Playing for change: (semi-)professionalization, social policy, and power struggles in Argentine women’s football

ABSTRACT

The professionalization of the Argentine women’s first division in 2019 allows an in-depth analysis of an underdeveloped and historically marginalized women’s football in Latin America. Following Argentina’s participation in the 2018 Women’s Copa América in Chile and the 2019 FIFA Women’s World Cup in France, the precarious conditions faced by the female football players were exposed as never before, drawing attention from major national and international news outlets. In those years, the players organized the first strike in a national team history; their actions were accompanied by the regional feminist movement, local organizations, increased media coverage, and new gender-equity policies imposed by the sport’s international governing bodies. Then, the Argentine Football Association’s (AFA) decided to professionalize women’s football in the country. This article hopes to shed light on the struggles and progress of female participants in atraditionally androcentric sport practice and analyse the response from the institutions.

Disclosure statement

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

Notes

1. Elsey and Nadel, Futbolera; and Garton, Guerreras.

2. Freire, Pedagogy of the Oppressed.

3. Brus and Trangbæk, ‘Asserting the Right to Play’.

4. Fasting, ‘Small Country’; and Hjelm and Olofsson, ‘A breakthrough’.

5. Bell, ‘Women’s Euro 2005ʹ.

6. Svensson and Oppenheim, ‘Equalize it!’

7. Kjær and Agergaard, ‘Understanding Women’s Professional Soccer’.

8. Evetts, ‘New Professionalism and New Public Management’; Evetts, ‘A New Professionalism?’; and Evetts, ‘Sociological Analysis of Professionalism’, cited in Kjær and Agergaard, ‘Understanding Women’s Professional Soccer’.

9. Hjelm, ‘The Bad Female Football Player’.

10. Cortsen, ‘“Re-branding” Women’s Football’.

11. Themen and van Hoof, ‘Kicking against Women’s Football’.

12. Ben-Porat, ‘Cosi (non) Fan Tutte’.

13. Williams, ‘Upfront and Onside’.

14. See Alabarces, Fútbol y patria and Héroes, machos y patriotas.

15. Elias and Dunning, Quest for excitement.

16. On Mexico, see Santillán Esqueda and Gantús, ‘Transgresiones femeninas’; Añorve Añorve, ‘El Desarrollo del fútbol femenil’. On Colombia, see Ruiz Patiño, ‘Fútbol femenino’; Martínez Minaet al., ‘Fútbol y mujeres’; and Biram and Martínez Mina, ‘Football in the Time of COVID-19ʹ.

17. Rial, ‘El invisible (y victorioso) fútbol’.

18. Goellner, ‘Mulheres e futebol’; and Goellner and Kessler, ‘A sub-representação do futebol’.

19. Goellner and Kessler, ‘A sub-representação do futebol’.

20. da Costa, ‘Beauty, Effort and Talent’.

21. See Alabarces, Fútbol y patria and Héroes, machos y patriotas; Archetti, ‘Masculinity and Football’; Archetti, ‘Estilo y virtudes’; and Archetti, Masculinities.

22. Binello and Domino, ‘Mujeres en el área chico’; and Binello, ‘Mujeres y fútbol’.

23. Janson, Se acabó este juego; and Branz, ‘Fútbol, mujeres y espacio público’.

24. Ibarra, ‘Disputas por el sentido’; Álvarez Litke, ‘Marcando la cancha’; and Garton, Guerreras.

25. Aráoz Ortiz and Moreira, ‘Prensa deportiva en Argentina’; Garton and Hijós, ‘La mujer deportista; and Garton and Hijós, ‘“La deportista moderna”’.

26. De Sena, ‘Promoción de microemprendimientos’.

27. De Sena and Cena, ‘¿Qué son las políticas sociales?’.

28. De Sena and Mona, ‘A modo de introducción’.

29. Del Río Fortuna et al., ‘Políticas y género’.

30. De Sena, ‘Las mujeres’.

31. Kabeer, ‘Gender Equality’; Chant and Sweetman, ‘Fixing women’; Cornwall, ‘Taking off International Development’s Straightjacket of Gender’; Cornwall and Rivas, ‘From “Gender Equality”’; and Oxford and Spaaij, ‘Gender Relations’.

32. Coalter, ‘Sport Clubs’; Coalter, ‘The Politics of Sport-for-Development’; and Giulianotti et al., ‘Sport for Development’.

33. FIFA, ‘FIFA Women’s Football Strategy’.

34. Freire, Pedagogy of the Oppressed; and Hjelm, ‘The Bad Female Football Player’.

35. Knijnik, ‘Visions of Gender Justice’.

36. Freire, Pedagogy of the Oppressed.

37. Fraser, Unruly Practices.

38. Ibid., 166.

39. Garton, Guerreras.

40. Elsey and Nadel, ‘Futbolera’.

41. Alabarces, Fútbol y patria and Héroes, machos y patriotas; Archetti, ‘Masculinity and Football’; Archetti, ‘Estilo y virtudes’; and Archetti, Masculinities.

42. Scharagrodsky, ‘La educación del cuerpo’.

43. Hargreaves, Sporting Females.

44. Garton, Guerreras.

45. Frydenberg, Historia Social.

46. Cited in Williams, ‘The Fastest Growing Sport?’

47. Ibid.

48. Fairchild, ‘From the Mountains to the Valleys’.

49. Ibid.

50. Faleiros, ‘Las funciones de la política social’.

51. Ibid.

52. Ibid.

53. Frydenberg, Historia Social.

54. Faleiros, ‘Las funciones de la política social’.

55. Freire, Pedagogy of the Oppressed; Janson, Se acabó este juego; and Branz, ‘Fútbol, mujeres y espacio público’.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the National Scientific and Technical Research Council, University of Buenos Aires (IIGG/UBA), Buenos Aires, Argentina.