Elite footballers as role models: promoting young women’s football participation

Abstract

Sportspeople are constantly urged to maintain the highest levels of conduct because of their position as ‘role models’ to children. This article reports from a study in progress which explores the experiences of elite female athletes in Britain, and focuses on qualitative interview responses of elite female footballers, all of whom were currently playing at top-flight domestic and international levels and took part in the 2012 Olympics. It explores what they perceive the position as ‘role model’ to mean, how it impinges on their sport performance, and how they work with gifted young footballers to promote sporting excellence as well as community cohesion through grass-roots outreach work. It discusses their thoughts on how role models are currently and can best be used to encourage young women’s football participation from elite down to grass-roots levels, and highlights the amount of responsibility they feel to do this.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1. Girls Schools Association, ‘Headmistress Praises Female Olympic Role Models – “We Must Maintain the Momentum”’.

2. Winter, ‘London 2012 Olympics: Record Crowd Watches Team GB Women Beat Brazil to Reach Quarter-finals’.

3. WSFF, ‘Women in Sport Audit’.

4. WSFF, ‘Young Women and Girls’ Physical Activity’.

5. See Dunn and Welford, Football and the FA Women’s Super League: Structure, Governance and Impact, for an exploration of the current structure and governance of elite women’s football in England; see also Williams, Globalising Women’s Football: Europe, Migration and Professionalization, for a discussion of the issues facing women’s football globally.

6. Williams, A Game for Rough Girls? A History of Women’s Football in Britain.

7. Lopez, Women on the Ball.

8. Melling, ‘“Plucky Lasses”, “Pea Soup” and Politics: The Role of Ladies Football during the 1921 Miners’ lock-out in Wigan and Leigh’.

9. Newsham, In a League of Their Own! The Dick, Kerr Ladies Football Club.

10. Tate, Girls with Balls: The Secret History of Women’s Football.

11. Williams, A Game for Rough Girls? A History of Women’s Football in Britain; Williams, ‘The Fastest Growing Sport? Women and Football in England’; and Williams, ‘A Beautiful Game: International Perspectives on Women’s Football’.

12. Williams and Woodhouse, ‘Can Play, will Play? Women and Football in Britain’.

13. Williamson, ‘Belles of the Ball’.

14. Dunn and Welford, Football and the FA Women’s Super League: Structure, Governance and Impact.

15. Biskup and Pfister, ‘I would Like to be Like Her/Him: Are Athletes Role-models for Boys and Girls?’.

16. Craike, Symons, and Zimmerman, ‘Why do Adolescent Girls Drop Out of Sport and Physical Activity? A Social Ecological Approach’.

17. Fleming et al., ‘“Role Models” among Elite Young Male Rugby League Players in Britain’.

18. GirlGuiding UK, 2012.

19. Rubin and Rubin, Qualitative Interviewing: The Art of Hearing Data.

20. Stanley, The Auto/Biographical I.

21. D. Fifield, ‘England Squad must be Better role Models, Says Wayne Rooney’.

22. Evening Standard, 2010.

23. Robert-Holmes and Brownhill, 2011

24. Phys.org, ‘Is Rooney really a role model?’

25. Ibid.

26. Lockwood and Kunda, ‘Superstars and me: Predicting the Impact of Role Models on the Self’; Lockwood and Kunda, ‘Salient Best Selves can Undermine Inspiration by Outstanding Role Models’.

27. Ibid.

28. Ibid.

29. Murray and Howat, ‘The “Enrichment Hypothesis” as an Explanation of Women’s Participation in Rugby’.

30. Ibid.

31. WSFF, ‘Women in Sport Audit’.

32. See Dunn and Welford, Football and the FA Women’s Super League, 2014.