD. S.SilkM. L. (Eds.), Qualitative methods in sports studies (pp. 1-20). New York, NY: Berg.
35.
SisjordM. K. (1997). Wrestling with gender: A study of young female and male wrestlers’ experiences of physicality. International Review for the Sociology of Sport, 32, 433-438.
36.
StraussA.CorbinJ. (1998). Basics of qualitative research: Techniques and procedures for developing grounded theory. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
37.
ThebergeN. (1995). Gender, sport, and the construction of community: A case study from women’s ice hockey. Sociology of Sport Journal, 12, 389-402.
38.
ThebergeN. (1997). It’s part of the game: Physicality and the production of gender in women’s ice hockey. Gender & Society, 11, 69-87.
39.
ThebergeN. (2000). Higher goals: Women’s ice hockey and the politics of gender. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press.
40.
WedgwoodN. (2004). Kicking like a boy: Schoolgirl Australian Rules football and bi-gendered female embodiment. Sociology of Sport Journal, 21, 140-162.
