The number of female athletes undertaking male-dominated sports, including Tackle Football, continues to grow. This article uses a physical feminist perspective to explore the potential empowerment that women may experience playing football. Through face-to-face interviews with 31 players from two women's professional football teams in the Northern California area, we identified women's perceived benefits of participation, as well as the constraints they encounter. These women must overcome a variety of obstacles in their pursuit of playing, but gain benefits through football that they feel few other sports provide. Themes emerged related to the benefits of working as a team, and meeting diverse teammates. Also, consistent with a physical feminist perspective, women enjoy the opportunity to be physical, and to use their bodies and minds in a new way. The constraints that women encounter are similar to women's experiences in other traditionally male-dominated activities and include injuries, lack of time and money, pressures from family responsibilities, and negative reactions from people outside of the sport.
Acosta, R.V. and Carpenter, L. (1996) Women in Intercollegiate Sport: A Longitudinal Study: Nineteen Year Update, 1977—1996. Brooklyn, NY: Department of Physical Education, Brooklyn College .
2.
Adler, P.A. and Adler, P. (1991) Backboards and Blackboards: College Athletes and Role Engulfment. New York: Columbia University Press.
3.
Bolin, A. (1998) `Muscularity and Femininity: Women Bodybuilders and Women's Bodies in Culture-historical Context', in K. Volkwein (ed.) Fitness as Cultural Phenomenon, pp. 187—212. New York: Waxmann.
4.
Caudwell, J. (1999) `Women's Football in the United Kingdom: Theorizing Gender and Unpacking the Butch Lesbian Image', Journal of Sport and Social Issues23: 390—402.
5.
Chase, M.A. and Dummer, G.M. (1992) `The Role of Sports as a Social Status Determinant for Children', Research Quarterly for Exercise and Sport63: 418—24.
6.
Coakley, J. (2004) Sports in Society: Issues and Controversies. New York: McGraw Hill.
7.
Connell, R.W. (1995) Masculinities. Berkeley: University of California Press.
8.
Etue, E. and Williams, M.K. (1996) On the Edge: Women Making Hockey History. Toronto: Second Story Press.
9.
Griffin, P. (1993) `Homophobia in Women's Sports: The Fear That Divides Us', in G. Cohen (ed.) Women in Sport: Issues and Controversies, pp. 193—203. Newbury Park, CA: SAGE.
10.
Hargreaves, J. (1994) Sporting Females: Critical Issues in the History and Sociology of Women's Sports. London: Routledge.
11.
Howe, D.P. (2004) Sport, Professionalism, and Pain: Ethnographies of Injury. London: Routledge.
12.
Lawler, J. (2002) Punch! Why Women Participate in Violent Sports . Terre Haute, IN: Wish Publishing .
13.
Lenskyj, H.J. (2003) Out on the Field. Toronto: Women's Press.
14.
McCaughey, M. (1997) Real Knockouts: The Physical Feminism of Women's Self-defense. New York: New York University Press.
15.
McGuffey, C.S. and Rich, B.L. (1999) `Playing in the Gender Transgression Zone', Gender & Society13: 608—27.
16.
Mennesson, C. (2000) `“Hard” Women and “Soft” Women: The Social Construction of Identities among Female Boxers', International Review for the Sociology of Sport35: 21—33.
17.
Messner, M. (1992) Power at Play: Sport and the Problem of Masculinity . Boston, MA: Beacon Press.
18.
Messner, M., Duncan, M. and Jensen, K. (1993) `Separating the Men from the Girls: The Gendered Language of Televised Sports', Gender & Society7: 121—37.
19.
Miller, J. and Levy, G. (1996) `Gender Role Conflict, Gender-typed Characteristics, Self-concepts, and Sport Socialization in Female Athletes and Nonathletes' , Sex Roles35: 111—22.
20.
Oriard, M. (1981) `Professional Football as Cultural Myth', Journal of American Culture4: 27—41.
21.
Owen, S. (2002) `Women and Sport: Victorian Women and Sport', Women's Issues Then and Now, 18 May, available online at: [http://www.cwrl.utexas.edu/~ulrich/feminist/sports.shtml].
22.
Pike, E. and Maguire, J. (2004) `Injury in Women's Sport: Classifying Key Elements of “Risk Encounters”', Sociology of Sport Journal20: 232—51.
23.
President's Council on Physical Fitness and Sports (1997) Physical Activity and Sport in the Lives of Girls . Washington, DC: President's Council on Physical Fitness and Sports.
24.
Roster, C.A. (2007) `“Girl Power” and Participation in Macho Recreation: The Case of Female Harley Riders', Leisure Sciences29: 443—61.
25.
Roth, A. and Basow, S. (2004) `Femininity, Sports, and Feminism', Journal of Sport & Social Issues28: 245—65.
26.
Ryan, J. (2001) `Female Gymnasts and Ice Skaters: The Dark Side' , in D.S. Eitzen (ed.) Sport in Contemporary Society, pp. 142—9. New York: Worth Publishers.
27.
Sabo, D. (1994) `Feminist Analysis of Men in Sports', in M. Messner and D. Sabo (eds) Sex, Violence and Power in Sports: Rethinking Masculinity , pp. 190—6. Freedom, CA: The Crossing Press.
28.
Sabo, D. and Messner, M.A. (1993) `Whose Body is This? Women's Sports and Sexual Politics', in G.L. Cohen (ed.) Women in Sport: Issues and Controversies, pp. 15—24. Newbury Park, CA: SAGE.
29.
Scraton, S., Fasting, K., Pfister, G. and Bunuel, A. (1999) `It's Still a Man's Game: The Experiences of Top-Level European Women Footballers', International Review for the Sociology of Sport35: 99—111.
30.
Shakib, S. and Dunbar, M. (2004) `How High School Athletes Talk about Maternal and Paternal Sporting Experiences', International Review for the Sociology of Sport39: 275—99.
31.
Shaw, S. (1994) `Gender, Leisure, and Constraint: Towards a Framework for the Analysis of Women's Leisure', Journal of Leisure Research26: 8—22.
32.
Strauss, A. and Corbin, J. (1990) Basics of Qualitative Research: Grounded Theory Procedures and Techniques. Newbury Park, CA: SAGE.
33.
Theberge, N. (2000) Higher Goals: Women's Ice Hockey and the Politics of Gender. Albany: State University of New York Press.
34.
Thing, L.F. (2001) `The FemaleWarrior: Meanings of Play-aggressive Emotions in Sport', International Review for the Sociology of Sport36: 275—88.
35.
Thorne, B. (1993) Gender Play. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press.
36.
Wedgewood, N. (2004) `Kicking Like a Boy: Schoolgirl Australian Rules Football and Bi-gendered Female Embodiment', Sociology of Sport Journal21: 140—62.
