Building the feminist futsal project: ‘where is feminism?’

ABSTRACT

This article aims to present the construction of a project called Feminist Futsal. Based on the experiences of female futsal coaches, this study aimed to analyze and reflect on some of the situations in which feminism was present throughout futsal seasons. For that, five specific moments were selected from field diaries: ‘The construction of the Feminist Futsal Project’; ‘The first season’; ‘Where is “Feminism”?’; ‘The second season: The uncertain path persists’ and ‘Seeds that have already been planted’. Many questions and challenges were encountered, such as how can we address important social issues and connect them to the planning of a futsal training session that does not directly deal with these topics? Do you need to link critical issues directly to the theme of the futsal training session? Where is Feminism? As a result, it was identified that feminism in the project gave women the opportunity to practice a sport, as well as the presence of a female coach; feminism was, also: in the reflections shared in the initial training sessions; in the learning community established with the research group; in the athletes sharing of knowledge with the project. In addition, feminism was at the heart of the project’s belief that men and women should have equal opportunities to participate in sports, paving the way for a fairer world. Feminism was there, facing the risks. Feminism is in the courage to put that name to a sports project. I do not know what the future holds for Feminist Futsal, nor do I have all the answers for other sports projects that might look to us. What I do know is that love and the courage to change how we view the world are the driving forces behind this project. And yes, we are already revolutionizing it.

KEYWORDS:

• Sport
• gender
• female coach
• sport pedagogy
• intersectional feminism
• autoetnography

Disclosure statement

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

Notes

1 The university extension program is based on the interaction between the academic community and the general population, emphasizing the transformative role of the university, as it is open to community participation.

2 In 1941, with the implementation of Decree-Law 3.199, women in Brazil were prohibited from participating in sports that were not in accordance with their nature (Franzini, 2005). During this period of prohibition, the sports encouraged for the female public were those that aimed at preserving the female body in conformity with gender norms, such as gymnastics, dance and swimming (Goellner, 2003). This decree-law was only repealed at the end of the 1970s. However, even though women's access has increased in the post-prohibition scenario, this sports participation is lower than that of men, especially in soccer and futsal. Furthermore, practitioners are often subjected to the construction of stereotypes linked to the body and sexuality. These reverberations are not only in the sports field. In the scientific field, the first studies on women's football were only published at the end of the 1990s (Barreira et al., 2022). Another study that identifies the absence of women in sport can be seen by Passero et al. (2020), in which they identify the presence of 14% of female coaches in Brazilian women's soccer championships from 2013 to 2019.

3 There is no specific institutional policy at the university, but there are specific actions by groups addressing gender-related topics. Regarding sports, there are university teams for women and men in different sports; however, there were no space for practitioners with different people who do not have competitive desires. Thus, the Futsal Feminist project aimed to address this gap at the university, that is, to provide a space for the practice of futsal for women, especially those who do not wish to participate in competitions.

4 In the first season, women who participated in the project registered through a form available at the extension office of the University. From the second and third seasons onwards, the responsibility for managing and publicizing registrations shifted to the project's technical committee. On the project's Instagram profile, there were announcements about the registration period, available slots and the sharing of the link that provided access to the registration form. The athletes participating in the project did not incur any financial costs to be a part of the Feminist Futsal project.

5 This project has the Ethical Appreciation Certificate: 10347119.5.0000.5347. When registering for the Feminist Futsal project, participants were informed that it was an extension project associated with the doctoral research of the first author. They were made aware and agree that the project would include field diaries documenting the dialogues and actions occurring within the project.

6 Is a technological tool widely used in Brazil for sending messages between people.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior