“The first woman football coach...“: A media study of female American football coaches, 1888-1946

ABSTRACT

Media reports of female American football coaches frequently laud them as being the “first,” a demonstrable indication of the lack of awareness of the long history of women in this role. This paper utilises feminist media theory to examine the language of newspaper coverage of female American football coaches from 1908 to 1960. The article identifies 26 female coaches; newspapers stated that eight of these women were the first-ever, and one was the state’s first. In all cases, the newspapers were inaccurate. The analysis demonstrates that newspaper reports sometimes emphasised women’s domestic roles and their desirable femininity and heterosexuality. While some journalists were horrified, most were not; many women found widespread support for their role, especially when schools employed them due to the absence of men during wartime. The lack of outrage about women’s involvement in a sport (and role) strongly aligned with masculinity is significant and demonstrates that women have found acceptance in the sport for far longer than academics have previously explored.

KEYWORDS:

• American football
• gender
• media
• women’s sport
• history

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Correction Statement

This article has been republished with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

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Katie Taylor

Katie Taylor has recently completed her doctoral studies at the International Centre for Sports History and Culture at De Montfort University, focusing on the history of female American football players. Katie is currently a Lecturer in the Sociology of Sport at Nottingham Trent University. She is a qualified American football coach and previously managed the Great Britain men's Flag Football Team.