Women’s Football in Latin America: Social Challenges and Historical Perspectives Vol 1. Brazil (New Femininities in Digital, Physical and Sporting Cultures) 3031079752, 9783031079757

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NEW FEMININITIES IN DIGITAL, PHYSICAL AND SPORTING CULTURES

Women’s Football in Latin America Social Challenges and Historical Perspectives Vol 1. Brazil Edited by Jorge Knijnik Ana Costa

New Femininities in Digital, Physical and Sporting Cultures

Series Editors Kim Toffoletti School of Humanities and Social Sciences Deakin University Melbourne, VIC, Australia Jessica Francombe-Webb Department for Health University of Bath Bath, UK Holly Thorpe School of Health University of Waikato Hamilton, New Zealand Aarti Ratna Leeds, UK

Palgrave’s New Femininities in Digital, Physical and Sporting Cultures series is dedicated to exploring emerging forms and expressions of femininity, feminist activism and politics in an increasingly global, consumer and digital world. Books in this series focus on the latest conceptual, methodological and theoretical developments in feminist thinking about bodies, movement, physicality, leisure and technology to understand and problematize new framings of feminine embodiment. Globally inclusive, and featuring established and emerging scholars from multi-disciplinary fields, the series is characterized by an interest in advancing research and scholarship concerning women’s experiences of physical culture in a variety of cultural contexts.

Jorge Knijnik  •  Ana Costa Editors

Women’s Football in Latin America Social Challenges and Historical Perspectives Vol 1. Brazil

Editors Jorge Knijnik School of Education Western Sydney University Penrith, NSW, Australia

Ana Costa German Sport University Cologne Cologne, Germany

ISSN 2522-0330     ISSN 2522-0349 (electronic) New Femininities in Digital, Physical and Sporting Cultures ISBN 978-3-031-07975-7    ISBN 978-3-031-07976-4 (eBook) https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-07976-4 © The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2022 This work is subject to copyright. All rights are solely and exclusively licensed by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and ­transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed. The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. The publisher, the authors, and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, expressed or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made. The publisher remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. Cover illustration: Photo and Co This Palgrave Macmillan imprint is published by the registered company Springer Nature Switzerland AG. The registered company address is: Gewerbestrasse 11, 6330 Cham, Switzerland

Jorge dedicates this book to his beloved son Alex, his adored daughters Juliana, Luiza, and Marina, and his treasured wife Selma. You are heroes and heroines for putting up with me daily! Ana dedicates this book to Brazilian players Tamires Dias and Érika Cristiano who introduced me to the women’s football world by their inspiring personal journey, and to my parents—Alberto and Regina—for their great support in making my academic dreams come true.

Foreword

“It’s never going to be just football …” How many times do we hear that? I have heard it many times, but I have never really stopped to consider its meaning. This sentence can have several connotations as it touches different areas. It goes through political, social, and personal interests—through emotions, feelings, collective expressions—and ends up being a place where we find ourselves. Football is a unique platform that reaches different places, people, and the hearts of thousands, and is welcoming to all. The football practiced by women has been breaking numerous records since the 2019 FIFA France World Cup. The quarter-final match between Brazil and France was seen on television by more than 50 million viewers in Brazil alone and another 10.6 million in France. These numbers surpass the previous record, which was the match between the United States and Japan in the 2015 World Cup Final, with 25 million viewers. Another significant result was recorded in the UK, when the US– England semi-final was shown to 11.7 million viewers, the BBC’s highest audience of the year, according to the network itself. Imagine social media interactions. Imagine the impact that this last world championship brought, when the games were broadcast to more than 180 countries. Currently, the Brazilian Women’s National Team’s (also known as “Seleção Feminina”) matches played during the International FIFA calendar are broadcast on free-to-air TV, as well as on paid TV, on the country’s largest broadcast channel. Another significant event, at least for me, vii

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was when we played the September 2021 official FIFA friendlies vs. Argentina in João Pessoa, capital city of Paraiba, a small state in the Brazilian northeast. The team was coming back to work after the Tokyo Olympics. As mentioned earlier, these two friendly matches were broadcast on free-to-air TV. The second match in particular was held on a Monday afternoon, at exactly 4 p.m., and more than 30 million viewers stopped what they were doing to follow the team. These numbers are greatly representative of what women’s football has achieved and represents nowadays in Brazil. A few years ago, it was difficult to imagine a positive scenario like what has been happening today. Currently, the Brazilian Federation (CBF) holds two tiers of women’s national championships (series A1 and A2) and in 2022 they are implementing the Serie A3. There are also national championships for under 16s and under 18s teams. There are clubs that have made significant investments, and have attempted to sign professional contracts with their athletes, or at least offer good structures so that players can have football as their main source of income. I am only talking about Brazil. However, other countries are investing in women’s football as well. More major clubs are getting involved with the sport, and international bodies, such as FIFA, continental, and national federations around the globe are speeding up their plans to strengthen the sport. All of them have different paces, but they are seeking their own paths of improvement. Here in Brazil some actions were deemed as mandatory to implement football in the larger clubs, namely, those with a large tradition in football and millions of supporters—they are trying to find out the best way to encourage and grow the sport among girls and women supporters. The most beautiful thing about this journey is the actual possibility that it gives to thousands of girls to fulfil their dream of being a football athlete. I started playing football at home, always supported by my father. The next step was what every single Brazilian player does: playing football on the streets, with my friends, but also futsal with the boys at school—every single Brazilian school has a futsal court within its walls. Finally, at the age of 16 things started to become more serious, as I was taking a path to be a professional footballer, even with many hardships on the way. I then went into a unique 16-year journey as a high-performance footballer, including four years in the National Team. I dropped my boots at the age of 31. On

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one hand, I could not find any more intrinsic motivation to play, and on the other hand another great professional opportunity was presented to me. As a player, I have always tried to understand the game beyond my position on the field, despite the difficulties of this intellectual challenge: it was hard to split the person, the player, and the game itself. When I was little all I wanted was to play football, but there were no teams for girls in my region. Nowadays, the younger girls can play big tournaments, championships, and be stars in the sport. Today we meet and know women who inspire other athletes, who are role models within the sport and who serve as a mirror for young girls who want to know, practice, and follow an athlete. The phrase “we can’t be what we can’t see” makes total sense to me now. It is within this framework of greater visibility that I see the publication of this book. For a long time, the history of women’s football in Brazil was ignored. In “football land,” the victories and the predominance of men in the sport were so massive that they ended up obscuring the presence and contribution that women have been making to the sport since the beginning of the twentieth century. These contributions have been the object of several studies by numerous researchers from Brazilian universities since the 1980s. Nevertheless, if prior studies were restricted to Portuguese-speaking readers, with this volume, international readers will finally be able to know and understand the relevance of women’s football to Brazilian society and culture. In this way, I welcome the publication of this book, which not only tells the glorious but difficult past of women’s athletes and teams in Brazil, but also analyzes the present and proposes actions for the future of the sport. The in-depth studies of this book address issues relevant in every way to women’s football. They analyze the media and the potentials of new social media for the sport, show the firm presence of women in the stands, and how this contributes to football and to a society that is more egalitarian. There are chapters that discuss prejudices and discrimination against women in football, and call on civil society to build a human rights framework that includes girls and women in this practice so important to our society. One key and rich point of this book is that the articles are written by women and men who are not only witnesses but who have lived many of the struggles that women’s football went through until we got to where we are.

x Foreword

In late December, 2021, a historical event happened in the ‘Granja Comary,’ the famous headquarters of the Brazilian Football Federation: a football match between the athletes who took part in the first Brazilian Women’s National Teams, in 1988 and 1991. Amazing and strong women retold their stories and were given a medal of recognition for their part in building the game to what it is today. It was a unique moment that I had the pleasure to witness. Currently new topics are emerging onto the women’s football agenda. People do not discuss anymore whether women should be playing or not. We are witnessing an interesting move from men’s football professionals—coaches, fitness trainers, administrators—to women’s football. We are discussing whether to charge for match tickets or not. If yes, how much and when? If not, when we will start charging it? This is a new time, with a new agenda and new issues. The final of the 2021 Sao Paulo State women’s championship (Campeonato Paulista Feminino) took place in the massive Corinthians FC stadium, with more than 30,000 fans. This was the record audience for a women’s club match in the country. Women’s football is on the move. Even with 40 years of prohibition, women’s football has always existed and manifested itself in different ways so as to make it alive—its practices, values, and beliefs—most of all, in the desire to belong to the football culture in the country. As I stated at the beginning of this foreword, “it’s never going to be just football …,” it is much more. Women’s football proves it. Women’s football grows as women set out to use their voice to defend equal opportunities. It is obvious with so many other people, regardless of their gender, who see the relevance of using their voices to actively struggle for gender equality in the football world. Women’s football is a space where stories intersect so players can belong, can meet with each other, and seek and find their identities. Therefore, it is important for me to say a few words about its editors, particularly about Professor Knijnik. He has an immense ability to make us feel curious. I was his student in the early 2000s, at Universidade Presbiteriana Mackenzie (São Paulo, Brazil). I graduated in 2008 and even after all those years I have many memories of the reflections that his classes generated for us. For example, he didn’t force us to register our

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attendance in the roll call, as was the university’s policy. Nevertheless, this was never a problem because the students quickly started talking to each other about the amazing classes he taught, so the roll call was never a concern for us, as we wanted to be there for the content—and he knew in some way that we would be present. I remember many moments of silence in his classes, when he was moving into a new topic, because we kept thinking about what he had just said. These were unique moments. Another special thing about his lectures was how he managed to bring people together and empower us to do our best. This book is another example of how special he is and how he manages to bring people from different places and perspectives together on the same page. This is why this book is so special: it tells stories, brings testimonials, and is told by those who live the sport day by day—by teachers, coaches, and lecturers and researchers who have delved into the human issues of the sport’s different aspects. The book allows us to break through the barriers that have been conquered and overcome, even today, and makes us reflect on the steps that follow. That said, I invite everybody to read this collection of studies of a group of people who are invested to be agents of change, through deep reflection. Women’s football gives us the opportunity to openly write about our own paths, which are always connected to the collective struggles of many who came before us and who fought side by side with us. We are part of something much bigger than we can see with our eyes. I give thanks to Professor Jorge Knijnik and to Ana Costa for providing us with this book. I am grateful to them for not letting me forget the struggles that make us value our journeys even more. Confederação Brasileira de Futebol 27 July, 2022

Ana Beatriz Vaz e Silva

Ana Beatriz Vaz e Silva  is a proud ex-professional footballer and is currently an assistant coach at the Seleção Feminina. In 2017 she was included in the BBC 100 Women list, which acknowledges the most inspirational and innovative women around the globe.

Acknowledgements

This book is a collaborative initiative of producing and disseminating original practices and research, and it is indebted to numerous people who have exchanged ideas and dreams with us and facilitated our work “from behind the scenes.” Therefore, we would like to convey our appreciation and gratitude to many of them who were incredible sources of inspiration and support to us. First we offer thanks to all chapter authors and contributors in this volume. Their patience during the several steps of the peer-review and editing processes, as well as their belief in our work, was wonderful. Without their efforts and high level of expertise this book would never have seen the light of day. Additional praise goes to them for producing insightful research in academic English all through a pandemic that severely hit Brazil. We are truly thankful to Associate Professor Kim Toffoletti, Dr. Jessica Framcombe-Webb, Professor Holly Thorpe, and Dr. Aarti Ranta, the wonderful editors of the “New Femininities in Digital, Physical and Sporting Cultures” book series at Palgrave Macmillan. Since the inception of our book proposal their collegiality, confidence, as well as intellectual input to this book were outstanding. After working with them we have no doubt that any future work of ours in feminist studies will be under their guidance. xiii

xiv Acknowledgements

We are also indebted to the amazing crew at Palgrave Macmillan, who helped us to achieve the best outcome we could ever dream of for this book. We also thank Megan Atkins for her tireless efforts to help to shape the academic English of these articles and Dr. Marcella Meneguello for her amazing formatting skills. We would also like to express our gratitude to the Institute for Culture & Society at Western Sydney University, in particular to Professor Brett Neilson for providing the initial funding to support this book proposal; to Dr. Jamie Cleland for his input when this book was only a dream; and to the Centro Esportivo Virtual (CEV) and the Associacion Lationoamerica de Estudios Socioculturales del Deporte (ALESDE) for their support in disseminating the initial trilingual call for papers that resulted in more than 70 potential submissions to the book. Finally, we are thankful for all the external reviewers who donated their time and incredible know-how to strengthen the essays submitted to this book. NSW, Australia Cologne, Germany

Jorge  Knijnik Ana  Costa

Contents

1 I ntroduction  1 Jorge Knijnik and Ana Costa Part I Footballing Roots   9 2 Before  Football: The Beginnings of Women’s Involvement with Sport in Brazil’s Nineteenth Century 11 Victor Andrade de Melo and Jorge Knijnik 3 Women’s  Football in Rio de Janeiro: Media Representations in the Early Twentieth Century 25 Kelen Katia Prates Silva and Fabiano Coelho 4 Experiences  of the Football Practiced by Women in Brazil: From Its Origin to Its Regulation (1915–1983) 41 Giovana Capucim e Silva and Aira Bonfim

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Part II Contesting Football  61 5 Women’s  Football in Brazil: When History Meets Philosophy 63 Ana Cristina Zimmermann and Soraia Chung Saura 6 Doing  and Undoing Gender on Brazilian Football Fields 87 Jorge Knijnik Part III Mediating Football 103 7 Brand  Equality Explorative Journey on Personal Brand Construction of 2020 Paulistão feminino Athletes105 Ana Costa and Ana Lorena Marche 8 Changing  Values: Media Coverage of the 2019 Women’s World Cup on Brazilian Sports News Sites123 Soraya Barreto Januário, Cecilia Almeida Rodrigues Lima, and Daniel Leal Part IV Experiencing Football 143 9 Trajectories  and Professional Skills of High-Level Women’s Football Managers in Brazil145 Júlia Barreira, Rodrigo Lemes, and Larissa Rafaela Galatti 10 Sobreviver jogando: Women’s Football Leagues of Bolivian Migrants in Sao Paulo, Brazil163 Julia Haß and Stephanie Schütze 11 Examining  Social Capital in Brazilian Football: Lessons from a Girls’ Sport for Development Project181 Eva Soares Moura

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12 “Rivals  on the pitch, sisters in the struggle”: Women in Fan Culture in Brazil201 Mariana Zuaneti Martins, Kerzia Railane Santos Silva, and Gabriela Borel Delarmelina 13 From  the Stands to the Center of the Court: The Women in Futsal Refereeing in Brazil221 Andressa Hartmann, Myllena Camargo de Oliveira, and Angelita Alice Jaeger Part V Another Football Is Possible 239 14 The  Ethnofootball of Brazilian Indigenous Women241 Maria Beatriz Rocha Ferreira and José Ronaldo Mendonça Fassheber 15 The  Team from the Heart of the Amazon: An Ethnography of Iranduba Esporte Clube257 Mark Biram 16 Beyond  Women: The Coming Challenges for Gender Equity in Brazilian Football277 Jorge Knijnik and Ana Costa I ndex293

Notes on Contributors

Júlia Barreira  obtained a Bachelor’s degree in Physical Education and a Masters and doctoral degree in Biodynamics of Movement and Sport from the Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP). She is currently a professor at São Francisco University teaching disciplines related to sports science and developing studies on sport policies to develop women’s football. She is a researcher at the Study Group in Sport Pedagogy, reviewer of international scientific journals, and developer of teaching/learning materials. Mark Biram  is a PhD candidate at the University of Bristol in the UK. His PhD project is an ethnographic study emphasizing players’ perspectives on Women’s Club Football in Brazil and Colombia. The project is supported by a University of Bristol scholarship and has been supported financially by the Society of Latin American Studies and the Bristol–Brazil fund. Aira Bonfim  has a Master’s degree at the History, Policies and Cultural Assets program at Fundação Getulio Vargas - Rio de Janeiro (FGV-RJ), researching the initiation of Brazilian women in football in the early twentieth century. She was part of the development of the Brazilian Football Reference Center in 2011, at the Museu do Futebol, where she worked until 2018. She was c­ o-­curator of the exhibitions “Contra-Ataque! As Mulheres do Futebol” (2019) and “O Football e as Olimpíadas” (2016). xix

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Giovana Capucim e Silva  is a doctoral student in Social History at the University of São Paulo, where she also obtained a master’s degree. She is the author of Mulheres Impedidas: a proibição do futebol feminino na imprensa de São Paulo. She is a member of Núcleo Interdisciplinar de Estudos sobre Futebol e Modalidades Lúdicas (LUDENS) - Universidade de São Paulo (USP), and has researched the history of women’s football in Brazil during the period of its prohibition. Fabiano Coelho  holds a PhD in history from the Graduate Program in History at the Federal University of Grande Dourados (UFGD). He is professor of undergraduate and graduate courses (Masters and PhD) in history at UFGD. He develops and guides research involving history and representations, history of the press, cultural history, and graphic humor and history. Ana Costa  is a Brazilian journalist and researcher with an MBA in marketing (Pontifícia Universidade Católica (PUC), Rio de Janeiro, Brazil) and Master of Arts (Sport for Development and Politics, German Sport University). In addition, she is active in the digital media market as a content producer and strategist since 2001, having been part of the Brazilian Olympic Committee social media team from 2015 to 2017. In 2018 and 2019 she collaborated with World Rowing in discussions about the strategic development of coastal rowing. Her research focuses on branding in sports based on social media analysis with a special interest in gender issues, personal brand construction of elite female footballers, and comparative studies. Gabriela Borel Delarmelina  has a Bachelor’s degree in physical education (Universidade Federal do Espírito Santo). Her research interests are in sports, gender, and managing sports. She is currently a Master’s (research) candidate at the Centre for Sports and Physical Education at Universidade Federal do Espirito Santo. Victor Andrade de Melo  is a full professor at the Departamento de Didática at Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro (Brazil), where he lectures in the Postgraduate Programme of Comparative History. He is a senior researcher at the Brazilian Research Council and coordinates the sport history research program. He has authored and edited over 60

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books, among them Brazilian Sports History (Routledge, 2018) and Sporting Rio: A History of Sports in the City (Casa da Palavra, 2015). Myllena Camargo de Oliveira  is a Masters (research) candidate at the Universidade Federal de Santa Maria (UFSM, Brazil) where she obtained a Bachelor’s (Honors) degree in physical education. She is a researcher at the Diversity, Body and Gender Research Group at the Centre of Physical Education and Sport (UFSM). She is interested in researching the intersections of body, gender, sexuality, and physical and sport education. José Ronaldo Mendonça Fassheber  is a professor in the Department of History at the Universidade Estadual do Paraná (Brazil, Campus of Paranaguá). He is a trained anthropologist affiliated with the Brazilian Association of Anthropology and holds a PhD in physical education. He holds board positions at several universities for indigenous peoples. He develops research on indigenous history and ethnology, history and anthropology of the body and health, social and environmental movements, and traditional games and ethnosports. Maria Beatriz Rocha Ferreira  holds a PhD in anthropology at the State University of Texas (USA). She is a retired professor in the Faculty of Physical Education at Universidade de Campinas (Brazil). She is a board member of the International Association of Physical Education and Sport for Girls and Women and of the International Council of Sport Science and Physical Education. She is a researcher at the Centre for Inclusion, Movement and Distance Learning at the Universidade Federal de Juiz de Fora (UFJF, Brazil) where she researches on intercultural body practices, indigenous peoples, and civilizing processes. Larissa Rafaela Galatti  is a full professor at the Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP). She is a researcher at the Study Group in Sport Pedagogy and professor in the Sports Science Course at the Faculty of Applied Sciences (UNICAMP). She is a supervisor of Master’s and PhD students in the Postgraduate Program of Physical Education School (UNICAMP). Her research is focused on sport pedagogy as well as the development of athletes and sport coaches. She is a reviewer and member of the editorial board of several scientific journals, such as the International Sport Coaching Journal and Physical Education and Sport Pedagogy. She is

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a member of the Scientific Committee of the International Council for Coaching Excellence. She is certified as an International Master Coach Developer by the Nippon Coach Developer Academy (Tokyo). She has experience as a visiting professor, speaker, and coach developer in American, European, African, and Asian countries. Andressa Hartmann  holds a Bachelor’s degree in Physical Education, Universidade Federal de Santa Maria (UFSM, Brazil). She is a researcher in the Diversity, Body and Gender Research Group the Centre of Physical Education and Sport (UFSM). She is currently a fitness trainer and a referee at the Rio Grande do Sul Football Federation, the Rio Grande do Sul Futsal Federation, and the Brazilian Futsal Federation. Julia Haß  is a research assistant in the research project “Football as Space of Belonging: Amateur Football Teams of Latin American Migrants in Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo” and a PhD candidate in social and cultural anthropology at the Freie Universität Berlin. Her main research areas are sport/football, gender, social inequalities, migrations, and negotiations of urban spaces in Latin American cities. Angelita Alice Jaeger  is an associate professor at the Centre of Physical Education and Sport at Universidade Federal de Santa Maria (UFSM, Brazil). She undertook her postdoctoral research in gender and sport at the Universidade do Porto (Portugal). She is the leader of the Diversity, Body and Gender Research Group at the Centre of Physical Education and Sport (UFSM). She researches the intersections of gender, bodies, and sexualities within physical education and sport practices. Soraya Barreto Januário  holds a PhD and a Master’s degree in communication sciences from the Universidade Nova de Lisboa, Portugal. She is a professor and a researcher at the Department of Communication and in the Graduate Program in Human Rights at the Universidade Federal de Pernambuco (UFPE, Brazil). She is the Research Leader of the Media Observatory in Gender, Democracy and Human Rights (UFPE, Conselho Nacional de Pesquisa Cientifica (CNPq)) and a visiting professor at the Institute of Gender, Sexuality and Feminist Studies at McGill University (Montreal, Canada).

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Jorge Knijnik  is a Brazilian-Australian academic currently working as an associate professor at Western Sydney University (Australia), where he is a researcher at the Institute for Culture & Society and the Centre for Educational Research. Dr. Knijnik undertook his doctoral studies at Universidade de São Paulo (Brazil) where he developed an original interpretation of women’s and gender issues in football and human rights violations. In 2010 he was presented the prestigious “Building Gender Equity” award by UNICEF, the Brazilian Research Council, and UN-Women for his research work that promotes gender equity within educational settings. He has authored/edited, among others, Tales of South American Football: Passion, Glory and Revolution (Fair Play Publishing, 2023): Australianas: Cultura, Educação e Esporte do outro lado do mundo (Fontoura, 2021); The World Cup Chronicles: 31 Days That Rocked Brazil (Fair Play Publishing, 2018); Embodied Masculinities in the Global Sport (FIT, 2015); Gender and Equestrian Sports: Riding Around the World (Springer, 2013); Gênero e Esporte: masculinidades e feminilidades (Apicuri, 2010); and A mulher brasileira e o esporte: seu corpo, sua historia (Mackenzie, 2003). Daniel Leal  is a sports journalist and a candidate in the Master’s Program in Communication at Universidade Federal de Pernambuco (UFPE, Brazil). He is also a researcher in the Media Observatory at UFPE. Rodrigo Lemes  holds a Bachelor’s degree in sports science from the Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP) and a postgraduate diploma in exercise physiology. He worked as a sport manager in a nonprofit organization for three years and he has been working as a physiologist for three years in a Brazilian football club. Cecília Almeida Rodrigues Lima  is a professor and a researcher at the Department of Social Communication at Universidade Federal de Pernambuco (UFPE, Brazil) and a member of the Media Observatory at UFPE. Ana Lorena Marche  holds a Bachelor’s degree in physical education (Paulista State University - UNESP). In addition, she has a Master’s and PhD degree in sports science (Campinas State University - UNICAMP). Ana Lorena acted as the educational coordinator at the “Football

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University” project for seven years and for three years as director of the Ferroviária S/A Women’s Football team. During this period, the team won important titles such as the 2019 Brazilian Championship and Libertadores. Ana Lorena was the Women’s Football coordinator at Paulista Football Federation (FPF) and is the current Women’s Football Teams Supervisor at the Brazilian Football Federation (CBF) since 2021. Mariana Zuaneti Martins  is a senior lecturer at the School of Physical Education at Universidade Federal do Espírito Santo (UFES, Brazil) where she is also a supervisor in the Higher Degree Research (HDR) program in physical education. She holds doctoral and master’s degrees from the Universidade Estadual de Campinas (Brazil), where she also obtained a Bachelor’s degree in social sciences and another in physical education. She is the leader of the Research Group in Sports and Gender (UFES). Eva Soares Moura  holds PhD and Master’s degrees in sociology from Charles University, Prague. Her empirical work focuses on sport for development programs, with a particular emphasis on gender, empowerment, environment, and the context of Latin America. As a Research Fellow, she also participated in international research projects, such as “Vax-trust: Addressing Vaccine Hesitancy in Europe” (Horizon, 2020) and “Aging as Future” (VolkswagenStiftung Foundation). She is a Postdoc Fellow at the Faculty of Social Sciences, Charles University, Prague. Soraia Chung Saura  is an associate professor at the School of Physical Education and Sport (EEFE) at Universidade de São Paulo (USP, Brazil). She is a supervisor in the Higher Degree Research Program at the EEFE and at the School of Education at USP. She has a Bachelor’s degree in philosophy, and a Master’s and a PhD in anthropology of imaginary (USP). She is the co-author of Traditional Games (Laços, 2015) and Body and Cinema (Laços, 2016). Stephanie Schütze  is Professor for Cultural and Social Anthropology at the Lateinamerika-Institut of Freie Universität Berlin, Germany. Her research interests embrace the areas of migration studies, political transnationalism, and gender studies in the Americas. Her current research project, “Football as a Space of Belonging: Amateur Football Teams of

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Latin American Migrants in Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo,” is funded by the German Research Foundation. Kelen Katia Prates Silva  is a PhD student in history (Programa de PósGraduação em História da Federal University of Grande Dourados (PPGH/UFGD)). She holds a Master’s degree in history (PPGH/UFGD) and a Bachelor’s degree in history (Universidade Federal de Mato Grosso (UFMT), Cuiabá). She works mainly on the following themes: women’s football, sports press (Jornal dos Sports), and the contemporary history of Brazil. Her current research investigates women’s football in Mato Grosso between 1941 and 2019. Kerzia Railane Santos Silva  is a Master’s (research) candidate at the Universidade Federal do Espírito Santo (UFES, Brazil) where she obtained a Bachelor’s degree in physical education. She is a researcher at the Research Group in Sports and Gender (UFES). Ana Cristina Zimmermann  is an associate professor at the School of Physical Education and Sport (Escola de Educação Fisica e Esporte (EEFE)) at University of São Paulo (USP, Brazil). She is a supervisor in the Higher Degree Research Program at EEFE and at the School of Education at USP. She earned her PhD in education at the Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina (Brazil) with a spell at the School of Education, University of Nottingham (UK). Her research interests cover aspects of teaching, embodiment, and the philosophical dimensions of human movement. She is the co-author of Traditional Games (Laços, 2015) and Body and Cinema (Laços, 2016).

List of Tables

Table 7.1 Table 7.2 Table 8.1 Table 8.2 Table 9.1 Table 9.2

Search with players Female football fan survey Sample description Thematic categories Characteristics of the participants Characteristics of the courses of CBF and UDOF for football sport managers

111 112 131 132 149 156

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1 Introduction Jorge Knijnik and Ana Costa

The placement of the two volumes of Women’s Football in Latin America: Social Challenges and Historical Perspectives within Palgrave’s “New Femininities in Digital, Physical and Sporting Cultures” book series is opportune and germane for global gender research and activism. It shows that new forms of gender expression, performance, and feminist struggle, which have been influenced by but also have impacted neoliberal ideologies around the world, have found a dense and paradoxical social terrain in South American football. As shown by the remarkable and frequently surprising narratives of these two books, the gendered contexts where the South American football drama unveils itself is undoubtedly linked to the global gender (dis)order, changes and tensions that have been described and analyzed in other volumes of the “New Femininities” J. Knijnik (*) School of Education, Western Sydney University, Penrith, NSW, Australia e-mail: [email protected] A. Costa German Sport University Cologne, Cologne, Germany © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2022 J. Knijnik, A. Costa (eds.), Women’s Football in Latin America, New Femininities in Digital, Physical and Sporting Cultures, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-07976-4_1

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J. Knijnik and A. Costa

series. This link becomes clearer when we initially look into the fertility of new feminist research methodologies applied by the authors in both books: from oral and documentary historical analysis that connects past sporting femininities of the nineteenth and early twentieth century to those emerging in the twenty-first-century; from local ethnographies to policy studies that enhance our understanding of the social constraints where women’s football tries to stay vital; in addition, the employment of digital tools to further our comprehension of the forces of media that are in play in shaping women’s football in South America. All the analytical tools displayed in the two volumes of Women’s Football in Latin America reveal and open up novel ways to investigate the diverse range of physical cultures that emerge in this postfeminist era. Another relevant feature of both volumes of this collection is the multidisciplinary uptake of its contents. The array of disciplines within the social sciences and humanities—from philosophy to sociology, from media studies to sports pedagogies and sport for development approaches—is a sound indication of the relevant imbrications that need to be carefully considered when researching women’s football in the contemporary moment. Moreover, new issues, such as women’s indigenous football in South America, that appear in the books, reinforce the need for more refined studies that acknowledge the relevance of native populations in the construction of the gender order within local and global sporting and physical cultures, and are central for advancing ongoing debates around new femininities in sporting and physical cultures. This first volume highlights the incredible gendered journey of Brazilian women within the football terrain in this major footballing country. Since the early stages of sporting activities in Brazil during the nineteenth century, Brazilian women have built different pathways and conquered their spaces in a diverse range of sports—from the stands to the sport fields, they have progressed their way not only as athletes, but also as coaches, fitness trainers, referees, managers, and other positions within the sporting realm. Football, however, has been a controversial terrain for women’s participation. Given its hegemonic place in Brazil’s social life from the 1930s onwards, added to its galvanizing capacity in a country that has been deemed as “the land of football” (Knijnik, 2018), football has also been historically and socially marked as a gendered

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contested universe. It’s within football where the enormous range of women’s stories demonstrate, in a powerful manner, the myriad of challenges, advancements, and gender paradoxes that women have faced in order to play the sport that has been called “Brazilian way of life” (Bellos, 2002). Over the past 40 years, a fertile and ongoing research tradition on women and football studies has grown in the country. Dealing with issues of gender discrimination and human rights, but also telling stories about resilience and persistence, these researchers have been able to trace the incredible might and diversity of Brazilian women’s footballing experiences. Although only a small amount of this research has been published in international outlets (see Votre & Mourão, 2003; Knijnik, 2013, 2018), most of it is still only available for Portuguese readers. Thus, this book offers to the international reader the rare chance to not only read and understand the gendered social history of football in Brazil, but also allows anyone who reads its chapters to learn about, to be touched by, and to become passionate about Brazilian women’s football. It brings past challenges and stories of the last hundred years of football and gender struggles, showing how these developments have shaped gender relationships in Brazilian society, far beyond football. Nevertheless, the essays in this collection also look to current issues—such as fandom, grassroots football, and women’s representation in sport media—to explore opportunities to develop the sport besides analyzing the potential conflicts and ongoing barriers that girls and women still face and need to overcome in order to enjoy full participation in Brazilian football. In addition, the book’s contributors bring rare stories of football being appropriated by indigenous women, in a clear demonstration that the sport can penetrate even the most secluded spaces in the country, such as the Amazon forest. The five sections in which volume 1 is organized demonstrate that research and political activism in women’s football in Brazil are an integral part of the shaping and reshaping of the current sport gender order. The initial section of the book—Footballing Roots—unveils the origins of women’s sporting participation in the country. In Chapter 2, Victor Andrade de Melo and Jorge Knijnik project an accurate historical portrait of women’s involvement in the Brazilian sports arena before the “football era.” The authors bring to light documents that show the relevant

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presence of women in an array of sporting activities during the nineteenth century, either as spectators but also as active participants as athletes or volunteers, particularly in Rio de Janeiro, then the Federal Capital city. Next, Kelen Katia Prates Silva and Fabiano Coelho discuss how the media, principally the relevant Jornal dos Sports, covered women’s football in the early twentieth century in Brazil. Their investigation also highlights the historical gaps when women’s football was not covered at all through this outlet, hence demonstrating how the history of the sport was always closely associated to hegemonic gender ideologies that during several years hindered the development of football for women. Closing this section, Giovana Capucim e Silva and Aira Bonfim look at the historical progression of football during most of the twentieth century. They bring original data that reveal how a sport that was once well developed in many parts of the country had to suddenly survive at its margins, due to legal prohibitions that tried to break the core motivations of the players, who resisted and invented several strategies to keep their footballing activities alive, even under severe restrictions. Following this historical contextualization, the second section— Contesting Football—consists of two chapters that, using philosophical and sociological arguments, claim women’s football as a disputed terrain within Brazilian culture. Ana Zimmerman and Soraia Chung Saura examine the relevance of the body, and the freedom that football allows to women’s players, in order to construct a new gender order in the country. On the other hand, Jorge Knijnik, using a psychosocial lens to examine an extensive ethnographic field work among women players, tries to unpack the paradoxical feelings that those footballers demonstrate, as they comply or resist to the normative gender order in the country. The third section—Mediating Football—discusses the mediation of women’s football through different digital platforms. Ana Costa and Ana Lorena Marche invite us to have an in-depth look at how women footballers employ social media to build their personal brands. Their study reveals a gap in expectations between the image desired by players and that expected by fans, highlighting opportunities in constructing strong individual brands based on collective achievements. Also in this section, Soraya Barreto Januário, Cecilia Almeida Rodrigues Lima, and Daniel Leal discuss how mainstream sports news websites have recently changed

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the way they cover women’s football. Using a quali-quanti methodology, the authors demonstrate the changes in news value and that this movement might see women’s football navigating uncharted seas in the next few years. The fourth section—Experiencing Football—follows suit to explore five exciting adventures of women playing football in different scenarios across the country. Julia Barreira, Rodrigo Lemes, and Larissa Rafaela Galatti focus on women who decide to pursue a professional career as football managers in Brazil. Employing a mixed-method approach, they reveal how their experiences are marked by gender stereotypes, and the strategies these women employ to navigate this new context for women in the sport. What follows is a fantastic journey among the lives of Bolivian migrants who dare to play the sport while trying to make a life under extremely harsh conditions as unskilled migrants in the largest South American city. In this chapter, Julia Haß and Stephanie Schütze unpack a unique scenario and show how football for women can be a tool for social and economic empowerment within a context of migration and labor exploitation. In the next article, Eva Soares Moura looks at a Sport for Development initiative in a disadvantaged community and unpacks how it utilizes football to try to empower young teenage girls in their daily lives, while challenging the current gender order. The author argues that educational initiatives within marginalized Brazilian communities must employ a gender lens to better reach their educational and social purposes. In the next chapter, Mariana Zuaneti Martins, Kerzia Railane Santos Silva, and Gabriela Borel Delarmelina ask the reader if they have ever pondered the amount of women football fans in the country’s stadiums. By discussing how women have organized themselves to have an active voice in the grand football fan culture of the country, the authors reveal the feminist struggle of women’s Torcidas Organizadas. To close this section, Andressa Hartmann, Myllena Camargo de Oliveira, and Angelita Alice Jaeger explore other roles within the country’s football context where women leave their mark: particularly the refereeing setting. Once again, these authors show how the feminist battle extends to this specific setting, where women referees overcome discrimination in order to open new working perspectives that not only empower them economically, but also help them to fulfil their sporting dreams.

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The last section of the book—Another Football Is Possible—shows that it is feasible to build another futebol culture in the “football country,” and that women are an integral part of this renovation. Initially, Maria Beatriz Rocha Ferreira and José Ronaldo Mendonça Fassherber show the unique scenario of indigenous communities in regional Brazil, where women take part in footballing games that go beyond the mere sporting activity: the networks constructed in their ethnofootball are a potent tool for behavioral change within their communities. Continuing in the path of constructing a new futebol culture, Mark Biram’s extensive ethnography in the core of the Amazon region demonstrates how women’s football can challenge not only the gender status quo but also the center–periphery economic sporting order within Brazilian football. To wrap up this section and the book, the editors, by acknowledging the research work that has been done in the past 50 years within the Brazilian women’s football universe, argue that it is time to go beyond this space and open new frontiers where football can be more welcoming to the novel gender order that is already being produced and contested in the country. The outstanding and frequently startling accounts in this collection will certainly give to the reader a comprehensive understanding of Brazilian women’s football historical developments and past and present social challenges. Of important note, the authors of this book also ponder the relationships between Brazilian women’s football and the rest of the continent. The connections with other South American countries’ women’s footballing contexts and cultures are a key element of this volume. As these relationships are flagged across the chapters, they allow the book’s contributors to establish several points of intersection as well as to open conversations with the researchers of the Hispanic Countries volume, the second book which complements the Women in Football in Latin America collection. Considering the centrality of the sport in the making and remaking of new femininities in the continent, the reader can only expect that those fruitful dialogues between both volumes of the collection will enhance the analytical and the political capacity that this research has to influence the gender order in Latin American football. The authors of this book would be satisfied if their accounts also educate and inspire us to seek more gender justice in this society, and claim

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the football field as one of the key spaces to build this new and more equitable gender order. May the reading of these chapters be a further step across the several actions already under way to achieve gender justice within and outside the football fields in Brazil and beyond.

References Bellos, A. (2002). Futebol: The Brazilian way of life. Bloomsbury. Knijnik, J. (2013). Visions of gender justice: untested feasibility on the football fields of Brazil. Journal of Sport & Social Issues, 37(1), 8–30. Knijnik, J. (2018). The World Cup chronicles: 31 days that rocked Brazil. Fair Play Publishing. Votre, S., & Mourão, L. (2003). Women’s football in Brazil: progress and problems. Soccer and Society, 4(2/3), 254–267.

Part I Footballing Roots

2 Before Football: The Beginnings of Women’s Involvement with Sport in Brazil’s Nineteenth Century Victor Andrade de Melo and Jorge Knijnik

Before Football In Brazil, football is such an intense phenomenon that, at times, sport studies fail to adequately consider whether it was the first sport to be organised in the country. Although football followed a unique trajectory over time, at first it inherited a sporting dynamic that was already outlined by the structures of other sports. Women’s participation on the field and previous involvement with other sports also deserves to be understood, as it demonstrates how their presence in various sectors of Brazilian society was increasing and

V. A. de Melo Departamento de Didática, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil J. Knijnik (*) School of Education, Western Sydney University, Penrith, NSW, Australia e-mail: [email protected] © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2022 J. Knijnik, A. Costa (eds.), Women’s Football in Latin America, New Femininities in Digital, Physical and Sporting Cultures, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-07976-4_2

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becoming more relevant. Hence, the aim of this chapter is to discuss women’s sporting involvement in Brazil prior to football’s arrival in 1894. This chapter will focus on the sporting events in Rio de Janeiro in the nineteenth century and the early decades of the twentieth century. This city was chosen because of its relevance as the country’s capital during the period, being the centre of all national events, particularly due to the arrival of the royal family from Portugal in 1808. Rio also hosted the first moments of structured sport activities in the country, thus sheltering the pioneering clubs, which were the key actors in delineating all the dimensions that guided the Brazilian sport field since then (Melo, 2001).

Women and Turf Horse racing was the first sport to be organised in the city of Rio de Janeiro. From the early 1810s till the 1840s there is evidence of the promotion of some horse races where one could see a significant influx of audiences (Melo, 2001). The newspapers used these events to highlight the presence of important personalities in national politics among the public. In 1849, the country’s pioneering sport association, the horse racing society, was created: The Club de Corridas (The Horse Racing club). The start of competitive horse racing in Rio de Janeiro was marked by two main difficulties: the first was the clear lack of public knowledge regarding how these competitions worked, or even that they existed, and it took a while to attract more people to attend the events. The second complication was that, although being members of the local economic elites, the organisers of the events did not have much experience with these types of races. Despite these difficulties, after a while horse racing began to consolidate itself as a relevant alternative form of entertainment to those already present in the city in that period, such as classical music concerts and poetic or dancing soirées. On the one hand, it became a popular event that attracted people from different social strata; on the other hand, for club officers and members it was not only an indication of social status and cultural distinction, but also used as a direct or indirect strategy to boost their own commercial interests (Melo, 2001).

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In the final decade of the nineteenth century, Rio de Janeiro had five different racecourses running simultaneously, involving a large portion of the population. Horse racing became a fashionable topic, constantly discussed by the press and on the city’s streets, workplaces and pubs. The races also generated a market around them. How would women have been involved with the turf? What does this participation mean? Until the middle of the nineteenth century, women did not have a large public presence in everyday life. Raised to be “good housewives” and to stay confined to the private space of their homes, they received little education beyond learning housework duties. Occasionally, the most fortunate were granted access to developing basic literacy. Marriages were mostly of convenience, determined by the families, and involved strategies for strengthening and/or reorienting businesses (Needell, 1993). From the middle of the nineteenth century, this situation gradually began to change. Innovative and liberal winds were arriving from Europe, bringing echoes of women’s demands and a new model of women to the country (Weber, 1988). These changes were slow and happened at different paces across the several social strata, also influencing women’s involvement with sport. It has to be taken into account that sport was one of the main social spaces in which a greater female social presence can be observed. During the nineteenth century, the involvement with sport initiatives, even if limited, became one of the main instances regarding the distension of gender relations. The turf was one of the few social spaces to allow women’s social participation. As it was culturally highly regarded, and socially glamourised for being an aristocratic entertainment and a family activity, women started to set their foot in this door, outside their lives in their homes (Melo, 2007). Women were always present at the facilities and events, accompanying their parents or husbands and, for those who could, parading their latest fashionable dresses. It cannot be disregarded that women’s presence in the field was also conceived as another way of introducing them to “high society,” making them known to prospective good husbands. For single women, the races were their only real chance to flirt, something that affronted the orthodox patriarchal social structure.

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Despite their growing and enthusiastic presence as audiences at the racecourses, it was not possible to identify the presence of women on the boards of associations, nor within competition organising groups. In fact, sporting clubs were a brand-new institution in the Rio de Janeiro nineteenth-­century social scene. These clubs, with a clear European inspiration, were basically a male entity in principle, even though they contemplated the possibility of women’s participation in their few activities (Needell, 1993). The analysis of the limited participation of women in the early Rio sporting scene can be split into two threads: the more traditional would say that women were given a secondary role at the racecourses, being mere “assistants,” exalted for “beautifying” and demonstrating how “family-­ oriented” the shows were, and only supporting what was a public male performance. While not completely incorrect, this understanding is limited. In that setting, women occupied an important space in the construction of a new modern social imaginary, as well as stretching the then-rigid gender relations. It cannot be denied that such an expanded possibility of women’s social presence introduced new possibilities for public experiences, which slowly helped to build new social options for them. For example, in other sectors, women also took on new roles. Perhaps the most notable of them was in the theatre, where they could act as protagonists on the stage. However, in these artistic contexts, many were seen as “suspicious” due to their freer and “extravagant” behaviours. Nevertheless, women became relevant characters within the entertainment sector, with emphasis on their involvement with dance societies, a practice that was key for the relaxation in the gender social relationships. There were women riding horses in public turf competitions. It was, however, seen as an exception, a curiosity, an eccentricity. Social class is an important point to consider, so we can better ponder the meanings of the restriction on female jockeys. Even for elite men, being a jockey was considered a minor role. At the time, there were still many doubts about the nature and relevance of physical activity in general for people’s health (Melo, 2007). Those employed as jockeys were usually members of the lower social classes, or hired foreigners. Only exceptionally did one of the “best families” take part in the events at charity festivals or festive occasions.

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Therefore, the restrictions were not exclusive to women, although certainly there was greater scrutiny over women’s participation, due to the question of decorum. Only with the development of the sporting environment, including the emergence of other sports, did the presence of women as competitors became more frequent. In any case, it is important to note that, from the beginning of organised sport in Rio, we find evidence of women’s involvement.

Women, Sport and the Urban Space Even though many constraints persisted for women’s social lives, in the final quarter of the nineteenth century there was already a greater presence of women in the public space. This was clearly a consequence of the cultural changes taking place in Rio de Janeiro. Although embryonic, such changes illuminated issues constantly debated in Europe: the universal suffrage, sexual freedom and women’s access to education (Araújo, 1993). This picture is also related to the new social dynamics at the fin de siècle in Rio de Janeiro. The growing urbanisation process, the development of a public transport system and the better structuring of an entertainment market were all “invitations” for women to take to the streets. These changes increased their possibility of mobility and brought tensions to the traditional idea of domestic confinement. Female presence was constantly increasing in sport competitions, in theatres, in the cinema, in public parks. Some influences, such as the persuasive hygienic ideology, also contributed to this movement. As Eugene Weber (Weber, 1988) points out, the feminine ideal was changing: “from the opulence and pallor of the middle of the century it gradually transformed into a slimmer and healthier type of beauty, less fat, more sporty” (Weber, 1988, p.  125). For Trindade (1996), the occupation of social spaces is more notable exactly in moments of free time: …leisure is responsible for a female invasion of city spaces. It is a new domain, that was originated in large part due to urban development; with

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those new leisure activities, the woman who was segregated, by the nineteenth-­century conservative society, to life’s private domains, returns to the streets to spend their free time in stores, in parks, in concert halls, on sport fields, in the halls of recreational clubs. (Trindade, 1996, p. 112)

Women and Rowing At the same time, rowing was being consolidated as the most popular and socially valued sport, sharing and even surpassing the turf in public preferences. This development only became possible due to a series of changes in the city’s socio-cultural landscape of physical activity: among the elites, urban life brought growing concerns about hygiene and health, favouring new forms of physical exercise (Melo, 2001); furthermore, mimicking the European elites, new body aesthetics were beginning to be accepted by Rio’s dominant classes, who even promoted these new corporeal trends. In the early years of the twentieth century, rowers were already presented as role models for the youth who could lead the country to progress. However, to be an active rower you needed to be a man (Melo, 2001). Quite ironically, the vessels, on the other hand, were always christened with feminine names. How were women involved in rowing and other water sports? Only as the names of the boats? Certainly not. Regattas were considered even healthier than horse racing due to their occurrence at the city’s beaches and their connection to free air and nature. In addition, the widespread ideals of hygiene and the physical exercise provided by the rowing clubs were preferable to the gambling culture of horse racing (Melo, 2001). This didn’t, however, mean that the opportunities for women to become involved as competitors in the regattas were immediately expanded. Andrade (1993) argues that in Rio de Janeiro, at the turn of the century, women and men were photographed differently. Men were pictured as images of action and power. Their portraits were well suited to the novel features of the new model of sport participation. When looking at pictures of rowers, the newly valued body aesthetics were those in which masculinity, leadership position, ideas of strength and readiness for the challenge stood out. Women’s pictures, on the other hand, were

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associated with the home, their families, or in public spaces, as spectators of leisure practices (Andrade, 1993). In rowing, some sportswomen even acted as social or stands directors. These were not exactly relevant positions in clubs and regattas, but it should be noted that, in any case, a new step had been taken. Prior to that, there wasn’t even a term to designate women involved in the sport, such as the sportsman, used to designate male aficionados. If a new word hits newspapers and magazines, it is a clear indicator that novel social realities are being created, for an expansion in the lexicon meant an increase in possible identities for women within the sport realm. In addition, there were some initiatives for the participation of women as rowers, two of them in the 1880s. For the first time, in 1884, a women’s rowing contest was held in Rio de Janeiro. The contestants were, on the one side, Misses Massiére, Triboulet and Vianna, from Clube de Regatas Niteroiense, and on the other side, the Fox sisters, who rowed at the Clube de Regatas Cajuense de São Cristóvão (Rio de Janeiro). The Massiére family, of French origin, had established themselves in the nearby coastal city of Niterói, just a few years prior to this contest. The family enjoyed some reputation within the social elites in the capital of Rio de Janeiro. They were import and export traders, as well as property owners. Elisa Triboulet was from the family of Félix Triboulet, a Frenchman who lived in Rio de Janeiro. As for Miss Vianna, research shows her ties with the family of Manuel Afonso Vianna and Belmira Martins Vianna, whose father, the Portuguese merchant José Bernardo Martins, was one of the founders of the Clube de Regatas Niteroiense. The Fox sisters were of British origin. It is important to stress the backgrounds of the women who were participating in the rowing movement. Most of them were from European families coming from countries where, although in an embryonic form, women were already more involved with sport practices. The same women also competed in rowing events promoted in Rio de Janeiro in the following years—1885 and 1886. Finally in 1901, the Women’s Regatta Group of Ilha de Pombeba (in Rio de Janeiro) was created, with an all-female board. It was formed by: Silvia Peixoto (president), Gabriela Filgueiras (vice president), Elisa Joppert (secretary) and Alice Ferreira (treasurer). This group did not

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survive long. It only competed once, racing against rowers of the Cajuense Regatta Group. What would be behind the discontinuity of the women’s rowing group activities, as well as of the failure to carry out a greater number of women’s races? Certainly, there were concerns of a moral nature. Despite the favourable social context in the early years of the twentieth century, controversial matters linked to the participants’ bodies still called the public’s attention and caused distresses for sportspeople. If questions such as the small-sized clothes and the rowers’ “excessive” body exposure were still points of strain for male participants, those issues would undoubtedly complicate women’s involvement with the sport, even more (Melo, 2007). We must consider that even on the international stage, women’s rowing would still take time to consolidate. It was only in 1969 that a women’s commission was created in the International Rowing Federation with a view to ensuring a greater participation of women in the sport. The first world championship was only staged in 1974 and its presence at the Olympic Games can first be observed in Montreal, in 1976. If questions persisted for many years about the suitability of women to practise physical activities, particularly notably highly intense ones such as rowing, this did not mean a devaluation of female participation in the regattas at the turn of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. As Needell (1993) recalls, In addition to the domestic administration, women were the stars on the high society stage. As the display of clothes and jewellery, the behaviour in the salon and in the afternoon teas, and the grace they gave to weekly receptions served as reliable indicators of family status. All high society activities necessarily required the presence of women. (Needell, 1993, p. 159)

Women’s presence was essential to ascertain the “family-oriented” model of the new sporting practice. Despite the early twentieth-century new socio-cultural context that allowed and even stimulated a greater public exposure for women, the role of the family in all social activities was still indispensable. Nevertheless, social and economic changes and ways people lived in the new and growing cities all led to challenges towards the rigid

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gender status of the previous century: “The intensity and speed of urban transformations at the turn of the 20th century gave new impetus to family dynamics, neutralising the supremacy of male power, diversifying the forms of socialisation of women” (Needell, 1993, p. 58). The regattas and the club activities were covered by newspapers and magazines that usually exalted the presence of women in the stands. The printed news frequently mentioned the young women who “adorned” the environment: they were reported as healthy fans who were connected to modern times. At the same time, on several covers of periodicals of the time there were already illustrations of women in sport attire, sharing the space with men in news about clubs, different sports and tournaments. This is evidence that a new sport profile for women was gaining some traction in the social imagination, penetrating and opening social cracks. Like the horse races, rowing competitions were also a place for flirting. In fact, due to the new public sociability that opened up spaces for potential novel roles for both men and women, the possibility of romantic encounters was even stronger in the regattas: young men had them as events to parade their fit and healthy body for the “ladies.” As a result, concerns about modesty persisted.

 arly Challenges of Women’s Involvement E in Sports Despite the change in social and cultural landscapes, we need to be careful when interpreting these advances. Women were certainly conquering more spaces, but their freedom was also granted by men who controlled them closely: “If high society expressed its feminine side in its surface, it continued to be masculine in its purpose. It served to maintain and promote the interests of the elite families, defined by the parents and husbands who controlled them” (Needell, 1993, p. 160). Needell (1993) points out that greater social experience cannot be misinterpreted as complete liberation. The expansion of the opportunities for women’s social interaction has to be seen in the context of the needs of men in the “new times.” In addition, if rapid urbanisation interfered with the reformulation of women’s roles, mind sets would not change so quickly.

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For a long time, the ideal of the “fragile beauty” would still be associated with women, fundamentally situated in their appearance and clothing. Even so, in the final decade of the nineteenth century and in the beginning of the twentieth, it is possible to identify a rising women’s participation in other sport practices that were taking shape in Rio de Janeiro. The arrangements of their involvement were variable due to the diverse organisational context that surrounded each of the different sports. A few sports such as fencing, equestrian and target shooting were introduced early in the education of elite girls, thus experimenting with an increase in numbers of women participants. These sports were not only regarded and specifically conceived to provide to elite girls certain skills that would allow them to perform well in their new social roles, they were also signs of high status and distinction—pointers of social class. In three other sports, women’s participation was linked to cultural issues associated with the British migration to Rio: “athletic games” and “foot races” (the early athletics), tennis and cricket were introduced by English clubs, which, following the customs of their country, already allowed the participation of women as athletes. Two points to be noted here: the first is that women could participate but in “lighter” forms of these events, with a lesser length for example, to always protect and avoid injuries to their “fragile” femininity. Second, the clothes used in no way resembled the current sport attire: they were basically a little more relaxed version of heavy everyday clothing (Melo, 2017). In other sports, women faced greater restrictions, similar to the already discussed case of rowing. In swimming and cycling competitions, female presence was more accepted and valued in the stands than in the competitions themselves. Our hypothesis is that in both sports, women’s involvement was hindered due to the degree of movement and bodily exposure necessary for these practices.

Women and Cycling in the City The case of cycling deserves special attention due to the symbolism of this sport in the fin-de-siècle. As shown by Schetino (2008) and Melo (2007), in Rio de Janeiro, cycling played a role for women’s freedom similar to

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what was observed in Paris in the nineteenth century. In both cases, bicycles were hailed by women as an apparatus that stimulated their greater social presence and their struggles for freedom, helping them with their mobility across the cities, too. Nevertheless, cycling was regarded as a non-competitive, everyday leisure practice for elite women who could afford the expensive bicycles of those days. The practice of cycling, although expressing the changes in social and gender hierarchy, was also related to the appreciation of elegant clothing, to a way of expressing beauty, elegance and delicacy: it should not hurt “feminine values,” something quite different from the exalted ideas in competitions of strength, agility and speed (Schetino, 2008). We were not able to find cycling events for women, except for a few little competitions for children that occurred only on special celebrations. In fact, even the practice of leisure cycling provoked apprehension for many. This is the case with Bambino, a cartoonist and writer for the Jornal do Brasil, the main media vehicle during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries in the country. In his “Weekly Notes,” published on January 21, 1900, Bambino shows a cartoon, entitled “Natural Consequences,” which depicts two welldressed gentlemen looking with joking expression at some women cyclists. In any case, newspapers and magazines constantly reported the presence of women at velodromes during competitions. Like horse races, they were reported as embellishments of the events. In the magazine A CANOAGEM, the news article noted, “With a beautiful day, the great Velo Club races took place; it’s decoration, which was already stunning, became even more glorious due to the influx of elegant dresses worn by the countless young ladies who were present” (A CANOAGEM, 1, n. 4, 25 July 1903, p. 9).

 ports, Urban Life and the New S Gender Arrangements The diversity and the level of women’s involvement and participation in sports during the turn to the twentieth century adds up to the tensions in the construction of new social roles in all areas of the city during that epoch. As much as gender constraints were being challenged and new

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arrangements were being made, the social understandings were yet to capture the whole spectrum of these changes. Let’s look at the comments made by an “anonymous mademoiselle” in the acclaimed column “Sport,” regularly published by the Jornal do Brasil. There, it is possible to find the lady’s analysis of the city’s sport scene. According to her, it was pleasant to attend the race tracks, in order to appreciate the behaviour of the regulars. The amusements of the turf were fundamental to make forgetting the hassles of everyday life. For her, “sporting contests” are occasions where “man’s intelligence and strength run in pairs” (p. 7). Amusements like cycling, which is difficult to practice due to the need for balance, points out the commentator, even develop the musculature (Jornal do Brasil, 15 December 1894). Even though she seems to be a spectator rather than an athlete, the fact that her voice reaches the mainstream media, in a sport column, shows that social changes are occurring within the city’s gender relationships domain. When looking at the magazines and newspapers from Rio de Janeiro at the turn from the nineteenth to the twentieth century, we can see the increased presence of women involved in sports. This somehow caters to some male interests, for example, in regard to women being part of the expanding consumer market around the different types of sports. At the same time, it must be noted that women’s growing presence within the sporting realm was also the result of their mounting demands for participation. This needs to be acknowledged as a relevant social achievement for women, an indicator of liberation, an opening of new possibilities, an advance, a preparation for greater conquests. From the late 1800s to the first decade of the 1900s, the several obstacles that women had to overcome to be able to join sport events, either as an observer or as a participant, clearly paved the way for future expansion of this complicated relationship between Brazilian women and sports. Entering the twentieth century, we can see evidence that sport was already becoming fashionable for young women. On 1 January 1913, an article entitled “What Will the Girls Be Like in 1913” published in the influential Jornal do Brasil already places sport among the activities that needed to be incorporated in a woman’s routine, as the practice of some sports could even “improve their physical beauty, refining their slender and vigorous lines” (p. 8).

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Throughout the twentieth century, and despite the new hurdles that came from all societal sectors—from legal prohibitions, medical contraindications and lack of material conditions and support (Knijnik, 2003)—Brazilian women conquered their space in the country’s sporting scene. More than 100 years after their first participation as athletes, in the pioneering experiences of turf and rowing, women continue to seek conditions, opportunities and spaces similar to those of men, in particular within football, the sport that became hegemonic in the country throughout the twentieth century and beyond.

References Andrade, A. M. M. S. (1993). Sob o signo da imagem: a burguesia carioca de 1900–1950. À margem, 1(1), 5–14.  Araújo, R.  M. B. (1993). A vocação do prazer: a cidade e a família no Rio de Janeiro republicano. Rocco. Knijnik, J. (2003). A mulher brasileira e o esporte: seu corpo, sua história. Editora Mackenzie. Melo, V.  A. (2001). Cidade Sportiva: primórdios do esporte no Rio de Janeiro. Relume Dumará/Faperj. Melo, V. A. (2007). Mulheres em movimento: a presença feminina nos primórdios do esporte na cidade do Rio de Janeiro (século XIX–primeira década do século XX). Revista Brasileira de história, 27(54), 127–152. Melo, V. A. (2017). A sociabilidade britânica no Rio de Janeiro do século XIX: os clubes de cricket. Almanack, 16, 168–205. Needell, J. D. (1993). Belle époque tropical. Companhia das letras. Schetino, A. (2008). Pedalando na modernidade: a bicicleta e o ciclismo na transição dos séculos XIXe XX. Apicuri. Trindade, E. (1996). Cidade moderna e espaços femininos. Projeto História, 13, 109–120. Weber, E. (1988). França fin de siecle. Companhia das letras.

3 Women’s Football in Rio de Janeiro: Media Representations in the Early Twentieth Century Kelen Katia Prates Silva and Fabiano Coelho

Introductory Considerations: “Conscientiousness of Historicity” and Gender Studies in Sports Sport constitutes a universe in constant transformation as it is intimately linked with the historical contexts that define it. Yet at the same time sport acts as a social and cultural force that defines historical circumstances (Barros, 2013). As such, we can read and understand societies in the past and present through the practice of sport. In Brazil, studies on history and sport throughout the twentieth and twenty-first century have developed significantly in recent years, and in this context, football can be seen as a fundamental part of society that reflects worldviews, gender relations, and social development over time.

K. K. Prates Silva (*) F. Coelho Federal University of Grande Dourados, Dourados, Brazil e-mail: [email protected] © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2022 J. Knijnik, A. Costa (eds.), Women’s Football in Latin America, New Femininities in Digital, Physical and Sporting Cultures, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-07976-4_3

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The “conscientiousness of historicity” in terms of sport relates to the transformations that occurred in history throughout the twentieth century. In particular, the advent of the Annales School had a significant role in questioning the French Methodic school (École méthodique) due to the introduction of new epistemologies and analytical methods (Bourdé & Martin, 2018). The main proponents of the Annales movement, which began officially in France in 1929, included Marc Bloch, Lucien Febvre, and Fernando Braudel. Historians who were involved in the Annales brought about important changes to the discipline, including expanding beyond the primacy of written documents, interdisciplinarity, a break from and denial of an essentially political history, the creation of new fields of study, and the idea of a historic problem (Reis, 2004, 2010). Transformations in the production of historiography, alongside critical feminist analyses, have brought to the fore the history of women and gender relations (Pinsky, 2009). In terms of the practice of football, the introduction of gender as a category of analysis offers new directions, perspectives, and theories for sport studies (Pisani, 2020). The concept of gender has been constructed and redefined over the past three decades (Veiga & Pedro, 2015), yet the use of gender as an analytical category is recent in historiographic production and even more incipient in historical research on football. From this perspective, this study intersects gender studies with the practice of women’s football in Rio de Janeiro, prompting necessary debates in Brazilian historiography. Camargo (2020), when writing about the “Dimensions of gender and the multiple footballs in Brazil,” expands our perception of the sport when he argues that football reaches beyond the hegemonic and “naturalised” sport of Brazilian culture. Thus, in his research, he proposes to examine groups that many are likely unaware even played football or existed within the universe of the sport. In the twentieth century, football became a symbol and representation of national identity, which was fashioned as something inherent, as if all Brazilians, especially men, were born ready to play.

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In this sense, this chapter aims to bring to light new stories about women’s football1 by investigating the sport in Rio de Janeiro at the beginning of the twentieth century, and considering discussions of gender (Colling, 2014; Scott, 1995; Tedeshi, 2012) and representation (Chartier, 1990, 2011). Representations are social constructions of reality in which subjects develop their worldviews based on their own interests and the interests of the groups to which they belong. Representations aim to build the social world, as they are the basis of a group’s discourses and practices. From representations, we can understand how groups see themselves and perceive others, as well as how a society is imagined, designed, and read (Coelho, 2014). The press is a rich historical source that can be used to understand the developments and departures of sport in Brazil. Thus, the focus of our research was the sports daily Jornal dos Sports, one of the first newspapers dedicated to sport in the country, with its editions available in the Digital Newspaper Repository of the National Library. The creation of Jornal dos Sports demonstrates a movement toward the specialisation of the sports press in Brazil. Its foundation and periodicity as a daily publication indicate the growing popularity of sport and the privileged space that sport came to occupy in the press at the beginning of the twentieth century. This analysis investigates Jornal dos Sports’ coverage of women’s football. Our particular focus is on how this newspaper reported on the practice in Rio de Janeiro, then the capital of the country, during the 1930s and 1940s. Our analysis is supported by the work of Capelato (Capelato & Prado, 1980; Capelato, 1988) and Luca (2005, 2008), from which we can argue that Jornal dos Sports is not merely a “vehicle of information” that is impartial and isolated from reality. Rather, our analysis considers that Jornal dos Sports is integrated into its sociopolitical reality. Thus, we highlight the nuances, contradictions, interests, and ideologies present in this media outlet.  The use of the term women’s football marks a change in perspective in studies about this practice. The use of “women’s football” implies a set of characteristics attributed to the idea of femininity, such as fragility, emotion, and beauty. Anthropologist Claudia Samuel Kessler (2015) notes that “The term women’s football relates to a complete and heterogeneous universe, permeated with exchanges between people of different classes, ethnicities, genders and religiosities, within this collective. That is, we understand the term ‘women’ as consisting of bodies and subjectivities that are neither neutral, abstract, nor universal.” 1

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Methodology To understand the news reported about women’s football, we conducted a search in the National Library’s Digital Newspaper Repository. With the help of the “search by location” tool available on the National Library website, we identified the frequency of citations of the term “women’s football” in newspapers and magazines in Rio de Janeiro. Our search parameters in terms of the date range began in the year 1890, a moment that marks the arrival of football in Brazil, and ends in the 1930s, which precedes the prohibition of women’s football in the country. We identified the first citations of the term “women’s football” in the press in Rio de Janeiro beginning in the 1910s. Between 1910 and 1919 we found eight news articles about the practice of women’s football, which indicated that, initially, the participation of women on the field took place in mixed teams and was characterised as novel and curious. There was a significant increase in the number of news articles published in the 1920s and 1930s, for which we found 21 and 65 articles, respectively, in various newspapers in Rio de Janeiro. During this period, we identified advertisements for circus attractions, women’s football games held in other countries, announcements of games played by Brazilian women, calls for participation in training sessions, and the publication of op-eds in favour or against the implementation of women’s football in Rio de Janeiro. Once we identified the presence of women in the field of football in Rio de Janeiro in the first decades of the twentieth century, we began to consider the representations created around women’s football games in the city between the 1930s and 1940s. This time frame corresponds to a moment of growth in news about women’s football in the 1930s, until the prohibition of the practice in the 1940s after the enactment of Law Decree 3199. Although not the only source available, the press is fundamental for the analysis of sport in Brazil. As emphasised by Luca (2005), newspapers are one of the few sources through which we can access the national football past. As newspapers present information on everyday urban life, they enable a detailed reconstruction of social and sporting events (Hollanda

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& Melo, 2012). Thus, to analyse the representations of women’s football in Rio de Janeiro in the 1930s and 1940s, we chose Jornal dos Sports as our main source of analysis, an important means of communication and organisation in the field of sport.

Journal dos Sports Established on 13 March 1931, Jornal dos Sports was developed as a response to an increase in sport news being printed in the wide-­circulation newspapers. Jornal dos Sports entered the publishing industry with the goal of capturing and disseminating information about the urban (and suburban) sport scene. As such, Jornal dos Sports “became a sports newspaper, a vehicle for daily communication and, mainly, an avid supporter of the practice of sport among the residents of Rio de Janeiro” (Couto, 2011, p. 43). By launching itself as “the voice of sport,” the newspaper sought to “feature any activity that identified itself with sport and with the body, even if there was not yet a connection with the national culture, such as with golf ” (Couto, 2011, p. 44). Since its first edition in the 1930s, the target audience of the newspaper included both men and women. In its pages, we can find products and services directed at a female audience, in addition to reports, such as recommendations for the practice of gymnastics among women, and even interviews with female athletes and fans. By reporting on a wide diversity of sport activities, the newspaper offered representations that would influence the organisation and consolidation of the sport industry in Rio de Janeiro, and more widely throughout Brazil. Regarding women’s football, the newspaper played a role in the “war of words” about the practice, at times encouraging women to play, and at others silencing and making invisible their participation in sport, especially football. The discourse of Jornal dos Sports was based on what the press understood as women, football, and the relationship between these two concepts. Femininity was based on the assumed characteristics of grace, delicacy, and beauty, in addition to a woman’s natural role as mother. Such characteristics could be found in the practice of sport that were compatible with a woman’s nature, as a means to enhance and

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strengthen the female body. Football, on the other hand, was constructed as a violent, competitive, and agile sport, that is, a space to reaffirm masculinity. Therefore, Jornal dos Sports at times highlights the incompatibility of the relationship between women and football. In the following sections, we discuss the main thematic categories we identified during our analysis of 3801 editions of the Jornal dos Sports from 15 March 1931 until 31 December 1941. When representing women’s football as an exhibition or spectacle, it becomes clear that Jornal dos Sports takes a favourable position to the practice. However, under the guise of medical and hygienic discourses, several reports argued for limitations on women’s football or advised against it altogether. While women’s football was seen as a novelty, concerns about the female body on the field were also being discussed in the press.

 omen’s Matches and the “Violent W British Sport” Since its first editions, Jornal dos Sports reported on women’s football, thus demonstrating that such discussions had already begun to attract interest in the media even before the creation of the newspaper. In its 33rd edition published in April of 1931, Jornal dos Sports publicised a festival organised by the Brasil Football Club (F.C.) that featured “a feminine competition of the violent British sport”: Feminism progresses … Two ladies’ teams will play a football match. Recently, the Vasco da Gama Stadium held, for the first time in Brazil, a clash of two football teams made up of charming gentlewomen, with the proceeds going to a school charity. It was a complete success and will soon be repeated. Now the idea launched by our colleague Tenorio D’Albuquerque has resurfaced. Brasil F.C. is organizing a great festival for the 3rd of next month, with one of the events consisting of a feminine competition of the violent British sport. And they say that feminism isn’t progressing. … (“O feminismo avança … Dois teams de senhoritas vão disputar um match de football,” 1931)

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Thus, soon after its establishment, Jornal dos Sports began to highlight discussions around women’s football. Not by chance, this first news article on the topic reports on Tenório de D’Albuquerque’s intentions to hold a “women’s battle,” introducing him as a “colleague.” This was not a random introduction. Tenório was part of Jornal dos Sport’s editorial staff and chief editor responsible for the boxing section. He was an important figure in sports at the time, as founder of the Boxing Commission, and as a writer and referee (“A nossa secção de box. Tenório de D’Albuquerque,” 1931). In the article, Jornal dos Sports announces that other matches had previously occurred, such as the event held by Vasco da Gama in 1929, which was, according to the newspaper, “a meeting of two football teams made up of gentle and lovely ladies.” Thus, the newspaper produces a discourse that draws attention to the incompatibility of the “gentle and charming” female body with the “violent British sport” and associates the presence of women in the field with the “advances of feminism.” We can understand that to the writers and editors of Jornal dos Sports, feminism signified the occupation of male spaces and the mimicry of male behaviours—Brazilian football was represented, constructed, and imagined as male territory. When producing the entry on “Sport” in the Critical Gender Dictionary, Goellner (2015) considers that the restrictions, impediments, and prohibitions imposed on women in sport are the result of a fear of their masculinisation and the damage such practices could cause to the female body. It is necessary to point out that the twentieth-­century concept of femininity, which in some social contexts persists today, was based on beauty, fragility, and motherhood. As the newspaper announced women’s football as a novelty in clubs in Rio de Janeiro, another element entered the field: the female body.

Football and the Female Body The meanings assigned to women’s bodies permitted them specific spaces and functions based on social and moral perceptions. The female body was educated to fulfil its social function, which was linked to marriage, motherhood, and submission. Colling (2014) notes that “representations

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of women have persisted over time and established the idea of the symbolic differences between the sexes” (p.  24). The home was the place assigned to the woman. To occupy public spaces and fraternise with men meant betraying a woman’s nature. As such, the limits of femininity as determined by men are ways of defining identity (Colling, 2014). Football, created by and for men, was seen as abnormal and inappropriate for the female body. By going beyond the limits of their “feminine nature,” that is, by distancing themselves from the private realm and strengthening the body for something other than motherhood, women became immoral and indecent, damaging the ideal of the “real woman.” In the first decades of the twentieth century in Rio de Janeiro, playing football for women was deemed inappropriate conduct. In its notice about the match organised by Tenório de D’Albuquerque, Jornal dos Sports reinforces the feminine and philanthropic characteristics of the games played to date. That is, at specific moments, the practice of football by women was related to philanthropy, in events to demonstrate beautiful, desirable feminine traits, and not necessarily about enjoyment of the sport itself. Although women were encouraged to do physical exercise since the nineteenth century, particularly gymnastics (Goellner, 2003; Schpun, 1999), when women entered the field of football, it triggered intense debate. Physical exercise developed for the female body was founded on the triad: health, strength, and beauty (Camargo, 2020). To curious onlookers and supporters of women’s football, the beauty and grace of the female players, which was commented on exhaustively, made up for their lack of technique. The game took on the function of spectacle. If football was an activity in which women could participate, there was nevertheless an explicit need for constant surveillance of the bodies that entered the field.

“Women Thrilling the Association” On 30 April 1931, the same match organised by Tenório de D’Albuquerque was again announced. In this new announcement, Jornal dos Sports reminded its readers about the event. The subheading of the report states

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that: “Next Sunday, at the Brasil F.C. field, two female teams will play a football match.” The report is printed on the second page, next to the column “Suggestions and complaints” in the Jornal dos Sports editorial. Using the title “BRAZILIAN WOMEN thrilling the ‘association’,” the newspaper uses capital letters to draw attention to the words “women” and “Brazilian.” The text goes on to provide details about the festival, its location, and the women players: Suburban sportsmen will watch next Sunday an interesting football match between charming gentlewomen. As part of a festival organized by the Brasil Football Club, affiliated with the second division of Amea,2 there will be, on the pitch at Sá Street, in Piedade and in honour of Dr. Octavio Ferreira Pinto, a match between the teams named Mme. Helena Alves and Mme. Aldino Macedo, which are made up as follows: HELENA ALVES— Eurice, Cecilia and Izaura; Odette, Linica and Antonietta; Helia, Pequenina, Yolanda, Ocirema and Nicinha. ALDINO MACEDO—Zinah, Maria de Lourdes and Aldevia; Magdalena, Ivandina and Joanna; Zuleika, Adelia, Lindalia, Shopia and Adalgiza. In order to put on a good show, these teams have already practiced among themselves, and will do so again later this week. As you can see, on Sunday feminism will provide new attractions for the supporters of the “association” and … pretty girls too! (“A mulher brasileira empolgando o ‘association,’” 1931)

Jornal dos Sports associates the practice of football by women with the concept of feminism, which as stated above is understood in this context as the occupation of male spaces and the imitation of men. Therefore, according to Jornal dos Sports, feminism offered not only new sensations for the public, but also “pretty girls” who entered the field. Women’s football matches took place in the suburbs of Rio de Janeiro, that is, in neighbourhoods where mostly low-income residents resided (Bonfim, 2019). In these neighbourhoods, several clubs were formed that introduced the practice of football to community members, and in so doing, football was no longer restricted to the city’s elite. Thus, men and women  The Metropolitan Association of Athletic Sports (AMEA) was created on 1 March 1924, after a split with the Metropolitan League of Land Sports, and was composed of five elite Rio clubs: America, Bangu, Botafogo, Flamengo, and Fluminense. 2

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who lived a long way from the big sports clubs began to practice and enjoy the game (Bonfim, 2019; Silva, 2020). The absence of last names and the use of nicknames when referring to female players, for example, Linica, Pequenina, and Nicinha, enables us to consider that the games held in the suburbs of Rio de Janeiro had among their players not only upper- or middle-class white women—who were always announced with their surname and, often with the name and occupation of their husband—but also black and lower-class working women who lived in the suburbs. By the 1930s, football had reached new spaces and the press was not limited to covering only the games of elite clubs, thus translating the daily practice of sport into marginalised areas (Bonfim, 2019; Pereira, 1997). At first, women’s football in central and suburban regions of Rio de Janeiro seems to correspond to the interests of Jornal dos Sports, which disseminated the events widely in the year 1931. The same year brought about new meanings for women’s football in Brazil, with the teams Mme. Helena Alves and Mme. Aldino Macedo, affiliated with Brasil Suburban F.C., playing a leading role in the sport. Nevertheless, the newspaper’s intentions in publicising women’s football were not linked to efforts to normalise this activity in Rio de Janeiro, but rather to generate news that would attract the readers’ curiosity, aiming at increasing newspaper sales. However, what once seemed to “thrill the association,” as the newspaper itself advertised, did not continue in subsequent editions of Jornal dos Sports. Between 1932 and 1939, the silencing of the practice of women’s football was widespread in the press in Rio de Janeiro. We did not identify any source that discusses the causes of the seven-year gap in reporting on women’s football in the city’s press. Nevertheless, we cannot affirm that the practice of women’s football ceased during this period, and this point offers an interesting topic that can be explored in future research. Even the press that was favourable to the participation of “ladies” in the “British sport,” with the appropriate precautions taken, began to make women in the field invisible. Interestingly, the silence around women’s football did not mean the exclusion of women entirely from sport. Women could still be seen in the stands, in the clubs’ beauty pageants, and practising several other types of sport.

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 he Silencing of Women’s Football T and Visibility as Supporters Although the mention of female football players disappeared from editions of the newspaper for a long period of time, Jornal dos Sports made an effort to represent women as supporters of the games, in the stands, and as enthusiasts of male sport. The female fan was portrayed by the newspaper as beautiful, graceful, enthusiastic, and passionate about sport and her team (a role compatible with her nature). The way women were represented in Jornal dos Sports defined the space permitted to them in football. As players, women were presented as an “imitation of men,” but as fans they expressed passion for their teams, frequenting the stands, but always accompanied by male relatives. The women who attended games were represented in the Jornal dos Sports as fans. In the pages of the newspaper, a women’s connection to her club was made evident. However, from 1932 on, the representation of the female fan became more prominent. We emphasise that the period of silencing in Jornal dos Sports is not necessarily associated with the disappearance of women’s football in Rio de Janeiro. Although reports disappeared from the newspaper, it is impossible to say conclusively that the practice vanished from the field.

 omen’s Football and Its Prohibition W in the 1940s On 28 December 1939, Jornal dos Sports published the results of the games held at the Bento Ribeiro Football Club festival. Mentioned in the report is a match between two women’s teams, Bento Ribeiro and Blue-­ White. According to the article, the match ended in a scoreless draw (Festival do Bento Ribeiro Football Club, 1939). Although it provides few details, the article marks a return to publications about women’s football in Jornal dos Sports. In another article published in March 1940, the Brasileiro Soccer Club (S.C.) included its female team in a previously mentioned festival

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organised by Frei Miguel F.C., that would take place at Cassino Realengo field. In this event, “several women’s teams took part.” By 1940, teams known to the public through news published in Jornal dos Sports included Independente Athletic Club (A.C.), Bento Ribeiro, Brasileiro S.C., Cassino Realengo, Eva F.C., Valqueire F.C., and Primavera F.C. More than merely publishing about women’s football games, Jornal dos Sports began to organise and promote it. On 13 March 1940, the newspaper released a commemorative note celebrating nine years of circulation. Included in the anniversary programme was a thanksgiving Mass and a “women’s football” match: Concluding the celebrations for another year of Jornal dos Sports, a women’s football game will be held at the S.C.  Tavares field, for the “Mario Rodrigues Filho Cup.” This match will also inaugurate the reflectors installed in the S.C.  Tavares stadium. (“Nove anos que apontam a consciência de um dever cumprido,” 1940)

The article is entitled “The sensational matches of women’s football.” The use of the adjective sensational when referring to women’s football draws our attention. The matches reported by Jornal dos Sports in 1931 were generally advertised as “curious disputes” and/or linked to “the progress of feminism.” The change of language in the title signals the newspaper’s intentions to create and (re)affirm new representations of women’s football. In other words, there is a movement from the perception of the sport as exclusively for men, in which women players were represented more by the ideal of beauty, femininity, and gracefulness, to different representations that valued the practice of the sport by women. It is important to highlight that the practice of football by women is an achievement of those who fought against stigmas and stereotypes throughout history. At this point, women’s football gained significant space in the field of sport. In April 1940, Jornal dos Sports announced a match between Eva F.C. and the Brasilian F.C. and added that the teams “always attract a large number of fans to the games” (“Teams femininos na preliminar,” 1940). Women’s football matches began to be held beyond the suburbs of

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Rio de Janeiro and spread to other Brazilian states, such as São Paulo and Minas Gerais. The announcement of “sensational matches,” games held in Minas Gerais and São Paulo, and the notable presence of a “large number of fans” all demonstrate an interesting scenario for women’s football in Brazil. Moura (2003) argues that “it seemed that women’s football definitively ‘planted’ its base in the suburbs of Rio de Janeiro and, from there, reached other social strata” (p. 37). The articles published in Jornal dos Sports present a favourable discourse for the practice of women’s football in 1940, although the newspaper’s position was based on ideological viewpoints and commercial interests. While women’s football got significant publicity, it was not exempt from criticism. The opinions of sports journalists and medical professionals were not homogeneous. There were those in favour and those against. Amidst the contradictory opinions surrounding the practice of women’s football, in 1940 a debate occurred about the regulation of sport in Brazil. Football was presented not only as an issue for the field of sport, but also the state. During the authoritarian government of President Getúlio Vargas (Estado Novo, 1937–1945), sport was seen as a tool for disciplining bodies and encouraging eugenics. The political appropriations of sport, especially football, succeeded through direct state intervention in sport practice. That said, in 1941, a nationwide systematisation of sport emerged through Law Decree 3199. Responding to the intense debates around women’s football, Article 54 of the decree determined that “Women shall not be allowed to practice sport incompatible with their nature, and for this purpose the National Sport Council shall issue the necessary instructions to the country’s sport entities.”3 Thus, it was up to the newly created National Sport Council to determine the sport activities that were appropriate for the “fragile sex.” In the 4 September 1941 issue of Jornal dos Sports, the instructions that would regulate the practice of “female” sports were published on the front page. According to the report, women could neither “play football nor boxing!”  Available from: http://www.planalto.gov.br/ccivil_03/decreto-lei/1937-1946/Del3199.htm. Accessed on 3 January 2019.

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(“A mulher não pode jogar o football nem o box!,” 1941). That is, football was an unacceptable activity for women.

Conclusion The reflections discussed in this chapter contribute to gender studies and analyses of the practice of women’s football in Brazil, and specifically in the city of Rio de Janeiro in the first decades of the twentieth century. We understand that football and sport in general are social constructions and are permeated with representations of the society in which they are created and played. In Brazil, women’s football experienced resistance from society that continues to this day, as it has historically been represented as a man’s sport. Such representations are indications of a society and country built on the aegis of patriarchy. The first indications of, and journalistic records on, the practice of women’s football date back to the first decade of the twentieth century. Based on the analysed source, Jornal dos Sports, which was published in the city of Rio de Janeiro beginning in 1931, we can see that the newspaper at times encouraged women to practise sport, at others it silenced and made their participation invisible, particularly in football. Jornal dos Sports, a means of communication that circulated among the political and economic elite of the time, documented the participation of women in the football field and produced representations of the female body, above all based on the moralistic views of a predominantly sexist society. Playing football in the first decades of the twentieth century in Rio de Janeiro was a form of resistance. The players had to confront representations that they were unfit for football, as their bodies were fragile and incompatible with the sport. Nevertheless, women took the lead in their own stories and of their own bodies and demonstrated that, from the twentieth century until today, women can play football.

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References A mulher brasileira empolgando o “association”. (1931, April). Jornal dos Sports. Rio de Janeiro, Anno I, 40, 2. A mulher não pode jogar o football nem o box! (1941, September). Jornal dos Sports. Rio de Janeiro, Anno XI, 3701, 1. D’Albuquerque, T.  A nossa secção de box. (1931). Jornal dos Sports. Rio de Janeiro, Anno I, 20, 5. Festival do Bento Ribeiro football club. (1939, December). Jornal dos Sports. Rio de Janeiro, December 1939, Anno IX, 1283, 5. Nove anos que apontam a consciência de um dever cumprido. (1940, March). Jornal dos Sports. Rio de Janeiro, Anno X, 3246, 4. O feminismo avança… Dois teams de senhoritas vão disputar um match de football. (1931, April). Jornal dos Sports. Rio de Janeiro, Anno I, 33, 2. Teams femininos na preliminar. (1940, April). Jornal dos Sports. Rio de Janeiro, Anno X, 3282, 6. Barros, J. D’A. (2013). Prefácio. In V. A. de Melo, M. Drumond, R. Fortes, & J.  M. C.  M. Santos (Eds.), Pesquisa histórica e história do esporte (pp. 11–19). 7 Letras. Bonfim, A.  F. (2019). Football Feminino entre festas esportivas, circos e campos suburbanos: uma história social do futebol praticado por mulheres da introdução à proibição (1915–1941) (Unpublished Masters dissertation). Escola de Ciências Sociais da Fundação Getulio Vargas, Rio de Janeiro. Bourdé, G., & Martin, H. (2018). As Escolas Históricas. Autêntica Editora. Camargo, W. X. de. (2020). Dimensões de gênero e os múltiplos futebóis no Brasil. In S. S. Giglio & M. W. Proni (Eds.), O futebol nas Ciências Humanas no Brasil (pp. 589–604). Editora da Unicamp. Capelato, M. H. (1988). Imprensa e História do Brasil. C/EDUSP. Capelato, M. H., & Prado, M. L. (1980). O Bravo Matutino. Imprensa e Ideologia: o jornal O Estado de São Paulo. Alfa-Omega. Chartier, R. (1990). Por uma sociologia histórica das práticas culturais. In A história cultural: entre práticas e representações (pp. 13–28). Difel. Chartier, R. (2011). Defesa e ilustração da noção de representação. Fronteiras, 13(24), 15–29. Coelho, F. (2014). Entre o Bem e o Mal: representações do MST sobre os presidentes FHC e Lula (1995–2010) (Unpublished doctoral thesis). Universidade Federal da Grande Dourados, Dourados. Colling, A. M. (2014). Tempos diferentes, discursos iguais: a construção histórica do corpo feminino. UFGD.

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Couto, A. A. G. (2011). A hora e a vez dos esportes: a criação do Jornal dos Sports e a consolidação da imprensa esportiva no Rio de Janeiro (1931–1950) (Unpublished Masters dissertation). Universidade do Estado do Rio de Janeiro, São Gonçalo. Goellner, S. V. (2003). Bela, maternal e feminina: imagens da mulher na Revista Educação Physica. Unijuí. Goellner, S.  V. (2015). Esporte. In A.  M. Colling & L.  A. Tedeschi (Eds.), Dicionário Crítico de Gênero (pp. 212–215). UFGD. Hollanda, B.  B. de, & Melo, V.  A. (Eds.). (2012). O esporte na imprensa e a imprensa esportiva no Brasil. Editora 7 Letras. Kessler, C. S. (2015). Mais que barbies e ogras: uma etnografia do futebol de mulheres no Brasil e nos Estados Unidos (Unpublished doctoral thesis). Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul, Porto Alegre. Luca, T. R. (2005). História dos, nos e por meio dos periódicos. In C. B. Pinsky (Ed.), Fontes históricas (pp. 111–153). Contexto. Luca, T. R. (2008). A Grande Imprensa na Primeira Metade do Século XX. In T.  R. Luca & A.  L. Martins (Eds.), História da Imprensa no Brasil (pp. 149–175). Contexto. Moura, E.  J. L. (2003). As relações entre lazer, futebol e gênero (Unpublished Master’s dissertation). Unicamp, Campinas. Pereira, L. A. M. (1997). Sobre confetes, chuteiras e cadáveres: a massificação cultural no Rio de Janeiro de Lima Barreto. Projeto História, 14, 231–241. Pinsky, C. B. (2009). Estudos de Gênero e História Social. Revista estudos feministas, 17(1), 159–191. Pisani, M. S. (2020). Gênero: um conceito útil para a análise esportiva e futebolística. In C. S. Kessler, L. Costa, & M. S. Pisani (Eds.), As mulheres no universo do futebol brasileiro (pp. 317–335). Editora da UFSM. Reis, J. C. (2004). Escola dos Annales: a Inovação em História (2nd ed.). Paz e Terra. Reis, J. C. (2010). O Desafio Historiográfico. Editora da FGV. Schpun, M.  R. (1999). Beleza em Jogo: cultura física e comportamento em São Paulo nos anos 20. Boitempo. Scott, J. (1995). Gênero: uma categoria de análise histórica. Educação e Realidade, 20(2), 71–99. Silva, K. K. P. (2020). O jogo das letras: práticas esportivas e futebol de mulheres nas páginas do Jornal dos Sports (1931–1941). CRV. Tedeshi, L. A. (2012). As mulheres e a história: uma introdução teórico-metodológica. Editora da UFGD. Veiga, A. M., & Pedro, J. M. (2015). Gênero. In A. M. Colling & L. A. Tedeschi (Eds.), Dicionário Crítico de Gênero (pp. 330–333). Editora da UFGD.

4 Experiences of the Football Practiced by Women in Brazil: From Its Origin to Its Regulation (1915–1983) Giovana Capucim e Silva and Aira Bonfim

Introduction It is safe to say that the Brazilian nationality is associated with football. However, something remains unclear. To this day, the history of Brazilian football mostly gives an account of men’s performance. Media narratives still leave their public in the dark on women’s practices. Recent research has started to uncover this history. This essay aims to show incidents, figures, clubs, and places that unveil the public and ongoing practice of women’s football in Brazil, from its initial milestones to the year of the late legalization of this sport, in 1983. Stories of female players belong to the complex set of narratives that constitute the History of Football in Brazil. When, despite serious bans, we recognize women as historical G. Capucim e Silva (*) University of São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil e-mail: [email protected] A. Bonfim Independent Researcher, São Paulo, Brazil e-mail: [email protected] © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2022 J. Knijnik, A. Costa (eds.), Women’s Football in Latin America, New Femininities in Digital, Physical and Sporting Cultures, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-07976-4_4

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subjects in football, we broaden the historiographical discourse in a more generous and extensive way (Rago, 1995). Notwithstanding that the history of women football has been reckoned to be “non-existent” or “incipient” until the 1980s, when their practice apparently started, the following paragraphs will show a sequence of events that reveals great and diverse sport experiences in the 1970s, that is, before women’s football was legalized in Brazil, as well as historical sources confirming that Brazilian women were introduced into football over one hundred years ago. Evidence shows that there was an expansive number of women’s football matches in the late 1930s, that is, months before the enforcement of decree-law of 1941, a federal bill that prohibited the practice of women’s football and hindered its development over the following forty years. Since the primary sources used in this study are little known, they will help demystify the idea that Brazilian women’s football supposedly had no tradition and had been of little interest to the female public since its introduction into the country in the late nineteenth century. The silence surrounding the history of women (Perrot, 2008) raises questions on where to find and how to access sources on this topic. We therefore chose to use the most relevant mainstream media outlets of each period as our main sources for this study. These outlets are sourced and cited in this essay. Given the country’s continental size, diversity, and social inequality, we decided to use sources from Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo, since these two states are Brazil’s most important economic and media production centers. Thus, we explored physical and digital files and searched for news on women who played football in Brazil prior to and during the ban. These instances were then mapped, organized, and analyzed within the context of the discourses of that time, and the social significance of women’s bodies and football was put into perspective. This essay presents some highlights of the research that gives an overview of to what degree Brazilian women of different social groups, who joined the practice, were involved in various historical moments, playing distinct roles.

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The 1910s and 1920s: The Early Years The first historical signs of the phenomenon “women’s football” (newspapers in the 1910s and 1920s still used the English word “football,” feminino) in Brazil trace back to the aristocratic circles that supported the sport centers that were on the rise then, and to clubs that belonged to the very same elite that had introduced football for men. However, the initial milestones for men’s football in Brazil emphasize that its official status is/ was a criterion for its historical visibility. Pioneering figures, such as Brazilians Charles Miller (born to John Miller, a Scottish railway engineer, and Carlota Fox, a Brazilian woman of English descent) and Oscar Cox (son of an English father and a Brazilian mother from Rio de Janeiro), and Thomas Donohue, a Scottish dye worker in a textile factory in the gritty Bangu district of Rio de Janeiro, are consistently named as “fathers of football” (Mills, 2005, p. 73; Pereira, 1998). They were not the only ones in Brazil, but their biographies are favored, since they were acknowledged in several records of the first clubs they founded and of the first football leagues in the 1890s. As public figures they were recognized by the elite in their cities (São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro) and provided game experiences that came closer to the official international play regulations available at that time. The late organization of women’s football was not due to lack of interest and initiatives by Brazilian female players but to the fact that, with the endorsement of renowned sport clubs, the state excluded women from the official sport structure.1 The lack of an official status for football matches played by Brazilian women in the early twentieth century is yet another point of interest regarding women’s sense of belonging and recognition in the sports arena. Women’s football did not evolve to be a competitive sport through the official means of that time. One could compare the way women were introduced into football to children’s and teenagers’ athletic experiences, such as boys playing football on the street, in school and church grounds, in clubs and at sport festivities (Brown & Lanci, 2016; Gulart, 2014). Nevertheless, Bonfim (2019) recently  About the marginal position of women players in sports, see Knijnik and Vasconcellos (2003); Franzini (2005); and Goellner (2005).

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uncovered new evidence that women were introduced to football in Brazil as early as 1915, and new research efforts may reveal even older sources. For many years, the announcement of a match “between young ladies” of Tremembé and Cantareira—two districts of the city of São Paulo— held in 1921,2 was cited by researchers, institutions, and sport media as the starting point of women’s football in Brazil. However, recent research, such as that conducted by Bonfim (2019), has revealed earlier and scattered public events of women playing football, for example, in clubs of Rio de Janeiro, such as Villa Isabel F.C. (1915),3 Progresso F.C. (1919),4 C.R.  Flamengo (1919),5 and River S.C. (1919),6 which already had mixed teams or girls playing against boys as part of their Sunday sport activities. There is also evidence of Brazilian women playing football among themselves in clubs, such as Helios A.C. (1920),7 C.R. Vasco da Gama (1923),8 S.C. Celeste (1923),9 and São Cristóvão A.C. (1929).10 It should be noted that the year 1920 witnessed the formation of many women’s football teams in Europe, where girls had already been playing football since the end of the nineteenth century. It is estimated that in France alone nearly 150 groups played football in 1920 (Doble, 2017; Williams & Hess, 2015). La Fédération des sociétés féminines sportives de France had been founded years earlier, and among other things established a partnership between French female athletes and the pioneers of women’s football, the English female players. The meeting led to the first international women’s football match between England and France, which was held in Preston in 1920 and attracted 25,000 spectators.

 June 26, 1921. Um jogo de futebol entre senhoritas. A Gazeta, 2.  November 26, 1915. Untitled. A Época, 4; December 3, 1920. Untitled. A Rua: Semanario Illustrado, 5. 4  April 12, 1919. Untitled. O Dia, 5. 5  June 14, 1919. Um festival no Flamengo. Jornal de Theatro & Sport, 24. 6  December 10, 1919. Untitled. O Imparcial, 8. 7  (1920, December 8). Untitled. O Imparcial, 8; (1920, December 8). Untitled. O Paiz, 7. 8  (1923, September 1). Untitled. Careta,16. 9  (1923, November 16). Untitled. Correio da Manhã, 7. 10  (1929, May 14). O S. Christóvão feminino venceu o Vasco feminino por 2X0. A Manhã, 9. 2 3

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This match, which took place on the Chelsea F.C. pitch, received a full-page feature in the Brazilian magazine Vida Sportiva of July 1920.11 The article brought little-known images of women’s football to Brazil, gave special mention to captains Macgnemond and Kell, as well as to a save by French goalkeeper Fémina Sport and to a scene of the match. In the 1920s, Brazilian newspapers began to report more and more on women playing football in other countries. Aside from the pictures of international female players published in the Brazilian press, in 1920 Vida Sportiva also invested in several covers featuring sportswomen, two of which dedicated to women’s football. The first of these covers showed the caricature of a female football player wearing the jersey of Botafogo Futebol Clube12 (Rio de Janeiro), and the second featured a picture of the women’s team of ABC Sport Clube from Natal, Rio Grande do Norte.13 The latter state is located in the northeast region of Brazil, distant from Rio de Janeiro, but with a thriving and growing sport scene. In 1920s it was a well-known fact that female fans and members of the Club de Regatas Vasco da Gama,14 Rio de Janeiro, already had been playing football in public since 1923 (Bonfim, 2019). In 1929, during the preliminary match between the men’s teams of São Christovão A.C. and Bangu A.C.,15 the public got to watch a charity football match in the popular Laranjeiras Stadium, Rio de Janeiro, where the girls played against female fans of São Christovão Athletic Club. Recent research confirms that, even if only occasionally, women played football in Brazil in the 1920s, a time when regular championships and matches for men sparked the interest in the sport and made it popular even among Brazilian women.

 July 24, 1920. Match de futebol feminino entre a França e a Inglaterra. Vida Sportiva, 19.  February 21, 1920. Vida Sportiva, 1. 13  March 20, 1920. Vida Sportiva, 1. 14  September 01, 1923. Careta, 16. 15  May 11, 1929. O Paiz, 8. 11 12

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The 1930s and 1940s: The Girls Are Playing In the 1930s, men’s football started to become an important element in the construction of identity and social bonds by mobilizing new spectators and players in the outskirts of the city of Rio de Janeiro. Throughout the 1930s, women’s football events in the amateur sport scene had been considered new or were little known. However, such events slowly started to spark the interest of sport associations in the outer areas (Costa, 2017). The recurrence, especially in 1939 and 1940, of sporting events in which women practiced a male-dominated sport in public contributed to the expansion of gender boundaries in the sport, and broadened and complicated what was known as the social history of Brazilian football (Bonfim, 2019). Outside the frame of the official organization of Brazilian football, mobilized by the big leagues and sport clubs run by men and where only men played, women’s football—a practice still unknown to the football elite—started to grow and emerge in marginal sport programs. Satellite and low-income districts of Rio de Janeiro, such as Engenho de Dentro,16 Piedade,17 Benfica,18 Cascadura,19 and Realengo,20 launched their female players through over fifteen female teams (Bonfim, 2019). It should be stressed that the outskirts of Rio de Janeiro encompass a complex, multifaceted society with diverse ways of life, including workers, people of the new middle class employed in retailers, public servants, as well as impoverished migrants from the north and northeast and people of color coming from other regions of Brazil. In 1940, names, pictures, and districts of these female players started to be featured in the most popular newspapers of Rio de Janeiro.21 Remaining undefeated—something that still is dear to amateur football today—became a competitive advantage, as well as the technical playing  June 24, 1930. A Esquerda, 5.  April 10, 1931. O Jornal, 10. 18  December 07, 1939. Actividades nos pequenos clubs. O Jornal, 12, 7. 19  April 8, 1940. A Noite, 30. 20  May 25, 1939. A Noite, 8. 21  March 3, 1940. Jornal dos Sports. 16 17

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abilities of female players22 (best player, best goalkeeper, and top scorer). Back then, sport reporters preferred to cover the many amateur men’s football championships in the city’s outskirts. These events held outside the range of the programming of elite clubs in Rio de Janeiro made for stories and sold newspapers. Sponsors interested in promoting their brands during women’s matches showed their support through awards, tributes, and direct investments in sporting activities with women.23 Female players, for example, from Casino do Realengo F.C., S.C.  Brasileiro or A.C.  Primavera, already received gifts or were paid24 at each new tour or public presentation enabled through football. As per these sources, women received chocolate, parties, a pair of new shoes, or trips. Historical sources indicate that, judging from the consistency with which women’s matches were held, female players also had the dream of being financially independent and ascending socially through football, a common and increasing aspiration shared with the population living in the city’s outskirts.

 he Year 1941: Football Is Inappropriate T for Women and Banned in Brazil The image of Brazilian female players—Black, poor, of mixed ethnic origin, and living in outskirt areas—was widespread throughout Rio de Janeiro, but not only there. On May 17, 1940, the then recently opened Pacaembu stadium, in São Paulo, hosted a match with two teams from Rio de Janeiro.25 Women’s football teams toured cities in the state of São Paulo, for example, Santos,26 and in other states, for example Juiz de

 March 14, 1940. Mais uma victoria das “meninas” do Casino do Realengo FC. O Radical, 7.  Example of the football match ‘Anitta D’Angelo Cup’ named after the wife of a Sudanese cigarette factory owner that sponsored the event with female players. June 9, 1940. Jornal dos Sports, 4. 24  The survey conducted by newspapers identified that players of the city outskirts were paid from Rs 10$000 to Rs 15$000 (converted to today’s currency, approx. R$ 1,230—R$ 1,845) per sporting exhibition. January 11, 1941. A Noite, 3. 25  April 6, 1940. Football feminino no “Pacaembú.” O Radical, 6. 26  May 18, 1940. Correio Paulistano, 8. 22 23

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Fora27 and Belo Horizonte28 in Minas Gerais. In early 1941, Primavera, a women’s football team, was invited to perform at an international level in cities such as Buenos Aires (Argentina), Montevideo (Uruguay), and Santiago de Chile (Chile). The visibility brought by the many public appearances of women playing football in Rio de Janeiro and outside, as well as the large amount of news coverage by different sports reporters were crucial for newspapers from São Paulo and Rio and sport entities to intensify a campaign that publicly demoralized women’s football (Bonfim, 2019). The public confrontational attitudes towards this type of football were indicative of escalating conflicts in regards to gender, race, and the social structures that were conceived for Brazilian men and women. Part of the press, such as the newspapers A Batalha, O Radical, Jornal dos Sports, and Correio Paulistano, which made an effort to promote women’s football, also reinforced gender stereotypes commonly attributed to women such as “charm,” “grace,” or “sensuality,”29 as mentioned in Costa (2017). Other press reports—based on the opinion of physicians, managers, or other figures of the sport or scientific community—were radically opposed to the practice of football by women, since they considered the sport to be harmful to women’s aesthetics and health.30 Thus, in the 1940s, women were not denied the right to practice physical activities, as long as they did not involve any kind of intense physical contact or excessive effort. Women—constituted in opposition to male otherness—besides being wives and mothers, “should” also be responsible for bearing strong and healthy children for their fatherland. Those were two opposing models, as suggested by the press, when it considered the practice of football by women a violent and masculinizing sport, which, according to physicians, would jeopardize the female players’ chances of becoming mothers (Goellner, 2005). Franzini (2000) presents several other documents published by the press and written by physicians and physical education teachers, according to which women had to be  September 27, 1940. Jornal dos Sports, 5.  June 6, 1940. As filhas da Eva em Bello Horizonte. O Radical. 29  May 16, 1940. Untitled. O Radical, 7. 30  May 9, 1940. Untitled. O Radical, 9. 27 28

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“protected” from the possible harm of playing football to their bodies and to their morality, which in both cases diverted them from motherhood. Laqueur (2001) examines the factors that motivated changes in how we perceive different bodies and how this impacted the social construction of gender roles. He thereby demonstrates that, however sexes have been understood throughout history, it is always situational and permeated by political interests that steer scientific research. He further demonstrates that, like other sciences, biology is not disconnected from the society in which it is produced and, therefore, is influenced in all its research phases by social-cultural, political, and ideological factors. Likewise, biological knowledge is built while being influenced by aspects that are not limited to the scientific field and that seek to validate what is of interest to hegemonic political and social groups at that time. During the 1940s, though, it was this biological knowledge that presented the “scientific evidence” to support the ban of women’s football across the country In 1941, the National Sport Council (Conselho Nacional de Desportos, CND), which was a governmental body under the authority of the Ministry of Health and Education during the Estado Novo period (1937–1945), published Decree no. 3199, issued by President Getúlio Vargas. The purpose of this decree was to control the national sport and the development of its activities in the country. At the same time, it also strengthened the social role that was expected of women by responding to those railing against women’s football in the press. The regulation also warned that the same would happen to other sports that eventually undermined conservative morality. Paragraph 54 of the decree stated that “women shall not be allowed to practice sports that are incompatible with their nature; for this purpose, the National Sport Council shall issue necessary instructions to the country’s sport entities.” This concept of “nature” coincided with the expectation that women should bear and raise strong children for the nation, according to the civic values of the Estado Novo dictatorship (Goellner, 2005). The notion of a “female nature,” which was used by the legislation and the media narratives to justify the ban prohibiting women’s football matches, is a social and cultural construction—there is no universal biological nature—and can, therefore, be deconstructed and reconstructed.

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Furthermore, the Brazilian ban prohibiting women from practicing any sport considered not to be adequate to the female nature was not restricted to the tropics. On the contrary, it was connected to a European mentality (Devide, 2005; Knijnik, 2010; Rubio, 2011), according to which this attitude was deemed absolutely fitting and even desirable by the powers that be, such as international organizations, culture, society, medicine, and the Brazilian state. The unease that the presence of women would cause in public spaces was a quite complex issue. As intersectional studies indicate (Davis, 2016), gender is not the only determining factor for what is considered socially adequate or inadequate, right or wrong for that body. Skin color, family of origin, being married or single were some of the factors that carried weight. Upon reviewing the bibliography on the first decades of this century in Brazil, we notice a clear difference: some of the newspapers in circulation saw the increased presence of women in public spaces as a sign of the country’s modernization. Others—the majority—invoked moral codes to justify its unsuitability (Bonfim, 2019; Franzini, 2000). Evidence shows that there were many instances in which women had gone on to the field to play football prior to 1941. However, while the press recognized men’s football as a game, it portrayed women’s football as something exceptional, spectacular, strange, different, and inappropriate. Over the four decades during which women’s football was banned in Brazil, the way football was perceived and played changed, as did the hegemony of the social roles of men and women. Changes also affected the forms of resistance and the spaces occupied by women who played football. In the press, their visibility varied according to different factors: media target audience, in which news section the sport was featured, who the female players were, as well as the approach given by journalists, who were mostly men, especially in sport periodicals.

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 he 1950s and 1960s: Did the Ban Succeed T in Ending Women’s Football? Recent research shows that, despite the ban, women’s teams continued playing in an irregular and scattered manner across the vast Brazilian territory. For instance, in 1950, Pelotas (Rio Grande do Sul) had female versions of the Corinthians Pelotense and Vila Hilda clubs. The new women’s sport registered significant ticket sales at the Bento Freitas Stadium, and toured other relevant cities of Brazil’s southernmost state— Rio Grande do Sul—such as Rio Grande, Novo Hamburgo, and Porto Alegre, the state’s capital city (Rigo et al., 2008). In the 1950s and 1960s, a new and specific type of women’s football emerges in the printed media: the charity matches. Given that this sort of press is the main source for this research, we cannot state that this was, in fact, the predominant way women played football, but it certainly was the format with the largest mainstream media coverage in São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro. One of these matches in particular stood out. It was 1959 and the match had been scheduled to take place at one of the most important professional football venues in Brazil: Pacaembu Stadium. The Casa do Ator, an important cultural performance venue in São Paulo, announced that it would promote a football match between vedettes31 from São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro. The purpose was to raise funds to build the Hospital dos Velhos Artistas, a sort of old-age care facility for retired artists, since they were neither entitled to a retirement pension nor did they have access to the public health system. The National Sport Council, the body responsible for enforcing the ban on women’s football, promptly tried to veto the event based on the aforementioned decree. Casa do Ator, on the other hand, argued that the event was a show and had no sporting objectives, since the game would be played by vedettes,  A vedette was the main female artist of the shows of a cabaret, such as the revues, a theatrical entertainment genre that was very popular in larger Brazilian cities in the first half of the twentieth century. Revues were multi-act musical spectacles, which frequently satirized social mores. Vedettes often performed in flashy and revealing costumes. Contrary to what was considered acceptable to other women, at that time, their bodies were deemed publicly accessible. In revue, some vedettes gained great fame and notoriety. Carmen Miranda was probably one of the genre’s most internationally known artists.

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which characterized it as circus performance and not a sporting event, and that it, therefore, did not fall within the entity’s scope of competence (G. C. Silva, 2017). This dispute went back and forth between courts until it was settled and made possible thanks to the support of businessman Lover Ibaixe, who funded the show. The show was covered by important national periodicals even outside the state of São Paulo, such as Jornal do Brasil and Jornal dos Sports from Rio de Janeiro. This marked the beginning of a broader news coverage of women playing in charity football matches, women who did not belong to the sport world (G. C. Silva, 2017). Over the following decade, several women’s charity matches were featured in the press. There was even a match between Guarani and Ponte Preta, two traditional clubs from Campinas, who were the protagonists of the greatest football derby played outside the city of São Paulo. It was one of the few occasions when clubs of professional male football organized such a match (G. C. Silva, 2017). The newspaper article reporting the match was concerned about the CND ban and about finding a strategy to circumvent any possible obstacles: “In order to camouflage it a little and not to stir CND up too much, there is always some mayhem between clowns and donations for some institution.”32 On later occasions, other matches played in other regions of Brazil by vedettes or for charity made the news, since they were not qualified as sport events. In some cases, the vedettes playing were already known to the public from the theatre. In other cases, the players were described as vedettes to circumvent the CND ban and allow for matches to be held between teams of women who wished to play (G. C. Silva, 2017). Charity football matches played by women, whether they were vedettes or not, would become significant in the upcoming decades. Small towns across Sao Paulo state, such as Apiaí, Águas da Prata, Águas de Lindóia, and Bernardino de Campos, organized these matches as part of their anniversary celebrations. According to Ribeiro (2018), after the wall of the state public school Padre José Senabre collapsed in 1968, thirty girls gathered to raise funds for this school located in Vespasiano, a small 7000 people town near Belo Horizonte (Minas Gerais). The club Independente  November 7, 1959. Untitled. O Estado de S. Paulo.,12.

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lent its facilities and donated the proceeds of the match to the rebuilding of the school’s wall. One set of jerseys was donated by Vespasiano Esporte Clube and a repair shop in town donated the other. The opposing team was, therefore, named after the repair shop (Ribeiro, 2018).

The 1970s: It Is All About Playing! Although charity football was an important tactic to circumvent the ban on women’s football in Brazil, this was not the only form this practice assumed in this period. Women’s resistance happened far away from traditional clubs, large stadiums, or densely populated areas, namely, overrated locations of large cities. In the city outskirts, they occupied spaces that in São Paulo are called várzeas (meadows or fields for amateur football), since they originally were located along some of the city’s rivers. Although várzeas have been pushed further and further away from the center of the urban area and towards its outer edges, they are still spaces of resistance to the neoliberal commodified “modern football” (D. M. Silva, 2013). This type of amateur football is played and upheld by people from a lower socioeconomic status. In general, teams were located in the northern and eastern regions of the city of São Paulo or in other towns of the Greater São Paulo area and the state’s inland. A team that stood out at that time was from the Associação Desportiva da Polícia Militar (Military Police Sport Association, ADPM). According to news articles published in Folha de São Paulo and in A Gazeta Esportiva,33 both from January 1979, besides having a large number of victories, the corporation was one of the institutions responsible for enforcing the law—that is, preventing women from playing—but they had a team that played and fought for legalization: Feminists? They say they are. They want to take the fight for equal rights for men and women onto the pitch and prove that ball, shorts and cleats should no longer be a male prerogative. 33  January 15, 1979. Essas feministas de calção e chuteiras. Folha de S. Paulo, 2; January 15, 1979. Elas calçam chuteiras. A Gazeta Esportiva, 2.

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I play football, because I like it. There are many activities that are much more violent and women do without suffering any prejudice. For example, I already played in the regional São Paulo handball team, but after suffering a severe injury I switched to football. The A.D.P.M. team has played for three years and their main objective is to have the women’s team recognized by the presidents of C.B.D.

In the second half of the 1970s, this as well as other teams consistently occupied the várzea. They produced outstanding sport performances and were often mentioned in amateur sport news, especially in A Gazeta Esportiva.34 This visibility in the media was an important factor towards the legalization of the sport. While in the city of São Paulo the várzeas were the most democratic and popular spaces for the growth of women’s football, Rio de Janeiro offered a different type of space that allowed women’s teams to flourish: the beaches. The city’s geography already sets well-defined territories: wealthy people live closer to the beaches, and the impoverished population on the surrounding hills. Therefore, the teams that flourished on Copacabana beach in the early 1980s were mainly made up of young middle-class white women from Zona Sul (southern region) or surrounding neighborhoods, which led to a rise in the popularity of beach sports and fitness culture. However, we cannot say that the beach spaces were not disputed by other women from other social spaces and strata. News media in 1976 reported recurrent matches that were played on the beaches and were organized by housekeepers, who lived in the city’s outskirts but came to the richer areas to work for families in the region. Most of them were Black, and they played after work, which was only after they had prepared, served, and cleaned up the dinner, hence matches started late, after 11 p.m. The author of Jornal do Brasil’s report, Mara Caballero—a woman!—explained, “Football on the beach35 is not part of a movement to liberate housekeepers in Leblon,” the wealthiest district of Rio de  A sport newspaper from São Paulo—the largest Brazilian city—that had a section on amateur sports, which consisted mostly of comments on várzea teams. 35  At that time, what we now call beach football was not regulated by any national or international organization, so the activity was a reproduction, a mimicry of football on the beach. 34

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Janeiro. She proceeded: “it is only for fun; nobody has a definite opinion about feminism.”36 This statement was an attempt to reassure the reader that there was no infringement of Rio de Janeiro’s intrinsic and implicit sociability codes, namely that the right to use the beach belonged exclusively to district residents and neither extended to their employees nor to people from other parts of town or of lower social classes (Cunha, 2002). That was not all that bothered the more conservative segment of society. The fact that women enjoyed themselves freely, playing football, was substantiated when a female player stated that they wanted to buy two sets of jerseys in order to play against the team of Rocinha, the largest Brazilian favela (slum). This was a clear indication that women with lower income encouraged a circuit of amateur teams. By the end of the 1970s, there were teams of women that played football simply for fun. They were not vedettes nor were they trying to raise funds for charity. They just wanted to enjoy themselves playing, like men had always done. In 1979, CND lifted the ban prohibiting women from playing and the regulation’s text read as follows: “Women will be allowed to practice sports in the way, modalities and conditions established by the international governing bodies of each sport, including in tournaments, pursuant provisions of this resolution.”37 However, since FIFA did not recognize women’s football, the sport continued being banned from stadiums and professional clubs.

The 1980s: Final Round In the 1980s, on the same beaches of Rio’s Zona Sul that are featured in pictures and movies, more precisely on the beach of Copacabana, many teams played with the endorsement of brands targeting the young public of Zona Sul, such as American Denim (clothes) and Montaigne (watches) (Almeida, 2013). The media started to sponsor tournaments and summer competitions of different beach sports, including men’s and women’s  January 29, 1976. Jornal do Brasil, 4.  Brasil, Conselho Nacional de Desportos (1981). Normas Básicas sobre Desportos. Portarias ministeriais 813/79, 877/79, 929/80, and 138/80. Deliberações 1976 to 1979.

36 37

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football. Female players did not always receive this money, which was paid to the clubs, such as the famous Esporte Clube Radar. This club had important sponsors, including a bank, and won most of its matches. It was so significant that even during the Brazilian ban on women’s football, its team went to Spain to play a series of friendly matches against Spanish teams, during the 1982 FIFA (Men’s) World Cup and returned undefeated. After the sport’s recognition, E.C.  Radar provided most of the female players called up for the first Brazilian women’s national team (1988). These Rio de Janeiro beach clubs gave rise to an important figure in the campaign to end the ban on women’s football. In 1982, the actress and then São Paulo’s city councilor Ruth Escobar promoted the Festival de Mulheres nas Artes (Women in Arts Festival), whose closing ceremony was supposed to be a football match between São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro teams. The festival’s organizers called Roseli Filardo, also known as “Rose do Rio,” to help establish the liaison between the teams and especially with the athletes from Rio de Janeiro. She was on a beach football team in Rio and chose the players that would represent Rio de Janeiro State in this match. The São Paulo team was under the responsibility of the Grupo de Ação Lésbico-Feminista (Lesbian Feminist Action Group, GALF), since the recently created Liga de Futebol Feminino de São Paulo (São Paulo Women’s Football League, LIFUFESP) did not want to get involved with feminist activism, and instructed its member teams to do the same (G. C. Silva, 2017). The organized amateur teams, as well as the várzea teams, chose to join LIFUFESP. GALF thereby organized the São Paulo “team” with lesbian women who were regulars in a downtown night club. The match was scheduled to take place at Morumbi Stadium—at the time one of the largest Brazilian football stadiums—and would be the opening for the men’s football match between São Paulo and Corinthians, two of the most famous Brazilian teams, which attracted nearly 100,000 fans. The police and CND tried to prevent the match from happening, but Ruth Escobar, the women involved in the festival, and players of a movement called Democracia Corinthiana (Corinthian Democracy)

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started negotiations and the match was finally held.38 In 1982, over twenty years after the match organized by Casa do Ator, women still played football in stadiums as vedettes. In a recent interview, Rose do Rio stated, “As female players, we could not play in any stadium. We were seen as vedettes, not as athletes. Nobody respected us as athletes.”39 This explains why, during negotiations, she suggested professional club managers should hold “a show (i.e., a match) of women’s football”40 in their stadiums. At this point, movements for the legalization of women’s football liaised with sectors of feminist and lesbian social movements. The match had great repercussions. It was covered by relevant São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro newspapers, such as Folha de S. Paulo, Jornal dos Sports, and O Globo. As a result of this match, Rose do Rio became an important leader for political liaisons with team managers, players, social movements, and even politicians, such as councilors, senators, and ministers. Her contribution was decisive in the lead up to the sport’s legalization in the first half of 1983 (G. C. Silva, 2017).

Conclusion: The End of a Starting Fight? In addition to discussing the damages that the forty-year ban on women’s football caused to the sport’s growth, this essay also highlights the challenges to the historicity of football practiced by Brazilian women. It is pressing to reorganize the historiography of Brazilian football. This has contributed to the collapse of the prejudiced arguments against women’s football that are still present in the early twenty-first century. The discovery and disclosure of narratives, biographies, and events featuring Brazilian women, dating back to the early twentieth century, breaks with the obsolete idea that women would neither be suited nor be interested  Interview given by Rose do Rio to Giovana Capucim e Silva as part of her doctoral research. July 22, 2019, Rio de Janeiro. 39  Interview given by Rose do Rio to Giovana Capucim e Silva as part of her doctoral research. July 22, 2019, Rio de Janeiro. 40  October 8, 1982. Palmeiras enfrenta um tabu. Folha de S. Paulo, 17. 38

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in football. It also challenges the account that the sport supposedly started only in the 1980s. Despite the ban, women never stopped playing football. Over time, depending on their social origin—social stratum, skin color, place of residence—their access to the sport changed. Charity matches were also a form of resistance. They were only permitted because they no longer had sport performance characteristics and because they sought a larger goal than their final result, namely amateur matches in the outskirts of São Paulo and on the beaches of Rio de Janeiro. Due to the effects of second-­ wave feminism and a broader concept of what it meant to be a woman, they could play football just for fun, even if that meant playing where a large part of society would not see them. Visibility is, in fact, key to the history of women’s football in Brazil. We should not forget that women only played in the outskirts of Rio de Janeiro until they took Pacaembu by storm. The stadium was decisive for the political project of that time and for professional men’s football. The gradual increase in the visibility of football played by women on the famous beaches of Rio’s Zona Sul led to them being invited to play in the Morumbi Stadium in São Paulo, in a preliminary match, which was decisive to the sport’s legalization. Although the research has uncovered much about women’s football in Brazil, we are still only at the beginning, and have more questions than answers regarding its past. The history of the country’s most popular sport is still under construction, and is anything but predictable. On the contrary, it is filled with ban infringements and collective and individual achievements by Brazilian women.

References Almeida, C. S. de (2013). Boas de Bola: um estudo sobre o ser jogadora de futebol no Esporte Clube Radar durante a década de 1980 [Unpublished master’s thesis]. Federal University of Santa Catarina. Bonfim, A. F. (2019). Football Feminino entre festas esportivas, circos e campos suburbanos: uma história social do futebol praticado por mulheres da introdução

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à proibição (1915–1941) [Unpublished master’s thesis]. Centro de Pesquisa e Documentação de História Contemporânea do Brasil (CPDOC). Brown, M., & Lanci, G. (2016). Football and urban expansion in São Paulo, Brazil, 1880–1920. Sport in History, 36(2), 162–189. Conselho Nacional de Desportos. (1981). Normas Básicas sobre Desportos. Portarias ministeriais 813/79, 877/79, 929/80 e 138/80. Deliberações 1976 a 1979. Costa, L. M. (2017). O futebol feminino nas décadas de 1940 a 1980. Revista do Arquivo Geral da Cidade do Rio de Janeiro, 13, 493–507. Cunha, M. O. G. d. (2002). O Bonde do Mal: Notas sobre território, cor, violência e juventude. In Y. Maggie & C. B. Rezende (Eds.), Raça como Retórica, a construção da diferença (pp. 83–153). Editora Civilização Brasileira. Davis, A. (2016). Mulheres, raça e classe. Boitempo. Devide, F. P. (2005). Gênero e mulheres no esporte: História das mulheres nos jogos olímpicos modernos. Editora Unijuí. Doble, A. (2017, July 19). The secret history of women’s football. Newsbeat. https://www.bbc.com/news/newsbeat-­40654436. Franzini, F. (2000). As raízes do país do futebol: estudo sobre a relação entre o futebol e a nacionalidade brasileira (1919–1950). [Published master’s thesis, University of São Paulo]. https://ludopedio.org.br/biblioteca/ as-­raizes-­do-­pais-­do-­futebol/ Franzini, F. (2005). Futebol é “coisa para macho”? Pequeno esboço para uma história das mulheres no país do futebol. Revista Brasileira de História, São Paulo, 25(50), 315–358. Goellner, S. V. (2005). Mulheres e futebol no Brasil: entre sombras e visibilidades. Revista Brasileira de Educação Física e Esporte, 19(2), 143–151. Gulart, P. C. A. (2014). Pontapé inicial para o futebol no Brasil: o bate-bolão e os esportes no Colégio São Luís: 1880–2014. A9. Knijnik, J.  D. (Org.). (2010). Gênero e esporte: Masculinidades e feminilidades. Apicuri. Knijnik, J. D., & Vasconcellos, E. G. (2003). Mulheres na área no país do futebol: perigo de gol. In: SIMOES, A. C.(org). Mulher e Esporte: mitos e verdades. São Paulo, Manole, 165–175. Laqueur, T. W. (2001). Inventando o sexo: corpo e gênero dos gregos a Freud (V. Whately, Trans.) Relume Dumará. (Original work published 1990) Mills, J. R. (2005). Charles Miller: o pai do futebol brasileiro. Panda Books. Pereira, L. A. de M. (1998). Footballmania: uma história social do futebol no Rio de Janeiro (1902–1938). [Published doctoral dissertation, State University of

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Campinas]. Unicamp Repository. http://repositorio.unicamp.br/jspui/handle/REPOSIP/280018. Perrot, M. (2008). Minha história das mulheres (A. M. S. Corrêa, Trans.). Editora Contexto. (Original work published 2006) Rago, M. (1995). As mulheres na historiografia brasileira. In Z. L. Silva (Org.), Cultura histórica em debate (pp. 81–91). . Ribeiro, R. R. (2018). Futebol de mulheres em tempos de proibição: o caso das partidas Vespasiano x Oficina (1968). Mosaico, 9(14), 48–69. Rigo, L. C., Guidotti, F. G., Theil, L. Z., & Amaral, M. (2008). Notas acerca do futebol feminino pelotense em 1950: um estudo genealógico. Revista Brasileira de Ciências do Esporte, 29(3), 73–86. Rubio, K. (Org.). (2011). As mulheres e o esporte olímpico brasileiro. Casa Do Psicólogo. Silva, D.  M. M. (2013). A Associação Atlética Anhanguera e o futebol de várzea na cidade de São Paulo (1928–1950) [Published master’s thesis, University of de São Paulo]. https://teses.usp.br/teses/disponiveis/8/8138/ tde-­29102013-­113153/pt-­br.php Silva, G. C. (2017). Mulheres impedidas: a proibição do futebol feminino na imprensa de São Paulo. Multifoco. Williams, J., & Hess, R. (2015). Women, Football and History: International Perspectives. The International Journal of the History of Sport, 32(18), 2115–2122.

Part II Contesting Football

5 Women’s Football in Brazil: When History Meets Philosophy Ana Cristina Zimmermann and Soraia Chung Saura

Introduction As television transmission went global, so did Brazilian football. Images of players like Pelé and Garrincha dribbling and dancing brilliantly across the field were delivered to sports fans worldwide since the early days of global TV broadcast, helping to coin a specific term for Brazilian football: the beautiful game (Bartholo & Soares, 2009). Despite a more disciplined and globalised football, the concepts that consist of the Brazilian style of playing are still spread around the world. It has been over 80 years since Gilberto Freyre published the symbolic newspaper article, “Football mulato,” where the Brazilian social scientist explores the idea of a Brazilian style connected to an Afro-Brazilian social structure (Freyre, 1938). The impression of a spontaneous way of playing that resembles

A. C. Zimmermann (*) • S. C. Saura School of Physical Education and Sport (EEFE), University of São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil e-mail: [email protected]; [email protected] © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2022 J. Knijnik, A. Costa (eds.), Women’s Football in Latin America, New Femininities in Digital, Physical and Sporting Cultures, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-07976-4_5

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expressive elements of dance and capoeira presented by Freyre finds resonance in the imagery of Brazilian football. Among other intellectuals, Wisnik (2008) explores the peculiarities of Brazilian football very well in terms of originality and creativity as representative of Brazilian culture. Although the possibility of creating a harmonic national identity visible from the perspective of football is questionable (Maranhão & Knijnik, 2011), there is a collective memory and a broader social imagery that keeps the idea of Brazilian football-art alive (Saura, 2016). Both “the beautiful game” and “football-art” or “art football” are expressions widespread in Brazil that similarly highlight the aesthetic experience of Brazilian football. The beautiful game has also shown its efficacy over the years, as Brazil is the only country in the world to have won the Men’s World Cup five times. Therefore, it is not surprising that football’s social and cultural reality is ingrained in Brazilian daily life. Given this background, we have often asked ourselves about the place of women in the “country of football,” as Brazil is known worldwide (Kittleson, 2014). Only recently, at the end of the twentieth century, has women’s football made visible gains in Brazil (Franzini, 2005). Differences in pay scale, lack of visibility and access to playing facilities are still significant problems for women players, as are gender inequities, stereotypes and discrimination in general. Virtually absent from most national sports history, the invisibility of women in football is partly a consequence of the sociocultural context surrounding this phenomenon, considered to be structurally sexist. Football, inscribed in this reality, is “deeply crossed by gender issues” (Goellner, 2021, p. 9). Gender is understood here as a concept that constitutes human relationships, regardless of the theoretical affiliations of gender category. It crosses several areas of knowledge, and allows a greater plurality of thoughts, even if based on localised studies (Grossi et al., 2010). Therefore, it is an important dimension of different scientific areas, if we consider that science is socially localised (Oliveira Rodrigues & Parry Scott, 2013). When talking about women’s football, we’re also referring to a complex and heterogeneous universe that in Brazil, as well as in other Latin America countries, is marked by the intersection of different classes, ethnicities, genders and religions (Dimenstein et  al., 2020). In this sense, sport is an important field of analysis of the relationship between the

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sexes, as it teaches, expresses and perpetuates cultural and social values about what bodies should, or should not, be. In the early twenty-first century, the diversity of issues that arise in football, especially from feminist claims, has led to fruitful discussions. Additionally, football raises questions and provokes changes beyond the realm of sports, presenting society with the chance to explore potentialities throughout the fields of ethics and aesthetics. Using anecdotal evidence of the reality of women’s football in Brazil, this chapter intends to discuss how sport and gender studies are intertwined. First, we present some historical background to understand how women were kept out of football in Brazil, supported by false medical and legal arguments with reminiscences that persist until today. We then propose a reflection that tracks the trajectory of women in football, highlighting the intersection between gender questions from the history of sports and philosophical reflections on the body as a reference of being in the world. We intend to explore the images of corporal potency based on the experience of Brazilian female football players. Adding to the imagery of the beautiful game, women bring this and other elements to football in Brazil: the materialisation of desire, strength and determination in their bodies and movements. This combination also moves our narrative forward.

Women’s Football in Brazil: Historical Notes Despite being invisible to part of society and mass media, it is essential to point out that, historically speaking, women have always had an active participation in Brazilian football, establishing consistent relationships with this sport (Wood, 2019). However, unlike men—for whom encouragement and access to the football universe were always available—women’s rights came slowly over several decades. Women’s engagement in football involved the struggle for rights throughout the twentieth century: the right for free movement in stadiums, the right to play, the right to wear uniforms consistent with their bodies, the right to have access to management and refereeing positions, the right to be satisfactorily

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represented in this context—including in the sports press. Even in the twenty-first century, we still can’t celebrate overcoming these restrictions, although there is a perception that we are on the right path. In the early decades of the twentieth century in Brazil, Brazilian women frequented stadiums to watch the matches—which was accessible only to members of the Brazilian elite (Franzini, 2005). However, they formed their own cheering sections, even receiving the moniker “twister,” related to the handkerchiefs that women took to the stands, which were often twisted by the hustle and bustle of the occasion. The sportswriters well noted this enthusiastic participation at the time and the verb “to twist” (in Portuguese torcer) derivate all names associated with football supporters in Brazil: torcedor (a single supporter), torcedores (the plural for supporter) and torcidas (supporters’ groups). The participation of women in the stands is a tremendous breakthrough in Brazilian history, one that involved high levels of organisation and commitment to ensure this achievement wouldn’t be rolled back (Malaia, 2012; Moraes, 2018). Some studies indicate records of the first women’s football matches being played in the decade 1910–1920, with teams from the neighbourhoods of São Paulo (Moura, 2003; Fransini, 2005; Bonfim, 2019). At the first women’s football exhibition at the Football Museum in São Paulo,1 we were surprised by the photograph of a public exhibition of a women’s team practising in 1926: a match with four women on each team, wearing puffed and striped uniforms. The game took place in a circus arena that exhibited eccentricities (A Cigarra magazine, 1926). Curiously, in the 1920s and 1930s, “Football of Women” was a common circus attraction, according to newspapers at the time (Bonfim, 2019). There is still a lack of information about the early years of Brazilian women’s football, but fortunately research carried out recently has brought visibility to their history (Bonfim, 2019; Knijnik, 2014; Kessler et al., 2020). These studies based on historical documents, newspapers,  The Football Museum’s mission is to bring visitors closer to football Brazilian culture. It is a very sensory and emotional space with playful and multimedia resources. The public can get closer to the sport, understanding how it became a characteristic sport in Brazil. This museum is located in Pacaembu Stadium, in the city of São Paulo. It is the first museum dedicated only to football in the city, with permanent and temporary expositions, and a specialised library on football for researchers and public lectures. Inaugurated in 2008, it was only in 2015 that it began to integrate women’s football in its exhibitions. 1

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magazines and testimonies from different moments and geographical regions have uncovered a high level of activity related to women’s football that remained at the margins of history. The assumption that the scarcity of sources and absence of records at the onset of our historiography indicates that women were not playing football is clearly false. Instead, it reveals how undervalued and oppressed women’s football was. In the 1930s, football went from an elite sport into the mainstream, gaining popularity nationwide. The sport became professionalised for men, and women had an active participation in this process (Bonfim, 2019). Rio de Janeiro’s women’s teams were pioneers in the game for the public. Women’s football tournaments took place in the main cities, showing how the sport also developed among them, as further evidenced by some teams who received invitations to games abroad and played preliminary games against men. In 1940, the women’s teams inaugurated the field at Pacaembu, an important stadium in the city of São Paulo, which was considered the most modern in Latin America at the time due to its stadium lighting. It is relevant to highlight the frank development of women’s football in the country at that moment. Although women’s football suffered from strong social resistance, it continued to advance throughout the country (Goellner, 2003). But the joy of this women’s participation in the field lasted only a little over a decade. Women’s entry into the sport expanded possibilities for them. At the time, women were restricted to the roles of good mother, wife and housewife: “beautiful, maternal and feminine,” as Goellner (2003) points out. Although women from disadvantaged economic classes, especially Afro-descendants, performed heavy work and domestic activities, it was still necessary to maintain consistent behaviour between mother and housewife. Leisure in general and sports in particular were not options available for all women, but it brought changes to the social order when this was possible. Most importantly, women’s participation in a competitive sport physically changed their bodies, to faster and stronger, which offers other possible standards hitherto unseen in Brazilian culture (Zimmermann & Saura, 2020). In fact, we are talking about a deviation that becomes a resistance, so intolerable that it starts to accumulate arguments, disguised as medical “facts,” to prevent women from playing football. Franzini (2005) explores and highlights the statements

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made by Dr Leite de Castro, who was dedicated to sports medicine, as seen in the newspaper A Gazeta Esportiva in 1940: It is not in football that female youth will improve. On the contrary— Football is the sport that will bring defects and addictions, general changes to the woman’s delicate physiology, and other traumatic consequences, which can seriously compromise the organs of reproduction (ovary and uterus). (A Gazeta Esportiva, as cited in Franzini, 2005, p. 321)

Legal arguments arose along with this medical perspective. In the beginning of 1941, a national law was passed that prohibited women from practising sports as “incompatible with the conditions of their nature.”2 This decree, supported by conservative thinking, remained in effect for almost forty years. Women’s sports were not only prohibited but also criminalised. There are several reports of women being arrested because they dared to play football during this period (Almeida, 2017). In addition to the personal consequences wrought by the law, the development of women’s football in Brazil suffered an immense and widespread rupture. As men’s football grew, developed and became more professional, women’s football remained far from public life. Brazil won the FIFA Men’s World Cup three times while women were still prohibited from practising the sport. The decree fell in 1979, and it was only in 1983 that the sport became regulated, as women themselves organised small clubs and informal tournaments. Indeed, 40  years of prohibition influenced culture, society, politics and, especially, women’s place in society. Despite the decree, women continued playing football for the sheer joy of it. They could not have their desires socially recognised, receive payments or sponsorship, be a role model for young girls or participate in football championships. However, they felt compelled to play by the challenges to their freedom and continued practising throughout the decades of prohibition (Almeida, 2017;  Decree-Law no. 3199 of 14 April 1941. Brazil. Retrieved from: https://www2.camara.leg.br/ legin/fed/declei/1940-1949/decreto-lei-3199-14-abril-1941-413238-publicacaooriginal-1-pe. html. In 1965, Deliberation No. 7 of the National Sports Council specified the sports that corresponded to this decree setting the prohibition of any form of football for women, among other sports. 2

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Diário da Tarde, 1940; Almeida & Almeida, 2020). Around about this time, it is possible to find records of women football in newspapers and magazines in different regions of the country and in central or peripheral places, indicating the presence of sport in different social strata (Almeida & Almeida, 2020). Women’s football was tolerated for demonstration or entertainment purposes but banned when it approached professional characteristics. Nevertheless, there are records of pioneer teams that organised themselves similarly to the professionals, linked to clubs with men’s teams in different country regions in the 1950s, whose activities were banned by the National Sports Council (Rigo et al., 2008). Records of these cases were found in different newspapers and magazines at the time. A long article in O Cruzeiro,3 from Rio de Janeiro, in 1959, entitled “Glamour wears cleats,” describes the euphoria of women’s football in the city of Araguari, in the state of Minas Gerais (Franco, 1959). The teams mentioned by the magazine were created in 1958 by the director of Araguari Atlético Clube. The group of players was organised into two teams that played matches in different cities across the country, with a large audience (Museu do Futebol, 2021). The idea started with the proposal to hold charity matches, but the women’s teams drew a lot of attention, receiving invitations to hold demonstrations and preliminary games to the men’s. The team received proposals for international matches, but the difficulties caused by the prohibition of the practice for women prevented the advance, and the activities were closed a year after the start. The athletes in this group report with joy the moments experienced with football, but with sadness the difficulties, prejudice and prohibition of the practice (Papel, 2019). Interestingly, 1958 is when the men’s team wins the football world championship for the first time. In 1988, Brazil formed their first women’s national football team to participate in the FIFA Women’s Invitation Tournament in Guangdong, China, held the same year. This tournament was preliminary to the first FIFA Women’s World Cup that would take place in 1991. When  O Cruzeiro was an illustrated weekly magazine published in Rio de Janeiro from 1928 to 1975 and sold throughout the country. It is considered the leading Brazilian illustrated magazine of the twentieth century. In the early 1950s, it was the periodical with the highest number of readers in Brazil, with around 370,000 copies per week. At the time of the publication mentioned above, the city of Rio de Janeiro was still the capital of Brazil (Brasil, 2015). 3

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speaking about the first women’s championship, Brazilian player Suzana Cavalheiro highlighted, Today, girls who can keep up with football are rare. In our times, forget it. You were working on something else, or you were starving. So it was a hobby, something we were happy to do. And even if I was tired, I was going to play the same way. We were playing for the local team Juventus, and seven girls were invited to play for the Brazilian national team. It was the first call in 1988. And I was one among the seven. … And then my father was already worried before; he became more worried because I was attending college. … [F]or my father’s family, this issue of the woman who has to procreate, ensuring continuity of the family was so strong … and I’m going against all that. (Testimony by Suzana Cavalheiro for Museu da Pessoa, 2015)

Besides family and social resistance, the Brazilian players of this first national team complained about the male uniforms they had to wear, including cleats bigger than their feet, and clothes adjusted the night before the game, as highlighted by one of the players, Suzana Cavalheiro (Museu da Pessoa, 2015). Athletes described the humiliation suffered in front of other teams that were much more structured, and the lack of proper training. Still, without recognition, visibility, structure or training, they returned home with the bronze medal. The journey from that point to the early twenty-first century was a long road of hard-fought victories. Looking at how men’s and women’s football are typically perceived, it seems that the adjective “beautiful” for men’s football is usually related to the game, the style of playing. For women, however, the focus is shifted from playing style to personal attributes, and “beautiful” has been consistently related to their bodies as a fundamental condition of being feminine. During the early years of football, women were expected to accept the place of beautiful ladies who would bring light and entertainment to the game (Bonfim, 2019). Almost a century later, in 2001, the São Paulo Football Federation (FPF) promoted a women’s tournament suggesting specific requirements for the athletes, such as being younger than 23 years old, blond, long hair, wearing makeup and uniforms according to the federation’s understanding of

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feminine for a “beautiful championship” (Franzini, 2005; Knijnik, 2015). The pioneering footballer ace Sissi commented about this episode: “Is it so difficult to understand that we want to play and not show beauty? We have to show talent” (Nina, 2019). Facing opponents in the field is the easiest part for women who want to play football in Brazil. In 2019, women’s football obtained a striking and unprecedented visibility in Brazil during the FIFA Women’s World Cup in France (Zimmermann & Saura, 2020). The feminist movement drew the attention of sponsors and national television networks, who realised the potential that exists in women’s football. Viewers heard the phrase “for the first time in the history of women’s football” repeated many times during this World Cup. For the first time in the national history of women’s football, we had an audience of over 50 million spectators around the world. The tournament was broadcasted on public TV in Brazil, extending coverage nationwide, resulting in a record 35 million people watching the match between Brazil and France (Andrade, 2019). During this period, national brands started to see women’s football as a powerful product. For the first time in national history, women had a uniform especially designed for them. TV and online advertisements, targeting specifically the female audience, were aired heavily during the tournament. Across the country, during Brazil’s matches, businesses shut down temporarily to let people watch the game, as fans clustered in front of screens in bars, cafes and schools, which previously only happened during Men’s World Cups (Breiller, 2019). Special TV shows about women’s football were aired, and there was a female commentator on the main TV broadcaster, whose selection was noteworthy in an exclusively male universe. There were some women participating in regional TV transmissions in specific TV shows. However, this was probably the first time in national transmission (Mendonça, 2019). Street decorations, typical during the Men’s World Cup, also celebrated women’s football (Breiller, 2019). In recent decades, an increasingly stronger feminist movement is responsible for numerous achievements concerning equal rights between men and women. The power of this movement also shows an increased awareness of violence, discrimination and gender inequality present in our society at all levels (Cruz et al., 2018; Rocco Junior & Saura, 2020).

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However, structural changes in our society do not necessarily accompany these advancements in gender awareness. Women’s specific situation is still far from an acceptable and reasonable condition concerning gender equality (Zimmermann & Saura, 2020). It’s no different in sports. Events such as the World Cup attract the public’s interest, sponsors, the media and management institutions, and like any mega-event, they have their own economic and political interests. Let’s remember that “the role of the media as one of the prime sites for the reproduction of gender divisions has long been noted” (Wood, 2018, p. 568). Structural changes depend on struggle, and it is noteworthy that the gap between men and women is still embarrassing in football. So, football is the most popular sport in Brazil but is still characterised by its hegemonic masculinity and ruled by men’s references (Zimmermann & Saura, 2020).

Women’s Football: When the Past Meets the Future The history of women’s football in Brazil is permeated by moments of overcoming obstacles to give girls today the right to play football matches if they so choose. It is relevant to mention that Brazilian society maintains expressive traits of a structured patriarchal conservatism, which prevents many girls from playing football even in the 2000s, as witnessed by the testimonies of players who participated in the Brazilian football team. These testimonies were collected between 2005 and 2011 as part of a study on prejudice: I think that all the girls who play have already suffered or still suffer some kind of prejudice. I’ve seen different looks, “oh do you play football? That’s cool, but it’s different, right? I thought it was only a man who played.” (Salvini & Marchi, 2016, p. 304)

As we can observe from historical studies, modern sport is, in its origin, a social phenomenon built on references of hegemonic masculinity, which reinforce elements such as competitiveness and aggression (English, 2017). Sports were created, managed and encouraged by men, for men. We can recall examples like Pierre de Coubertin’s denying women’s

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participation at the Olympic Games, as well as different social segments against women’s involvement in sports activities over the past century. Coubertin (1912) has analysed the possibility of women’s participation in the Olympic Games in an article published in the Journal Revue Olympique, where he is clearly against the idea. He considers the existence of women swimmers, tennis players, fencers, riders and rowers and expresses his concern: “Maybe tomorrow there will be runners or even football players? Would such sports practised by women a commendable spectacle in front of the crowd gathered at an Olympics?” (Coubertin, 1912, p. 110). His opinion against women competing at the Games is emphatic: “impracticable, uninteresting, unsightly, and we’re not afraid to add: incorrect” (Coubertin, 1912, p. 110). These kinds of comments are still repeated when we hear some Brazilian sports commentators talking about women’s football and trying to defend a virility/masculinity that feels threatened. A demonstration of the magnitude of this problem can be identified through the hashtag #MeuRival (MyRival), which on 8 March 2021, in just a few hours, reached more than 2000 publications with complaints of macho comments and attitudes, many of them related to football (Pancini, 2021). A similar manifesto in 2018 with significant repercussions denounced sexist attitudes against Brazilian sports journalists #DeixaElaTrabalhar (LetHerWork), emphasising cases associated with football (Ramires, 2020). In France from the same period as Pierre de Coubertin, other manifestations defended the sport for women at the beginning of the twentieth century. Alice Milliat, for example, rejected medical, social and moral justifications with counterarguments based on practical experience and scientific statements made by women doctors supporting women in sports (Milliat, 2019). She was enthusiastic about women in sport and created the Fédération Sportive Féminine Internationale (FSFI, in English International Women’s Sports Federation) in 1921 and the 1922 Women’s World Games, which drives women’s participation in the Olympic Games. She argued that women could do the same sports as men and was very engaged in football (Carpentier, 2018). Sports and games celebrate body power based on performance or comparison of skills in the face of specific challenges. The idea of justice is associated with a reduction in external factors that may interfere with

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performance. This ensures that the same rules, equipment and conditions of competition are paramount. In sports separated by gender, as in the case of football, supposedly this division is mainly due to biological factors and two categories—female and male—would account for the genetic variability of the human being concerning sports performance. Besides, nowadays the discussion advances, questioning the binary division of sports (Martínková, 2020). The creation of a specific category for women is initially justified by the principle of equity, facilitating and expanding women’s access to sports practices in which gender difference seems to be decisive in performance. However, separating men and women may reinforce the notion of female fragility, both physically and psychologically, leading to the view that some attributes considered inferior are associated with women. This is emphasised in Brazil with the use of the nomenclature “Futebol Feminino” (Feminine Futebol), which is understood as prejudice and discriminatory by the players (Kessler, 2015; Knijnik, 2015). Many women players reported “being the only ones” among groups of boys, and they needed to prove themselves to be better players than boys to have a spot on the team. This constant comparison between boys and girls takes the discussion of gender categories in sports in the wrong direction if hegemonic masculinity continues to be seen as the standard (Zimmermann & Saura, 2020). Interestingly, some campaigns to increase female participation in sports reveal that many women prefer to play or train in environments separated by gender mainly due to cultural factors, such as judgment and sexist comments. Hence, building safe environments is also a reason to consider inclusion in sports. The pursuit of equality, therefore, may require different treatments to solve differences. However, when the hegemonic group determines this segregation, it can be seen as a form of discrimination. Gender segregation in sport may be in place for women’s protection and inclusion, but it could also ensure that male representation of the sport will not be threatened or altered if women are considered as a second-class category. This discrimination has been observed in sporting events in which the best facilities, equipment and schedules are reserved for men’s games (Quiroa, 2019). Thus, the notion of justice can

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also be associated with equal opportunities, considering the process, background, visibility, awards and recognition. Therefore, we highlight two initial assumptions: modern sport has gender difference and the prejudice associated with it built into its constitutional basis. It is essential to recognise the bias and mechanisms of exclusion that women have faced in football. The demands of the feminist movement have shaken convictions disseminated in sport, and the sporting experience itself has helped to rethink possibilities of what being a woman means (Boxill, 2006; Wertz, 2008; Burke, 2010; Archer & Prange, 2019). Both in the possibility of accessing different sporting spaces, athletic records or in recognition of one’s physical power, each achievement helps build another representation of women beyond the “beautiful, maternal and feminine” (Goellner, 2003). This movement reconfigures roles, participation, rights and so on. But, facing all of these challenges, what mobilises women to play football?

The Call from the Game: Challenge and Desire Playing football, for Brazilian athletes, was a dream, imagined and realised for many girls. Despite all challenges, athletes respond to their wishes, a calling from the body. We can explore some possibilities considering the notions from a philosophical perspective. Philosophy constantly reminds us that human truths are susceptible to knowledge, socially constructed and thus available for discussion, reworking and rethinking. The philosophical approach collaborates with expanding sociocultural perspective reflections as demonstrated by Campos (2010) on the value and meaning of football in Latin American studies. Merleau-Ponty (1962) points to a philosophy that strives to relearn how to see the world and considers “seeing” as a bodily action. According to him, perception is not an innate ability but instead an acquired one in relation to the world. Therefore, we learn a way of perceiving by living in the world. Bachelard (1999) is a philosopher who looks at the experience of the phenomenology of the image, claiming to obtain these images from corporeal experience. The impact of the meeting with an image is centred in the body and prior to conceptualisation. Images themselves are a fundamental resource

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in creating subjectivities and emotions. Images update archetypal memories, enrich and trigger the desire and, therefore, the will. For Bachelard, desire and will are not separate from the ability to imagine. For him, “man is the creation of desire and not the creation of need” (1964, p. 32). This idea is ingrained in the players’ speeches: they had no sponsorship, no profession or expectation to encourage playing, but they had desire. They were simply mobilised to play. As Suzana mentioned many times, “I didn’t have much choice, I just wanted to play, and I would do anything to play. At the time, there was not much dimension of this professional issue as a right. I just wanted to play football” (at Museu da Pessoa, 2015). There are no reasons to justify suffering just to be able to take part in the game itself. This perception is recurrent in field research on women’s football (Knijnik & Vasconcellos, 2003; Knijnik, 2015). But we see the same situation in many sports. When we ask players what motivates them, words like passion, pleasure, joy and challenge are often mentioned. Gadamer (1989) suggests that the subject of the game is not the player, as players have to submit themselves to play the game: “all playing is a being-played” (Gadamer, p. 106). Gadamer (1989) develops his argument about art derived from the game, considering mainly its lively and expressive character, open to the future. The game has a creative potential that presents itself and guides its own movement, can generate its own reasons, suggest behaviours and has open spaces for creation. Football invites different forms of corporeal experimentation, bringing the challenges of being tested and exploring the countless ways to overcome obstacles. However, for women, overcoming the first hurdle, the opportunity to participate in this universe, was the first significant challenge. In this sense, Brazilian athletes offer the world images of strength, power and winning the struggle for the freedom to play. Salvini and Marchi (2016) highlight the word “warrior” when they analyse the perception of football players on Brazilian women football teams: I define it as a warrior, persistent and sometimes hard-headed. Look, we hit our heads, we say: it’s going to change, and it doesn’t. I think that the Brazilian woman in women’s football is a woman of talent, a woman who has quality, who has a lot of determination, because I know women who have a son, a husband, and always find time for football. I think the

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Brazilian woman is a hit. (Testimonial of a football player in Salvini & Marchi, 2016, p. 308)

Facing challenges is a warrior’s characteristic, a word used to describe these athletes. The world’s materiality engages the girls who want to play and presents the opportunity and conditions for contesting in all areas of life: field, ball, players, rules, conflicts and challenges. And often, the word empowerment emerges. As we have seen, the arguments against the participation of women are mainly based on a medical-biological bias based on an alleged female fragility, as well as on the morality that valued a modest woman, restricted to domestic tasks. Despite many achievements, this control of a woman’s body remains explicit even in the early twenty-first century. It is enough to emphasise the vigilance over the body of the athletes and the speculations about sexuality (Goellner, 2005; Knijnik, 2015; Quiroa, 2019). We can also highlight the sexist and stigmatised view on pregnant athletes as “selfish and irresponsible,” well demonstrated by Weaving (2020). It is not our interest to return to historical details well explored by recent literature but to highlight the central aspect of corporeality in power relations. This body that others are trying to control is the same one that desires and finds the strength to open new paths. These images of struggle are visible in the case of women’s football in Brazil. Thus, it’s evident that gender is a powerful factor, so much so that it has shaken the structures of one of the most comprehensive social manifestations on the planet: sport, especially football. The athletic performances of the players not only bring something new to the sports scene but also reconfigure the position of women in society. What else can this powerful body do? Can a body, which fights for the simple right to play, create and reinvent itself? Next, we look more closely into the corporeal scope of women’s footballers.

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 omen in the Field: Desire, Challenge W and Engagement The case of women’s football is exemplary for thinking about sports engagement and body power. Wisnik (2008) emphasises football’s uniqueness to put into play different logics and cultural dispositions and the occasion for Brazilian spontaneity, playfulness and ingenuity to be expressed. Women players add powerful elements to this scenario since, besides creativity, they are often recognised for playing with tenacity and bravery (garra is a Portuguese word most common in this case). In this section, we intend to focus on the potent body of the women who play. Merleau-Ponty (1962) compares the body to a work of art as an eminently expressive space and highlights the human relation to the past and openness to the future (Merleau-Ponty, 1962). Sports are an excellent example to understand this notion. Expressivity also means going beyond, overflowing, exceeding. Passing, dribbling, scoring goals, defending, all are actions that require players’ creative potential. And more than that, movements allow players to recognise themselves as powerful. Athletes extrapolate these techniques when playing with the ball, in space or time, and against opponents. This is the materiality of the world claimed by Bachelard (1999), which provokes our desire and will. The player feels the movement, not as a reproduction of what she knew or trained, but as a creation, about making that sporting manifestation the very expression of itself. With its images of strength and power, women’s football allows us to better understand bodily vitality driven by desire. According to Merleau-­ Ponty, the body does not represent a physical thing, but a point of view, an attitude. He proposes to understand mobility as basic intentionality, and consciousness a matter of “I can” (Merleau-Ponty, 1962). Desire is merely this “I can” that is at the origin of any action and is restored to the degree that it is exteriorised—this potency that, being more profound than any action, possesses no other reality than that of its actualisations (Barbaras, 2006, p. 124). Barbaras (2008) suggests that life is not essentially conservation and presents desire as the essence of living, since life means an active belonging to the world. He recognises in desire

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an originating dimension that is irreducible to necessity. Desire drives energy; a movement towards life characterised by some kind of undetermined excess in its aspiration. Frankfurt (1984) highlights the ethical discussion, which can arise from the difference between needs and desires. Needs are associated with a purpose for which they are indispensable, while desire reveals what drives the subject. There is an inclination but no apparent purpose. However, life’s decisions based on desire are common, especially in sports. As we see in the case of women’s football, athletes routinely sacrifice social life with family and friends, education and health, to sports. The need to answer “an internal call” is another recurrence among athletes. Here, the notion of desire moves away from the idea of necessity and approaches the philosophical view that conceives it as a human reaching fulfilment, as highlighted by Bachelard (1999) and Merleau-Ponty (1962). Barbaras (2008) presents desire as the essence of living, since life means an active belonging to the world that is not ruled only by the world’s law. Understanding life as self-conservation, fighting against external threats, and selecting only what could preserve life, prevent considering its transience aspect. Life also has a gratuitous and selfless character. The characteristics of the desiring being are of someone who sees possibilities. Some authors suggest that football celebrates this exuberant and creative character of life as it spends energy generously, enriching life apart from utilitarian purposes (Campos, 2010). Likewise, many athletes are asked to choose a word that defines their practice, and this is often pick the term “life.” The footballer is not dissociated from her practice, from what animates her, and that leads to a comprehensive understanding of the notion of life. We suggest that engagement in sports is closely related to a desire that dialogues with the potential of the human being as a desiring being. So, in the case of this study, we consider playing football as a search for living possibilities of the self in relation to the world. Football offers women an opportunity for expression, learning and mastery. This search is not dissociated from understanding one’s own power.

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Conclusion As we have seen, the participation of Brazilian women in football is based on struggle and persistence. It is an individual and a social right that was, like all other human rights, won with sweat and tenacity. This achievement takes on other contours when it assumes the movement of a counter-­attack. When women take possession of the ball, they show different ways of playing and thinking about the sport, amplifying the game’s power beyond the sports field. To illustrate the greatness of Brazilian women footballers, let’s look closely into two record-breakers, Marta and Formiga. Marta Vieira da Silva is six times FIFA World Player of the Year and the greatest goal scorer in World Cup history (Guinness World Records, 2021). Currently, she is the top scorer in the history of the Brazilian team with 117 goals, surpassing Pelé. Countless commentators repeat, “there are no words to describe,” when referring to her dribbling and goal scoring abilities  (Gortázar &  Pires, 2019). Miraildes Maciel Mota is the “Formiga Formidavel” (the Formidable Ant), and has been described as a tireless player who is seemingly everywhere on the field and never gives up (Kestelman, 2019). Formiga has played the most games for the Brazilian national team and holds the FIFA record for being the first athlete to participate in seven World Cups, from 1995 to 2019. It is important to notice that Marta’s and Formiga’s records are not only for the women’s game, but for the game itself. They’re record-breakers for all genders. Symbols of overcoming struggles and tireless effort, their histories represent the reality and dreams of so many other athletes. This is when the beautiful game is played in life, dribbling brilliantly against all prejudices and hardships, and inspiring countless young girls and women to reach out to their dreams. Among other athletic practices, playing football means establishing a creative dialogue with the world, allowing the body to direct the past to another historicity. Thus, we understand the game as an expressive space, an exercise of freedom and autonomy. These elements are associated with the notion of life.

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The struggle for being part of the football universe is not always the result of conscientious feminist actions, which indicates the potential mobiliser of the game. However, the conquest of this space of playing increases the awareness of a historical condition in a sexist and patriarchal society. Desire, strength and determination are released from dreams and materialised in the play of female athletes. Thus, in the sports phenomenon itself, we find the provocations and elements necessary for an expanded view of human life. The invitation that football presents catalyses women’s mobilisation for the right to leisure and sportive practice, use of public spaces beyond the domestic sphere and discovering new capabilities of their own body. Thus, football has also become a field of social and political resistance for women, where the challenges are more extensive than the match, and the achievements go beyond physical performance. The sportive practice suggests questioning the expansion of borders and the exploration of human potential. Women in football move and expand reflections on the sport itself, gender equality, and beyond, on strength and human potential.

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Kessler, S. S. (2015). Mais que Barbies e Ogras: Uma Etnografia do Futebol de Mulheres no Brasil e nos Estados Unidos (Doctoral dissertation). Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, Porto Alegre, Brazil. https://lume.ufrgs.br/ handle/10183/131770 Kestelman, A. (2019). Formiga Formidável: a incrível história da brasileira que joga há mais de duas décadas pela Seleção. GE: Copa do Mundo Feminina. https://ge.globo.com/futebol/copa-­do-­mundo-­feminina/noticia/formiga-­ formidavel-­a -­i ncrivel-­h istoria-­d a-­b rasileira-­q ue-­j oga-­h a-­m ais-­d e-­d uas-­ decadas-­pela-­selecao.ghtml Kittleson, R. (2014). The country of football: Soccer and the making of modern Brazil. University of California Press. Knijnik, J. (2014). Gendered barriers to Brazilian female football: Twentieth-­ century legacies. In J. Hargreaves & E. Anderson (Eds.), Routledge handbook of sport, gender and sexuality (pp. 121–128). Routledge. Knijnik, J. (2015). Femininities and masculinities in Brazilian women’s football: Resistance and compliance. Journal of International Women’s Studies, 16(3), 54–70. Knijnik, J.  D., & Vasconcellos, E.  G. (2003). Sem impedimento: o coração aberto das mulheres que calçam chuteiras no Brasil. In J.  R. Cozac (Ed.), Com a cabeça na ponta da chuteira: ensaios sobre a psicologia do esporte (pp. 2–18). Annablume/Ceppe. Malaia, J.  M. C. (2012). Torcer, torcedores, torcedoras, torcida (bras.): 1910–1950. In B. B. B. de Hollanda, J. M. C. Malaia, L. H. de Toledo, & V. A. de Melo (Eds.), A torcida brasileira (pp. 53–85). 7Letras. Maranhão, T.  F., & Knijnik, J. (2011). Futebol mulato: Racial constructs in Brazilian football. Cosmopolitan Civil Societies: An Interdisciplinary Journal, 3(2), 18–34. https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/mcs/article/ view/1790/2362 Martínková, I. (2020). Unisex sports: Challenging the binary. Journal of the Philosophy of Sport, 47(2), 248–265. https://doi.org/10.1080/0094870 5.2020.1768861 Mendonça, R. (2019). Globo e Sportv terão mulheres comentando jogos da Copa do Mundo feminina. Blog Dibradoras. https://dibradoras.blogosfera. uol.com.br/2019/05/03/globo-­e-­sportv-­terao-­mulheres-­comentando-­jogos-­ da-­copa-­do-­mundo-­feminina/?cmpid=copiaecola Merleau-Ponty, M. (1962). Phenomenology of perception. Routledge & Kegan Paul.

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Milliat, A. (2019). Éditoril de La Femme Sportive (first published in 1922). In B.  Andrieu (Ed.), Éthique du sport: morale sportive, performance, agentivité (pp. 57–60). Librairie Philosophique J. Vrin. Moraes, C.  F. (2018). As Torcedoras Querem (Poder) Torcer (Master’s thesis). Federal University of Bahia, Salvador, Brazil. https://repositorio.ufba.br/ri/ handle/ri/30758 Moura, E. J. L. de. (2003). As relações entre lazer, futebol e gênero (Master’s thesis). The University of Campinas, Campinas, Brazil. http://repositorio.unicamp.br/bitstream/REPOSIP/274928/1/Moura_EribertoJoseLessade_M.pdf Museu do Futebol. (2021). Jogadoras do Araquari Atlético Clube em 1959. https://museudofutebol.org.br/crfb/acervo/704027/ Nina, R. (2019). Sissi recebe homenagem fora do Brasil, mas é “esquecida” pela CBF… Dibradoras. https://dibradoras.blogosfera.uol.com.br/2019/12/06/ sissi-­recebe-­homenagem-­fora-­do-­brasil-­mas-­e-­esquecida-­pela-­cbf/?cmpid= Oliveira Rodrigues, L., & Parry Scott, R. (2013). Um passeio pelos Estudos de Gênero e a produção do conhecimento. Revista Estudos Feministas, 21(2), 737–740. https://doi.org/10.1590/S0104-­026X2013000200025 Pancini, L. (2021). #MeuRival: mulheres denunciam machismo no futebol com a hashtag. Exame. https://exame.com/tecnologia/meurival-­mulheres-­ denunciam-­machismo-­no-­futebol-­com-­a-­hashtag-­veja-­tuites/ Papel, L. (2019). Pioneiras relembram proibição do futebol feminino e mandam recado à Seleção na Copa. Globo Esporte. https://ge.globo.com/mg/triangulo-­ mineiro/futebol/noticia/pioneiras-­r elembram-­p roibicao-­d o-­f utebol-­ feminino-­e-­mandam-­recado-­a-­selecao-­na-­copa.ghtml Quiroa, A. (2019). Fútbol “femenino”: género y performatividad. In B. C. Pereyra (Ed.), Deporte y sociedad Encontrando el futuro de los estudios sociales y culturales sobre Deporte (pp. 139–157). Universidad de la República Uruguay. Ramires, L. (2020). Mulheres jornalistas esportivas e mercado de trabalho: quem (não) as deixa trabalhar? R.  Katál., 23(3), 501–509. https://doi. org/10.1590/1982-­02592020v23n3p501 Rigo, L. C., Guidotti, F. G., Theil, L. Z., & Amaral, M. (2008). Notas acerca do futebol feminino pelotense em 1950: um estudo genealógico. Revista Brasileira de Ciências do Esporte, 29(3), 173–188. http://revista.cbce.org.br/ index.php/RBCE/article/view/217 Rocco Junior, A., & Saura, S.  C. (2020). Núcleo de Direitos Humanos da EEFE-USP: implantação, desenvolvimento e diálogos interunidades. Revista Brasileira de Educação Física e Esporte, 34, 109–116. https://doi.org/10.1160 6/1807-­5509202000034nesp109

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6 Doing and Undoing Gender on Brazilian Football Fields Jorge Knijnik

Introduction For Marta, the 2019 France FIFA Women’s World Cup represented not only the chance to lead the Brazilian team in their quest to win the tournament’s gold medal for the first time. The offensive midfielder, six-times voted as the world’s top woman footballer, wanted to be on the global stage to demonstrate also her deep discontent with the gender inequalities that still plague the football world. As international sporting manufacturers would not match what they pay to male footballers to stamp their brands on their boots, Marta did not accept any sponsorship for her work equipment. Thus, after scoring her goals, instead of celebrating, she decided to point to the gender equality symbol that was branded on her boots, as a reminder of her footballing social struggle. The impact of her on-field feminist statement was strong: Marta’s action not only boosted

J. Knijnik (*) School of Education, Western Sydney University, Penrith, NSW, Australia e-mail: [email protected] © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2022 J. Knijnik, A. Costa (eds.), Women’s Football in Latin America, New Femininities in Digital, Physical and Sporting Cultures, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-07976-4_6

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the dreams of thousands of girls and women footballers across the world, she has also shown that there is a vast, profound, and yet-to-be-told gendered history within Brazilian football. In this chapter I investigate Brazilian women footballers’ gender identities through the combined theoretical lenses of Person’s (1999, 2005) psychoanalytical approach to the “mazy mosaic” of gender, with Hollander’s (2002) “gender resistance” insights, which are complemented by Deutsch’s (2007) provocations on how to make gender less relevant in different sorts of social settings. This complex theoretical framework is here applied to several “feminist in-depth” (Hesse-Biber, 2007, p. 111) interviews in order to investigate how Brazilian women footballers navigate the world of football, the so-­ called “traditional bastion of masculinity; and the symbol of men’s prestige and privilege” (Hong, 2003, p. 268). As a university lecturer in Brazil during the 1990s and 2000s, I had the opportunity to interview dozens of footballers, aged 16 to 27 years old, who were in different stages of their careers—from beginners to experienced national team players. In these interviews, I was concerned in unpacking the variety of Brazilian women footballers’ realities that frequently are unspoken or buried (Hesse-Biber, 2007). However, as a former sporting coach with a known trajectory within Brazilian women’s sporting realm, I was also fortunate to have former students and athletes in governance roles in several teams. These connections assisted not only my contact with the players but also my admission into their campsites, where I could partake in the players’ off-field daily lives. I shared meals and even spent days in their camps. This comprehensive access facilitated a further informed perception (Silverman, 2013) on the players’ everyday lives, allowing me to develop what I call “locker room dialogues,” where I advanced my listening to the players’ perspectives. In this chapter, I use the aforementioned combined theoretical lenses to analyze my experiences with the players.

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Gender Vertigo Person (1999) points out that, until the last decades of the twentieth century, the fluidity of gender identities, and the array of exceptions to conventional gender patterns that are now more accepted, were previously regarded as absolute. However, Person adds that this gendered fluidity is not unlimited, as it finds boundaries and is restricted by primary life experiences that remain locked in our unconscious mind. Relevant social changes—such as the feminist movement and the appearance of contraceptive pills—augmented the possibilities for gender identities’ expression. Person (1999) pinpoints many “cross-gender identifications” (p.  308) within this array of gender performances—from hyper-feminine to clearly masculinized women. Whilst many of those were clearly influenced by the most recent social changes, Person (1999) terms “naïve” the attempts to qualify all cross-gender identifications as outcomes of cultural forces. Rigid gender roles—masculine or hyper-feminine—are usually employed in order to deal with early conflicts with paternal or maternal models (Person, 2005). Person (1999) maintains that the gender trails that are built throughout the oedipal stage or in earlier years have a significant impact on cross-gender heterosexual women’s personalities. These personalities may be conflictual or non-conflictual (Person, 2005). As a child grows up, group forces to adapt to social beliefs act to eradicate main indicators of cross-gender features (Person, 1999). However, for several women, numerous fantasies and identifications with powerful male and female adults form a “dizzying mosaic of individual patterns” (Person, 1999, p. 301) that do not inevitably obey traditional gender expectations. The author considers that these intricacies in the creation of gender identity need to be added to the social perspective if we want to build a comprehensive representation of masculine identifications in heterosexual women.

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Gender Struggle Gender construction cannot be seen as a straightforward process. While considering gender as a societal pillar that is built and strengthened through social exchanges, Hollander (2002) argues for some flexibility in these developments. She identifies the challenges and oppositions posed to the orthodox gender order by not complying to gender performances. Hence, Hollander (2002, p.  475) designates as gender resistance every intentional or unintentional act that opposes the conventional gender status quo. Yet, in order to foster cultural change, single acts of gender resistance need to be connected to each other via oral, written, or corporeal language (Hollander, 2002). Thus, Hollander (2002) considers that the production of diverse discourses on gender will prompt the necessary gender struggle to deconstruct the dominant forms of masculinity and femininity. Deutsch’s (2007) proposals of interactional resistances offer perspectives to overcome gender oppression at institutional levels as well.

Gender Undone Deutsch (2007) agrees with Hollander’s notion that discourses form reality, and that resistance language engenders new gender concepts and formats. Yet her proposal goes further, as she believes that to reduce gender differences and achieve gender equity, we have to challenge traditional gender hierarchies in every single social context. Deutsch (2007) maintains that social actions of resistance to hegemonic arrangements are able to motivate communities, hence having a greater cultural social effect. For instance, a girl who struggles to be part of a boys’ team in a “masculine” sport will inspire other girls to interrogate gender barriers within sports. Yet, Deutsch (2007) sees resistance acts as problematic, as they might bring difficulties for women who attempt to confront male proficiency and endeavors in a society that still considers them superior. The author claims sport as one of the utmost traditional masculine realms in which

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women need to negotiate their gender by finding an equilibrium between the strength that is essential to play, and the obligation to preserve a not-­ so-­muscled body that adapts to the dominant femininity (Deutsch, 2007). Hence the necessity of “undoing gender”1 (2007, p. 122) within the sports domain, but also in the wider society. This is what I was trying while visiting regional futebol feminino competitions in Brazil.

F utebol feminino—Footballers and Their Gender Identities Futebol feminino means “feminine football.” When sport stakeholders were no longer able to prevent women’s participation in football, they tried to downgrade women’s capacities, in order to make sure that futebol feminino would fit into what they thought was a suitable game for “women’s nature” (Caudwell, 2011). This led many to argue for “adjustments” to futebol feminino, such as smaller balls, goalposts, and fields, as well as shorter play periods. The trivialization of futebol feminino occurred to me while I waited for the start of a match and was approached by “Antonio,” a middle-aged man who was the officer of the Sports Department in charge of that competition venue. Antonio held a middle management position in the São Paulo State Sports Department. As he saw a male university lecturer in front of him, he felt comfortable to disclose his views about women’s football with me. He quickly became an important piece in my ethnographic jigsaw (Silverman, 2013). During our first chat, Antonio expressed anger that he had been given this job—in charge of futebol feminino competition—as professional punishment. He had once been the chief officer of a prestigious U20s national male football competition, but after a fan was killed in a major brawl during a game, “the blame went on me. Now I have to work with this futebol feminino.” He stressed the final two words as though they were the most despicable blasphemy that one could say.

1  In an interesting endnote to her paper, Deutsch (2007) claims that she was unaware of Butler’s (2004) book of the same name until her own paper was peer-reviewed.

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Later, I discussed futebol feminino with the players who expressed opposing views over this expression. A few players, in an act of gender-­ order compliance, confirmed that this was the way things were in the football world: “girls” were different and their way of playing football was not the same as the boys’ way, so they should be labeled differently. Other players interpreted futebol feminino as a way to resist the gender order: they stated that this term created their own identity and supported their struggle against prejudice and discrimination within the football arena. Nair, a representative of the compliant group, thinks that the term futebol feminino is used to emphasize the differences between men’s and women’s football: [E]veryone refers to us as futebol feminino players. Women are different from men, not only the physical side, but the emotional part too. If you are rude, a woman cries … A man is tougher … A woman is more gentle and delicate. Men play on their manner—if you watch a futebol feminino match, you’ll see how different it is from the male’s game.

Prior experiences with international women’s football, such as the “footie chick,” already aimed to promote the “right femininity” on and off the football fields—meaning a normative and heterosexual version of women’s bodies (Caudwell, 2011). However, Nair goes beyond the merely physical differences expressed in the “footie chick” project. She claims that women are also internally different. For Nair, women are emotionally weaker, hence futebol feminino is different because of women’s emotional and physical softness. Nair was not aware that, as in many sports, football has its own strategies to preserve the gender status quo. She could not see that football culture is hostile to women (Deutsch, 2007). Nair’s conformist discourse ultimately restricts women’s activities (Hollander, 2002). In her compliance with the view of women as weaker than men, Nair finally accepts the lower status of futebol feminino. Suzana, a 26-year-old player, is resistant to standardized gender perspectives in football. She demonstrates her will to fight for women’s right to play (Goellner, 2021). She believes that the word feminino after futebol

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is a symbol that supports women’s battle: “we live in a very discriminatory country; if we don’t put feminino there, things will get worse.” Suzana led a difficult life. Her parents prohibited her from playing football, so she ran away from home at 18 to follow her football passion (Altmann, 2002; Campos, 2010). However, things did not go well, and often she had no job, no money, and no support to play football. Her difficulties, though, made her even more mindful of the prejudices embedded in Brazilian futebol feminino: We must keep feminino; it is our identity. Otherwise nobody will acknowledge us as futebol players. They think girls cannot play; there is lots of prejudice, lots of discrimination. Football … was created by men for men. No way would they accept futebol feminino. Society is not prepared … Football was meant to be a male thing, so we have to say futebol feminino to encourage our game.

Unlike the compliant players, Suzana appropriated the expression futebol feminino to support gender resistance within the Brazilian football realm. She wants to “encourage” the women’s game using any available tool. Through her resistance she seems to want to affect not only “discourses about gender” (Deutsch, 2007, p. 121) but also to help facilitate “feminist consciousness” (Deutsch, 2007, p. 121). The futebol feminino discussion demonstrated that, in doing and undoing gender, “words matter” (Deutsch, 2007, p.  123). Futebol feminino carries the symbolic power to make women visible in a scenario where they are invisible (Deutsch, 2007). Seeing how much the players hold to the futebol feminino expression, either to comply or to resist the football gender order, was one of many surprising findings of my fieldwork. The disruption of my previous assumptions was a sign that my fieldwork was going well (Silverman, 2013). It also led me to a new unanticipated direction, which was the topic of the players’ childhoods. They were not only keen to talk about their early involvement with football, they also wanted to discuss what would be the challenges for their daughters and the next generation of players.

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 he XX Factor: The Gender of the Next T Sport Generation Deutsch (2007, p. 118) claims that “a new generation that has grown up with changed gender definitions should create a world of greater gender equality.” My fieldwork allowed me the opportunity to test this idea with this generation of women footballers who were arguably dealing with fewer gender limits. A few players who had younger girls in their families (nieces, sisters, or daughters) started to discuss with me what type of advice they would give to them if they wanted to pursue a football career in the future. Initially, I thought the players would make all efforts to help younger girls in their football journey. However, the players’ thoughts went in the opposite direction. They would never support a 12-year-old girl from their families, in their football career. Ana, an 18-year-old player, was emphatic: If I had a daughter, I wouldn’t like her playing ball. Do you think that I want her going through humiliation, hunger, even discrimination? At school, when they see a girl playing ball, everybody bullies her saying she is a dyke … My goodness! I would rather send her to play volleyball; it’s a much more worthwhile sport for girls and women.

Ana’s words took me by surprise. Naively, I expected that all women players would be keen gender-order challengers. However, Ana still echoes old-fashioned representations (Hollander, 2002). Defying the established gender order more than she has already done as a player appears to be unbearable for her. She envisages girls facing social penalties for breaking gender rules (Hollander, 2002) and, as a result, thinks that girls would be better off by following the conservative patterns of doing gender (Hollander, 2002). In the Brazilian sports realm, that means playing a sport considered “feminine,” such as volleyball (Goellner, 2021). Among both the compliant and the resistant players I interviewed, I did not find a single one who would support younger girls in their football pursuits. There were a few like Ana, who would advise them to try out feminine sports, but others, without actively discouraging them, would say that “football is a great sport for your body,” a statement that

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implies that football is not so good for other aspects of players’ lives, such as the family or social side (Goellner, 2021). However, I did find Kelly, who, without openly encouraging younger girls to play football, would try to improve their political consciousness about the future gendered sporting hurdles: I would tell them about the consequences of their choices, the obstacles of playing football … These are prejudice and family. My dad always thought I would be a ballerina, so I had many troubles at home. So, their parents might not enjoy their choice … there is lots of discrimination … people, neighbours, they put pressure on parents’ minds. So, if they aren’t strong enough to fight these battles, they would never become a footballer, never.

Kelly’s statement shows ambiguous support. Even if the girl has the right to play and should fight for it, they need to comply with her family’s wishes in order to accomplish her football goals. Again, gender resistance in football is undermined. Even as a footballer who has been on the fields for several years, and who, in doing so, has challenged the traditional gender order, Kelly still avoids being openly resistant (Hollander, 2002). Next, I present data related to the “butches,” the highly “masculinized” players who deal with much more prejudice than the average woman player. The bodies, appearance, and manners of these women are constantly on the radar. They are labeled “macho-woman,” they are discriminated against, and they are accused of spoiling the “real femininity” of futebol feminino. I examine these masculinized women using Person’s approach of the gendered looking glass in which the players see themselves doing “male things.” Once again, the males inside futebol feminino helped me to start my questioning.

No Hair, No Play: The Gendered Disguise During my fieldwork I met only one woman who was the head coach of a women’s team. She wanted to further her own sport studies by doing a research degree on football tactical awareness amongst teenage women players. She twice visited me in my university office, bringing films of her

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team playing in different venues, and we discussed football tactics and training. In contrast, I noted that I never had a tactical conversation with a single male coach. Our conversations always revolved around the players’ appearance. Hair was their final frontier. Most of them simply advised the players that they ought to have long hair. A few, though, were extreme. If a player wanted to be on their team, she was required to have long hair. End of discussion. Their motto was clear: “if you want to play in a women’s team, you must look like a woman.” Clearly, they had a very narrow definition of what a woman is or should look like. The women who played in that championship displayed a plethora of differences: there was a vast range of hair types, skin colors, body sizes, off-field dress-styles, ways of walking and talking. There is no single femininity on football fields (Caudwell, 2009). There are some who are close to dominant norms of femininity and there are others who put the narrow definitions of gender under threat (Person, 1999). I asked the players how they saw themselves. The results were astonishing. I had players opening their hearts and weeping; a few times I had to serve as their “therapist” as overwhelming paradoxical feelings took over when they had to talk about their bodies and gender identities (Person, 2005). One night at the camp, during an intense talk and a few tears, Roberta told me that It’s the biggest challenge of my life: being a woman and playing football in such a machista country, where the field belongs to the men, not to us. But I won’t change my way just to do what they want; I don’t want to look like a princess.

Roberta’s appearance did not conform to either extreme of the gender continuum. She was “neuter” (Person, 1999, p. 309) in her appearance. She did not get along well with the other players in her team, seeing them as “princesses, over-feminine.” Her statements, body appearance, and football pursuits were indicators of a refusal of femininity in various parts of her life (Person, 1999, 2005). In her football life, she embodied not only a desire to be masculine, but perhaps more so a desire for what Person (1999, p. 308) calls a “wish not to be feminine.”

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Among the players I talked with, I was also able to identify two other types of women described by Person (1999). The first type uses a “masquerade of hyper-femininity” (Person, 1999, p. 303) as a defense against any misinterpretation of their sexuality. As they wish to be accepted in a male domain, they exaggerate their feminine characteristics to avoid any type of “gender trouble.” Flavia is a clear representative of this group, commenting that I love football. I think you can be both things at the same time. I mean, I play as it’s a cool sport, good to my body, but I still can be a woman, there is nothing that prevents me from taking care of my beauty.

Flavia’s words mirrored what she did with her body. By early morning, she was already well-dressed, using lipstick and other tricks that highlighted her hyper-feminine mask. She was the symbol of a group of players who needed to hyperbolize what they thought was a socially acceptable and desirable femininity. In this way, they can manage the delicate balance (Person 2005) between living in a male terrain and “still be a woman” as Flavia said. The other identified type is what Person (1999, p.  312) refers to as “more extreme cross-gender identification.” A “maleness” was manifest in their conduct, appearance, and clothing both on and off the field. Unlike the other players, they did not seek me out to talk to me. Only once was I successful in having a long conversation with a “hyper-masculine player.” After being a passive observer of my talks with other players, a teammate approached me saying that Deise would like to be interviewed. In fact, she had a lot to say about her football experience. Deise was a 21-year-old goalkeeper whose initial statement had a political context: “I advocate for women to play or do whatever they want.” Her message was clear. Women need to fight for their right to play football. Biological sex cannot be the cause of women being undermined in their goals. Deise’s political consciousness surprised me, as none of the other young players talked in such a clear way about campaigning for football or their wishes. Deise continued:

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… you won’t become less woman only because you play a sport … I played basketball, you play against other women … just that football is different, it’s not a sport like many others.

Deise’s words confirm that football in Brazil is more than a sport, it is a distinctive sign of the whole culture of the country, embedded in Brazilian social and political life (Bellos, 2002; Natali, 2007; Campos, 2010). In Brazilian culture, football is also a realm of hegemonic masculinity (Connell, 1995) in which a “gender war” occurs every time a young girl, a teenager, or a mature woman kicks a ball (Goellner, 2021). Deise’s also reflects on the player’s bodies. She says that she used to be like other people who look at women players as if they were men. However, she had changed her mind and she currently respects her body: The thought in people’s minds is that the women who play football are stiff, rough … I used to think [these women] wanted to be and look like men … but I don’t think this anymore, I just think that this is natural.

The final words of this “masculinized“ woman drew my attention: in her opinion, a woman with a “masculine” body is “natural.” Many people—such as the male football coaches I have talked to—see a problem in a woman who has a body that does not conform to their notions of femininity: Deise does not see any problem. Her acceptance of her body as natural shows that, instead of promoting the “right femininity” in women’s football, sport stakeholders should worry more about the persistent rigidity of the gender divide (Person, 2005) that undermines women’s football (Kessler, 2018; Rigo et al., 2008). So, I ask: Where to from here?

To Gender or Not to Gender The findings of my fieldwork provided a clear picture of the issues confronting Brazilian women whose passion is playing football. Initially, it is clear that the rigorous social boundary limited by severe gender norms prompts not only much discrimination against footballers but also individual and collective acts of gender resistance. These are evident in the

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players’ stories within the football realm, where even little struggles with families are lived as a “gender war” that goes much beyond the sport practice. On the other hand, some of these acts end up overshadowed by the own players’ compliance with the hegemonic gender norms, and their fear that these unwritten rules may impact the well-being of the future generation of players. This was evident when discussing the imaginary advice they would give to younger family members who wish to play football. In this sense, and despite the advances in legislation and opportunities, football clearly continues to be a gendered contestable space in Brazilian culture. This cultural character of football in the country—a sport that can define people’s social identities—encounters its apex when the players’ bodies come, literally, into play. All male coaches working in the sport made it clear that futebol feminino involves much more than being able to showcase athleticism, great ball control, space awareness, and goal-­scoring skills within the field. They want their players to have a distinct feminine appearance, one which resembles the desirable femininity, in order to be involved in their teams. These body issues were also reaffirmed by the players who look masculinized and who struggle to find a social space within their football communities. The combination of a range of different theoretical lenses in this analysis provided deeper insights over women’s football players in Brazil than the ones that have been discussed by scholars in the past. The perceptions presented here go beyond the findings that usually denounce the existing prejudice against them, to unveil the possibilities, but also the boundaries, that the players’ own psychological development enact on them. If prejudice and discrimination are realities that need to be fought even in the legal terrains, it is also important to consider that many of these young women want to construct a social identity that does not identify with the desirable femininity that they see as a societal norm, which many times restrains them in their daily lives. They might want to display a more “neutral” gender identity, or even a more masculinized one, and found football as a social space to perform their true identities, to be who they are. Capturing these desires and these diverse psychosocial realities is relevant in order to initially apprehend the full gender spectrum present on Brazilian

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football fields: this research revealed how a large array of femininities and masculinities coexist in Brazilian women’s football. This is a significant finding that can blur and even break the social rigid barrier that a binary gender perspective has continuously imposed over the futebol feminino game during the past century, and still exists in the early twenty first century. Moreover, the use of multiple theoretical lenses to analyze the diverse realities of women who play futebol feminino allows us to further pave their journey to freedom within the game. Analyzing both their individual gender identity but also how those are lived within futebol feminino’s social contexts is central if we intend to continuously “undo gender” within football fields, so these fields become what they were to mean in the first instance: a cultural relevant space for all Brazilians, a social space where people can enjoy their culture and make significant contributions to their communities, without fearing discriminations of any kind.

References Altmann, H. (2002). Meninas e meninos jogando futebol. Verso & Reverso, XVI(34, Jan.–June), 89–100. Butler, J. (2004). Undoing gender. Routledge. Bellos, A. (2002). Futebol: The Brazilian way of life. Bloomsbury. Campos, D. (2010). On the value and meaning of football: Recent philosophical perspectives in Latin America. Journal of the Philosophy of Sport, 37(1), 69–87. Caudwell, J. (2009). Girlfight and Bend it like Beckham: Screening women, sport, and sexuality. Journal of Lesbian Studies, 13(3), 255–271. Caudwell, J. (2011). Gender, feminism and football studies. Soccer and Society, 12(3), 330–344. Connell, R. W. (1995). Masculinities. University of California Press. Deutsch, F. M. (2007). Undoing gender. Gender & Society, 21(1), 106–127. Goellner, S. V. (2021). Mulheres e Futebol no Brasil: descontinuidades, resistências e resiliências. Movimento, 27, e27001. https://doi.org/10.22456/1982-­ 8918.110157 Hesse-Biber, S. N. (2007). The practice of feminist in-depth interviewing. In S. N. Hesse-Biber & P. L. Leavy (Eds.), Feminist research practice: A primer (pp. 111–148). Sage.

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Hollander, J.  A. (2002). Resisting vulnerability: The social reconstruction of gender in interaction. Social Problems, 49(4), 474–496. Hong, F. (2003). Soccer: A world sport for women. Soccer and Society, 4(2–3), 268–270. Kessler, C. S. (2018). No Marta, Just Ugly Betty: Soccer in Southern Brazil. In C.  Tsuyoshi & P.  C. Miller (Eds.), Queer voices from the locker room (pp. 63–83). Information Age Publishing. Natali, M. (2007). The realm of the possible: Remembering Brazilian Futebol. Soccer & Society, 8(2/3), 267–282. Person, E. S. (1999). The sexual century. Yale University Press. Person, E.  S. (2005). As the wheel turns: A centennial reflection on Freud’s Three essays on the theory of sexuality. Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association, 53(4), 1257–1282. Rigo, L., Guidotti, F. G., Theil, L. Z., & Amaral, M. (2008). Notas acerca do futebol feminino pelotense em 1950: um estudo genealogico. Brazilian Review of Sports Science, 29(3), 173–188. Silverman, D. (2013). What counts as qualitative research? Some cautionary comments. Qualitative Sociology Review, 9(2), 48–55.

Part III Mediating Football

7 Brand Equality Explorative Journey on Personal Brand Construction of 2020 Paulistão feminino Athletes Ana Costa and Ana Lorena Marche

Introduction After a long history of bans and restrictions in Brazil and worldwide, women’s football is experiencing a global boom—which peaked at the FIFA World Cup in 2019—with greater support from sports organizations, the media, brands and a fanatical audience, eager for content and interactions that go beyond the field of play (FIFA, 2019). Today, information about women’s football arises from diverse sources, including from the players themselves who add their voices to this plural narrative presenting the sport from different perspectives. Indeed, we are experiencing a shift of paradigm in women’s football led by the players

A. Costa (*) German Sport University Cologne, Cologne, Germany A. L. Marche Brazilian Football Federation (CBF), Rio de Janeiro, Brazil © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2022 J. Knijnik, A. Costa (eds.), Women’s Football in Latin America, New Femininities in Digital, Physical and Sporting Cultures, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-07976-4_7

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themselves who are exploring their power to develop influential personal brands that not only benefit their careers but also the sport they love. With the rise of social networks, anyone can become a communication channel and develop a personal brand. This includes athletes across sports and based in all regions of the world (Geurin-Eagleman & Burch, 2016). In fact, the reach and engagement of athletes’ brands can be greater than their club’s brand (Stephens, 2021). If summed up, the power and influence of different personal athlete brands, loved and consumed by passionate fans, can contribute to transforming sports in an athlete-centric way: something unprecedented since sports organizations, media and popular brands are usually the main stakeholders that define the future of sports. This study focused on the singular reality of Brazilian women’s football. Through exploration using a multidimensional theoretical perspective, the study aims to conceptualize the rationale behind players’ brand construction on Instagram and the perception of fans about the content and messages shared. In order to achieve this objective, we asked, (1) ‘What image do the Paulistão Feminino 2020 footballers want to build on Instagram?’, and (2) ‘How do their fans perceive it?’ Results will be useful to assess brand equity and to foster the development of strong individual and collective brands while supporting Brazilian players, managers and sports organizations with rich insights into brand management.

Theoretical Background This assessment builds on the research on the Determinants of Personal Brand Construction of Brazilian and German Female Elite Footballers on Instagram (Costa, 2020): explored through the lenses of Social Role theory by Eagly (1987), Self-Presentation theory by Goffman (1959) and Banet-Weiser’s Economy of Visibility (2012, 2015, 2018). The three theories frame the analysis of data collected through surveys with athletes and fans. The structure of the surveys was inspired by findings of these theories used when examining dramaturgy, sociology and economics.

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Self-presentation Theory Playing a role is a dramaturgical activity, and someone’s self-expression can be managed to achieve impression goals, like challenging or reinforcing a stereotype. Goffman (1959) classified self-performance as front stage and backstage. Front-stage performances occur in front of the others, while backstage performances mostly occur without an audience, and if there is an audience, it is familiar to the ‘actor’ (Geurin-Eagleman & Burch, 2016). Goffman’s Self-Representation Theory (1959) was applied to assess the identities adopted by players and how fans react to them.

Social Role Account of Sex Differences The social role account of sex differences presented by Eagly (1987) suggests that women and men have different behavioural tendencies. This biosocial approach connects sex (biologic) and gender (social construction) to clarify the origins and maintenance of gendered roles and stereotypes. Eagly (1987) ‘considers sex differences to be a product of the social roles that regulate behaviour in adult life’ (p. 7). Researchers identified two main groups of people’s unanimous beliefs on gender roles: agentic and communal (Bakan, 1966). In brief, agency is associated with self-­advancement in social hierarchies, while communal behaviour is related to maintaining positive relationships (Trapnell & Paulhus, 2012). The psychological research on cultural stereotypes posits that men had greater agentic features than women and therefore were considered more masterful, assertive, competitive and dominant. Women were described as more communal (friendly, unselfish, concerned with others and emotionally expressive). These gendered beliefs formed stereotypes about male and female roles and are the basis of social expectations towards an individual’s behaviour. Eagly’s Social Role Theory (1987) was useful to understand the roles preferred by female athletes, while performing in their social networks, considering traditional gender stereotyping.

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Economy of Visibility The economy of visibility is about a type of visibility promoting economic aims. This process sometimes capitalizes on players’ active roles by promoting post-feminism subjectivity to transform this subjectivity into market opportunities (Toffoletti & Thorpe, 2018a). Digital spaces are important tools to foster the economy of visibility by providing an infrastructure for individuals to showcase and self-brand themselves. Little is known to what extent this process is connected to a broader market-­ driven reformulation of feminism objectives than policy-driven objectives. Banet-Weiser’s Economy of Visibility (2012, 2015, 2018) guided the personal brand construction analysis from the neoliberal influences of post-feminism.

 ocial Media, Online Brands and Women’s S Football This study on athletes from Paulistão Feminino 2020 (2020 São Paulo State Women’s football championship) was based on Instagram as this social network is a powerful visual branding tool designed to enhance the self-promotion of individuals (Geurin-Eagleman & Burch, 2016; Toffoletti & Thorpe, 2018a). This social network is one of the most popular applications designed mainly for mobile devices (Smith & Sanderson, 2015) and according to We Are Social and Hootsuite’s Digital Suite report (2018), there are 800 million active users on Instagram. Fans follow their sports idol on Instagram and develop an understanding of his/her persona, including brand attributes that can be managed directly or indirectly by an athlete. Considering social media apps, Instagram is a platform with more ‘authentic’ content because most athletes personally manage their profiles (Costa, 2020). There is a growing interest in women’s football. One of the most researched topics is the history of women’s football in Brazil (Votre & Mourão, 2003), followed by the development of the sport in different countries (Pisani, 2014; Knijnik, 2013), media studies (Christopherson

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et  al., 2002; Goellner, 2005; Mourão & Morel, 2008), gender roles (Knijnik, 2015; Meier et al., 2019) and gender equality (Hoffmann et al., 2006). However, image studies are rare and, when they exist, the primary focus is on the image perceived by fans rather than the one crafted by athletes. According to Arai et al. (2014), an athlete’s personal brand is ‘a public persona of an individual athlete who has established their own symbolic meaning and value using their name, face or other brand elements in the market’ (p.  98). Still, according to Arai et  al. (2014) fans perceive the athletes’ brand by on- (performance) and off-field (personality, partners, hobbies and family) attributes (Hasaan et al., 2016b). Furthermore, the perception of fans can be influenced by the knowledge they may have of the athlete’s sport (Hasaan et al., 2016b). The value of a brand can be determined by brand equity (American Marketing Association, 1960) and the evaluation of consumers is one important perspective to assess the power of a brand. The management of an athlete’s personal brand is a complex process where, despite having access to tools to communicate directly to fans, the freedom of posting contents may be limited. Furthermore, as seen previously, the perceived image can be influenced by mass media and word of mouth, in addition to attributes of brands that are closely related to the athlete and his/her sports team. The interest of fans may vary according to the appeal of a sport. Women’s football has attracted interest from avid fans looking for authentic stories (The Nielsen Company, 2018). However, the need for authentic curation and effective brand management by athletes is essential to benefit from this asset (Arai et  al., 2014). Research reveals that athletes may get an additional revenue source (Geurin & Krohn, 2012) and increase public awareness (Geurin, 2013) by having strong brands. Indeed, not only revenue increase but visibility are crucial to developing the sport in various dimensions, from the individual to the collective level. This could be the case for improving the quality of the game, the health and well-being of athletes, and the general perception that women have an increasing place in the world of sport.

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The understanding of gender stereotypes, which are the public’s expectations regarding the role that men and women play in society, were crucial to perform this analysis on personal brand construction as stereotypes influence the perception of an athlete’s image. Gender stereotypes are fluid and multifaceted concepts containing aspects such as religion, sex, ethnicity, nationality, language and social class (Knijnik, 2006). In the sporting context, the strength of male gender stereotypes predominates (Burrow, 2018) through a male-dominated system at several levels: participation, administration, rules, training and management of sports organizations (Hardy, 2015). These stereotypes can be hostile or benevolent. The first category reduces the value of the sport played by women by highlighting the lack of talent or masculinization of the players, while the second category praises the woman not as an athlete but as a mother, lover and sensual person (Barnett, 2017). There are several studies on prejudiced stereotypes in women’s football (Barreto, 2016; Broch, 2016; Caudwell, 2011; Christopherson et al., 2002; Fink, 1998, 2015). The stereotypes are presented as having been socially constructed (Fink, 2015) and connected with the power relations of the patriarchal society (Barreto, 2016). In this context, mass media is pointed out as a crucial stakeholder to reinforce or reduce these prejudiced stereotypes (Fink, 1998) by the visibility and the portrayal popular channels provide to specific topics while avoiding others. During this exploratory research journey, interesting aspects of the players’ desired and perceived image construction were observed, some of which go beyond the individual level, expanding the knowledge and covering fans’ dimensions. This analysis points out ways to develop a fairer and egalitarian women’s football. This study is relevant for athletes and sports organizations keen to strengthen their brands based on a strategy that considers not only the players’ opinions but also the expectations of fans. This exploratory journey also offers insights on athlete and fan perspectives as well for brands that are keen to invest in women’s football.

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Methodology This study is based on an exploratory and mixed-method approach to analyse the desired and perceived image of Paulistão Feminino 2020 players. This championship is organized by the São Paulo Football Federation and is the highest-level tournament in São Paulo, the most populous and industrialized Brazilian state. Qualitative analysis was based on quantitative data collected in a survey that was carried out with athletes (Table 7.1) and fans (Table 7.2). The questions from both surveys addressed similar themes enabling comparisons of footballers and fans perspectives. The desired and perceived image attributes were chosen based on similar assessments of previous studies (Costa, 2020; Hallmann, 2012). Both Table 7.1  Search with players Athlete identification

Social

Contents Desired image

Fans

• Name • Age • E-mail • Current team • Titles • Social media profiles • Number of followers on Instagram • The age group with the highest number of followers on Instagram • The city with the highest number of followers on Instagram • Authorship of posts • ‘Authentic personality’ reflected on social media profiles • Freedom to post • Purpose of having public social media profiles (private, professional or both) • Instagram as a revenue source • Three most addressed topics on Instagram profile • Three least addressed topics on Instagram profile • Importance of portraying talent • Importance of portraying fun • Importance of portraying success • Importance of fan interaction • Importance of fan approval • Followers aggressive behaviour

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Table 7.2  Female football fan survey Sociodemographic data

• Age • Gender • State of residence • People living in the same household • Monthly income average Sources of information on • Information sources on women’s football women’s football • Information sources on players • Ease (or difficulty) in following women’s football in the mass media and alternative media Stadium • About the habit of going to the stadium Perceived image • Women’s football (ranging from I don’t like to I’m fanatic) • Men’s football • Paulistão Feminino 2020 Team that supports • Female teams • Male teams Players’ social networks • Regular access to the players’ profiles • Most accessed social network • Three favourite topics Perceived image • Perception of players as talented • Perception of players as fun • Perception of players as successful Expectations about women’s • Future development of the sport football Brands • Preference for a brand that supports players • Preference for a brand that supports women’s football • Awareness of brands that support women’s football (listing brands that the fan remembers)

surveys were released on Google Forms, which is popular in Brazil and accessible to many. Twelve teams, including women’s sides of traditional Brazilian clubs such as São Paulo, Palmeiras, Corinthians, Santos and also local clubs like Ferroviária, Taubaté, Realidade Jovem, São José, Nacional, Juventus, Taboão da Serra and Red Bull Bragantino joined Paulistão Feminino 2020 from 17 October to 20 December 2020. A total of 314 athletes were active in the competition. Around 85 per cent of athletes answered the survey (268) that was part of a workshop programme offered by the São

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Paulo Football Federation from 17 to 19 August 2020. Besides players, team managers, trainers and staff were invited to join the discussions during the workshop on an online debate with players about effective personal brand construction led by international researchers, brand managers and female football marketing professionals. In the same period, a fan survey was disclosed on the social networks of Paulistão Feminino, clubs and athletes. Valid responses totalled 885. Survey primary data were used to calculate descriptive statistics, comparisons (t-Tests), bivariate correlations and binary logistic regressions.

Results Players’ Voice The survey received responses from 268 athletes from 12 teams. The average number of players’ followers on Instagram was 4.874. The average age of respondents was 22, and the most popular age group of their followers was 18 to 24 (47.8%). Most of the players (89.2%) authored their posts, confirming the authenticity of what is posted on Instagram. In this case, authenticity must be understood as posts and interactions directly provided by the athletes without intermediation. In addition, 47% of respondents confirmed having the freedom to post, while 49.5% stated having partial freedom meaning that sports organizations, clubs, sponsors participate in the decision-making process. Among the participants’ favourite topics are training, physical activities, their teams and about their private life. Among the least preferred subjects are controversies, social and political causes, and beauty and style, respectively. Recommendation of sponsors’ products is placed as the fourth least preferred topic. Around 66.8% of the participants use their social media for both professional and private purposes. Only 17.5% of the athletes use their accounts solely for private goals while 15.7% assumed that the usage targets professional aims only. Despite the great potential to influence

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fans and mobilize them for social and commercial causes, only 6.3% of respondents revealed that their Instagram profile generates income. When asked about the importance of portraying themselves as fun, talented and successful in grades ranging from 1 to 5, 1 being not important and 5 as very important, the highest average was fun (3.37), followed by talented (3.08) and successful (2.43). The self-assessment of players’ performance on their virtual stages by asking them if their ‘authentic’ personality is reflected on their social media profiles revealed that 83.2% of the respondents deliver their authentic personality on Instagram, meaning that most of the players portray themselves the way they are in real life.

Fans The sample of the 887 fans that completed the questionnaire is made of individuals of 28 Brazilian states mostly from São Paulo (67.1%), women (80.8%) and with an average age of 26. Among the respondents, 76.5% live with their family and 12.3% are married. The most recurrent monthly income level is a medium income of ‘over U$1.548’ (25.8%) and a low income ‘from U$ 193 to U$ 384’ (21.1%). About 19% of respondents reported not having any income. Although most participants visit stadiums (always  =  29.2%; up to twice a year  =  21.6%; 3 to 5 times a year = 15.4%), 33.9% of them never attend the matches in person. The preferred sources of information when searching about the sport are, first, alternative media related to women’s football, followed by the profile of the players on social networks, the profile of sports organizations and internet sites. Free-to-air TV, despite the massive reach to promote visibility for women’s football, was indicated as the main information source by only 104 out of 887 respondents. When looking for information about the female football player, their profile on social networks is the fans’ preferred source with almost 90% of them accessing these channels. Alternative media related to women’s football is placed in second. In third appears the official social media profile of the Paulista Football Federation and Brazilian Football Federation.

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When fans are asked about the barriers to following women’s football on TV and in alternative media, indicating a score ranging from 1 to 5, with 1 being very difficult and 5 very easy, the study discloses barriers to find content on open TV (average 2.24 for women and 2.30 for men) rather than in alternative media (average is 3.34 for women and 3.41 for men). Instagram is the most popular social network by fans: 81.1% of respondents access this network regularly. Twitter comes in second with 12.1% of respondents’ preference. Fans’ favourite topics are, respectively, the support for the development of the sport followed by backstage (behind the scenes) of the game, physical activities, athletes playing football, athletes supporting social and political causes and about the player’s private life. It is noticed that the sample is made of women’s football fans. Thus, the average grade of women’s football—with 1 representing the lowest grade and 5 the highest—is higher than that of men’s with 4.33 for football played by women and 3.97 for football played by men. The study revealed that women tend to rate women’s football better than men do. Players’ perceived image was evaluated by the fans with means higher than those indicated by the athletes. With 1 being the worst and 5 being the best, the average mark related to considering players as talented was 4.80, fun was 4.65, while successful was 3.21. The data revealed through significant comparisons that assiduous fans—that is, individuals following more than 12 profiles on social networks—address higher grades to all three image dimensions than those who follow up to five profiles. A curious comparison emerged from the data analysis: those who do not go to the stadiums marked the talented and fun dimensions higher than those who do. In addition, there was a positive correlation between the perception of the Paulistão Feminino with all image attributes of the players, suggesting that the good image of the competition influences the positive perception of the players. The sample of fans, in its entirety, was aware and able to name brands that support the sport. The 100% brand awareness of companies and products that invest in women’s football was reflected in the preference of these fans-consumers to buy products that support the sport; 90.2% of participants revealed they would prefer to buy brands that sponsor

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football played by women. The percentage was also high when asked if they would prefer to buy products that support a player, with 76.3% responding positively. The result reveals the prosperous path of brands that choose to be on the side of women’s football, surrounded by fans who also believe in this prosperity through a future where football played by women will create something never seen before (68.9% of respondents), revolutionizing the sport. The most assiduous fans (who follow more than 12 profiles) believe more in this transformation than those who follow up to five profiles.

Discussion After going through this exploratory journey it is clear that women’s football has the power to build an innovative dimension within football that—until recently—meant a sport practised, regulated and appreciated exclusively by men. Contrasting with distant and almost ‘artificial’ male idols, their female counterparts seem to be more authentic, by authoring and directly interacting with fans. By acting on their social networks— whether they are aware of it or not—the players add to the plural narrative that creates their personal brand in addition to the brand of leagues, teams and the sport as a whole. Indeed, this study revealed both: the power of players’ social media profiles as the preferred source of information of 90% of fans and the correlation of positive evaluation of an individual (athlete’s) brand to a collective (tournament) brand. In addition to authenticity, another aspect stands out when we analyse the representation of athletes on Instagram, with a preference for roles addressed to masculinity (Eagly, 1987): portraying themselves actively in training sessions, in fitness sessions and as professionals on their teams. This finding converges with other articles on the topic (Costa, 2020; Smith & Sanderson, 2015). There are also interesting findings when moving to the fans’ perspective. They perceive in the players a value that the players are not aware of, addressing higher marks than those indicated by the athletes with the highest average for the attribute of being talented. The finding warns that players must trust in their talent and that fans, despite valuing female

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roles associated with the collective, also consider the individual’s talent, which can be associated with the masculine role of standing out professionally. In addition, fans are also interested in themes related to female gender roles. The development of the sport is the topic preferred by 24% of respondents despite the low degree of preference on the players’ side. Retaking the concept of gender stereotypes with the femininity related to communal and the masculinity to agentic behaviour, this research discloses players valuing agency in self-presentation while fans accumulate expectations. They expect players to be agentic and communal. In other words, it is about conquering spaces within masculinity while still taking care of feminine attributes. Indeed, fans also expect women to perform the traditional female gender role described by Eagly (1987) such as female footballers fostering a more egalitarian society where women’s football can be understood as a ‘mother’ who cares for a fairer world. Moreover, players and fans agree on the interest of disclosing and accessing information about physical activities and private life. Previous literature also revealed athlete’s predilection in self-presenting by private life-related content (Smith & Sanderson, 2015; Geurin-Eagleman & Burch, 2016). This article adds to the existing literature setting arguments to justify not only the interest in private life while self-presenting but also in professional life content. In addition, it goes beyond the athlete’s perspective, offering fans’ dimensions as well. Topic-oriented digital media—such as blogs and podcasts—was revealed as a powerful information source about the sport and about the players. Indeed it is curious to realize that, despite having a fundamental role in promoting the visibility of women’s football, television is not the preferred information source that fans can rely on since it is difficult to follow the sport in mass media. One reason to justify this preference could be the fact that only the most important matches of high-level tournaments can be followed on TV while women’s football-oriented media offers a wider range of coverage. More research is needed to fully understand this behaviour. By choosing ‘non-massive media’ like blogs, YouTube Channels and podcasts, women’s football fans may represent an alternative-content consumer profile that will hardly adapt to the ‘traditional’ format of covering idols and games. Previous literature such as Hasaan et al. (2016a) has warned about the lack of control players have

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in building their personal brand, while media, sponsors and sports organizations disclose an image that is not desired by footballers. This study discloses fans’ preference for information sources such as athlete’s profiles on social media. This gives athletes more control over constructing the personal brand they want because they are the ones who massively inform fans by authoring the content released about themselves. The lack of professional social media management by athletes pointed out by other authors (Geurin, 2017; Davies & Mudrick, 2017) can be considered a problem of not exploring a potential revenue source on one hand, but, on the other, represents a unique opportunity to follow an authentic and innovative path and embrace the latent expectation of the women’s football collective development (in place of the #loveyourself individualism of a neoliberal post-feminism where this social cause is used to increase market opportunities). Perhaps one of the most important contributions of this exploratory study is an appeal for female players to abandon a behaviour already observed by other authors (Toffoletti & Thorpe, 2018b) where they do not challenge dominant ideologies (as in the case of neoliberalism). In other words, striving for authenticity in their individual forms of representation while dialoguing with a perspective based on a professional strategy of collective strengthening could result not only in stronger personal brands but in women’s football development as a whole. There are interesting market opportunities observed not only on the athletes’ side (as authentic idols with huge appeal to fans) but on the fans’ side (high income and massive preferences to buy products from brands that support female players and the sport). Even considering a sample made of fans of the sport, 100% brand awareness is something that draws attention and reveals an audience that values companies that invest in women’s football. There is great potential not only for advertising agencies but also for players who, according to this study’s survey, post little about sponsors’ products. Indeed this is an opportunity that should be explored consciously by players in order to avoid manipulation of their careers and sport in a non-desired and inauthentic way.

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Fink, J. S. (1998). Female athletes and the media: Strides and stalemates. Journal of Physical Education, Recreation & Dance, 69(6), 37–40. Fink, J. S. (2015). Female athletes, women’s sport, and the sport media commercial complex: Have we really come a long way, baby? Sport Management Review, 18(3), 331–342. Elsevier. Geurin, A. (2013). ‘Acceptance, motivations, and usage of social media as a marketing communications tool amongst employees of sport national governing bodies’. Sport Management Review, 16(4), 488–497. Geurin, A. (2017). Elite Female Athletes’ Perceptions of New Media Use Relating to Their Careers: A Qualitative Analysis. Journal of Sport Management, 31, 1–42. https://doi.org/10.1123/jsm.2016-0157. Geurin, A., & Krohn, B. (2012). Sponsorship awareness, attitudes toward sponsors, and purchase intentions of participants in a road race series. Sport Marketing Quarterly, 11, 210–220. Geurin-Eagleman, A. N., & Burch, L. M. (2016). Communicating via photographs: A gendered analysis of Olympic athletes’ visual self-presentation on Instagram. Sport Management Review, 19(2), 133–145. Goellner, S. (2005). Mulheres e futebol no Brasil: Entre sombras e visibilidades [Women and soccer in Brazil: Between shadows and visibility]. Revista Brasileira de Educação Física e Esporte, 19(2), 143–151. Goffman, E. (1959). The presentation of self in everyday life. Doubleday. Hardy, E. (2015). The female ‘apologetic’ behaviour within Canadian women’s rugby: Athlete perceptions and media influences. Sport in Society, 18(2), 155–167. Hallmann, K. (2012). ‘Women’s 2011 football world cup: the impact of perceived images of women’s soccer and the world cup 2011 on interest in attending matches’, Sport Management Review, 15(1), 33–42. Hasaan, A., Kerem, K., Biscaia, R., & Agyemang, K. (2016a). Understanding the implications of player brand among fans. Technics Technologies Education Management, 11(1), 69–82. Hasaan, A., Kerem, K., Biscaia, R., & Agyemang, K.  J. A. (2016b). Athlete brand construction: A perspective based on fans’ perceptions. Motriz: Revista de Educação Física, 22, 144–159. Hoffmann, R., Chew Ging, L., Matheson, V., & Ramasamy, B. (2006). International women’s football and gender inequality. Applied Economics Letters, 13(15), 999–1001. Knijnik, J. (2006). Femininos e masculinos no futebol brasileiro [Female and male in Brazilian football]. Doctoral thesis, University of São Paulo, São Paulo.

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Knijnik, J. (2013). Visions of gender justice: Untested feasibility on the football fields of Brazil. Journal of Sport and Social Issues, 37(1), 8–30. Knijnik, J. (2015). Femininities and masculinities in Brazilian women’s football: Resistance and compliance. Journal of International Women’s Studies, 16(3), 54–70. Meier, H. E., Konjer, M., & Strauß, B. (2019). Identification with the women’s national soccer in Germany: Do gender role orientations matter? [Online]. Retrieved January 5, 2020, from https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/1 0.1080/14660970.2019.1629908?src=recsys Mourão, L., & Morel, M. (2008). As narrativas sobre o futebol feminino: O discurso da mídia impressa em campo [The narratives about female soccer: The discourse of the print media in the field]. Revista Brasileira de Ciências do Esporte, 26(2), 73–86. Pisani, M. D. S. (2014). Futebol feminino: espaço de empoderamento para mulheres das periferias de São Paulo [Women’s football: Empowerment site for women from São Paulo] [Online]. Retrieved January 5, 2020, from https://journals. openedition.org/pontourbe/1621 Smith, L. R., & Sanderson, J. (2015). I’m going to Instagram it! An analysis of athlete self-presentation on Instagram. Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media, 59(2), 342–358. Stephens, N. (2021). Social media sponsorship is the new Norman [Online]. Retrieved June 5, 2021, from https://sportskred.com/social-­media-­ sponsorship-­is-­the-­new-­norman The Nielsen Company. (2018). Nielsen Sports—The Rise in Women Sports— White Paper [Online]. Retrieved January 5, 2020, from https://www.nielsen. com/ca/en/insights/report/2018/the-­rise-­of-­womens-­sports/ Toffoletti, K., & Thorpe, H. (2018a). The athletic labour of femininity: The branding and consumption of global celebrity sportswomen on Instagram. Journal of Consumer Culture, 18(2), 298–316. Toffoletti, K., & Thorpe, H. (2018b). ‘Female athletes’ self-representation on social media: A feminist analysis of neoliberal marketing strategies in “economies of visibility”. Feminism & Psychology, 28(1), 11–31. Trapnell, P., & Paulhus, D. (2012). Agentic and communal values: Their scope and measurement. Journal of Personality Assessment, 94(1), 39–52. Votre, S., & Mourão, L. (2003). Women’s football in Brazil: Progress and problems. Soccer & Society, 4(2–3), 254–267. We are social, Hootsuite. (2018). Digital in 2018: World’s internet users pass the four billion mark [Online]. Retrieved January 5, 2020, from https://wearesocial.com/blog/2018/01/global-­digital-­report-­2018

8 Changing Values: Media Coverage of the 2019 Women’s World Cup on Brazilian Sports News Sites Soraya Barreto Januário, Cecilia Almeida Rodrigues Lima, and Daniel Leal

Introduction On June 23, 2019, the Brazilian national women’s football team was defeated by France during the round of 16 of FIFA Women’s World Cup (WWC). That particular match was watched in Brazil by more than 35 million viewers, considering the ratings released by national television channels Globo, Band, and SporTV. The team may have lost, but that number represents a groundbreaking record1 for women’s football (WF)  TV: Brazil vs. France records largest audience in the history of the Women’s Cup. Available at: http://twixar.me/n0x1 (October 6, 2019). 1

S. B. Januário (*) Universidade Federal de Pernambuco, Recife, Brazil e-mail: [email protected] C. A. Rodrigues Lima • D. Leal Universidade Federal de Pernambuco, Recife, Brazil e-mail: [email protected] © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2022 J. Knijnik, A. Costa (eds.), Women’s Football in Latin America, New Femininities in Digital, Physical and Sporting Cultures, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-07976-4_8

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in the country. Previous editions of the WWC, a tournament held every four years since 1991, garnered almost no attention in the most relevant Brazilian media outlets (see Barreto Januário et al., 2016, 2020), while the Men’s World Cup has been a highly mediated and praised event since its early days in the 1930s. Silvana Goellner (2005) considers that the gap between women’s and men’s football in Brazil, and the world, can be explained by two determining factors: (1) the claim that football would make female bodies “more masculine” and less suitable for reproductive purposes, a premise used to excuse various historical prohibitions2 involving women and sports in Brazil3; and (2) the hegemonic ideal of femininity as being incompatible with activities that require physical strength, aggressiveness, and vigor. These complementary notions show why, to this day, masculine ideals such as virility are related to specific sports and why football culture is mostly associated with men (Taylor, 2001; Goellner, 2005; Mourão & Morel, 2008; Elsey & Nadel, 2019). We also add a third element: politics. Football is managed mostly—or almost exclusively—by institutions run by men, such as FIFA, CONMEBOL, and the Brazilian Football Confederation (CBF). Out of the 255 executive positions (presidency, board members, directors, secretaries, superintendents) listed in the top 25 Brazilian clubs’ websites, only seven are occupied women across five of the clubs (Bertoldo, 2021). Since CBF was created, in September 1979, there has never been a single woman in a management position and only in 2020 did they create a department focused on the development of WF. While this change of course may present a favorable future for the sport in the country, this whole scenario helps explain the lack of incentives for women to play football. At the 2007 Pan American Games and the 2016 Olympics, both held in Rio de Janeiro, the Brazilian public realized concretely that football is  Brazilian women were legally prohibited from playing football and several other sports from 1941 to 1983, by a decree-law issued during the government of President Getúlio Vargas. The women’s team played its first game in 1986, whereas the men’s first match was held in 1914. By 1986, the men’s national team were already three-time world champions. 3  Aside from Brazil, as recently as the 1980s a few of the 24 countries involved in the 2019 World Cup had imposed outright bans on women’s soccer, such as Germany (where the ban was lifted in 1970), Spain (in which the sport wasn’t formally banned, but was only recognized in 1980), and the United Kingdom (where the ban was lifted in 1971). 2

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not a sport made exclusively for men. The women’s national team played to sold-out stadiums and even rivalled the men’s team in popularity (Elsey & Nadel, 2019). Stars like Marta, Christiane, and Formiga inspired audiences to show their support in the stands and on digital social networks (Figueiredo, 2019). But the mobilization and visibility were considerably more striking during the eighth edition of the FIFA World Cup, held in France in 2019, the first to be aired by Globo, Brazil’s leading broadcaster.4 Those events show that mainstream media plays a very important role in the process of commodifying WF and establishing equitable conditions for the practice. Sports that get live television coverage are notably more practiced, consumed, and discussed, whereas those that aren’t covered become practically invisible to the general public’s eye (Goellner, 2005; Mourão & Morel, 2008). How and in what way did the WWC become a newsworthy event after almost three decades of media silence? To this date, there are few studies looking at how this growing coverage has played out, whether it was sexist, generified, or, on the contrary, most focused on the sporting show itself. This essay discusses the subject by analyzing the most recurring themes and news values applied in the coverage of the eighth edition of the WWC. Our data are based on a sample of 926 articles published by five relevant Brazilian news websites specializing in sports: UOL Sports, Globo Esportes, ESPN, Torcedores.com, and Placar. The thematic analysis (Nowell et al., 2017) seeks to promote the debate around journalistic representations and news values applied in the media treatment of WF (Silva, 2014), while analyzing gender and its relational character of social construction (Scott, 2007) and the hierarchical processes established in power relations (Connell, 2008). We find that the media attention given to WWC has increased quantitatively and qualitatively, when compared to previous editions (cf. Barreto Januário et al., 2016).5

 Previous editions of the tournament had almost no live coverage in the country. In the past, only isolated matches were aired by channels such as Band, cable channel SporTV, and the public network TV Brasil. 5  This essay was produced by the research group Gender, Media, and Sports within the scope of the Media Observatory: Gender, Democracy, and Human Rights (OBMIDIA) at Universidade Federal de Pernambuco, which monitors the impact of the WWC in news websites since 2015. 4

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Gender, Women’s Football, and News Values Gender is a crucial conceptual category to understand the history of football and its relationship with society. American historian Joan Scott (2007) defined gender as a constitutive element of social relations based on perceived differences between the sexes, a primary way of giving meaning to relations of power. Louro (1997) and Butler (2003) complemented this in arguing that gender is a cultural and social construction. Scott (2007) also argued that there is no single way to experience masculinity or femininity, and that such binary behaviors involve relations of power and coercion. Since Beauvoir’s famous words “One is not born, but rather becomes, a woman” (1986), gender has been understood as an ambiguous process of self-construction and social construction. For the philosopher, the verb “to become,” written in the present tense, encompasses the intention of the act of assuming oneself through a corporeal style of meanings. Even if the biological body shows features that identify someone as a woman, the act of becoming a woman presupposes a process of appropriation and reinterpretation that comes from cultural possibilities. However, Butler (1986) highlighted the passive nature of the verb, in the sense that gender is constructed by a patriarchal and phallic language system. The author claims that the distinction between sex and gender has turned into a mode of bodily acculturation, as well as a destiny created by anatomy. Masculinities and femininities are simultaneously constructed in two fields related to power: in the relationships of men with women (gender inequality) and also in the relationships of men with other men— inequalities of race, ethnicity, sexuality, social class—(Connell, 2008). The qualities socially imposed on women (such as grace, lightness, and beauty) distanced them from sports arenas. Delimiting certain environments as unsuitable for women is a clear mechanism for discipline, coercion, and power (Foucault, 2012). In football culture, biological differences have justified persecution, prejudiced social representations, and even discrimination (Knijnik & Souza, 2004; Caudwell, 2011; Elsey & Nadel, 2019). Football was naturalized in structures associated with masculinity and virility. According to Elsey and Nadel (2019), “femininity” was used as a criterion to critique male football, disconnecting WF from acceptable practices. “If men who played poorly were considered

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‘feminine,’ women’s sports, by definition, lacked quality” (Elsey & Nadel, 2019, p. 110). The very designation of “women’s” football can be perceived as exclusionary, because it is used to specify when the sport is played by women, providing a universal meaning to the masculine in detriment of the feminine. Although several women challenged the prohibition, the forty-year ban on WF in Brazil nevertheless affected the sport and, consequently, its coverage. After the end of the ban in the 1980s, WF slowly began to gain traction in the country, but it did so while facing backlash, harassment, and neglect (Goellner, 2005; Mourão & Morel, 2008). Brazilian women footballers were often criticized as unfeminine and the pressure to render WF marketable has resulted in what Elsey and Nadel (2019) call the “femming up” of the national team, along with the “whitening” and the “closeting” of players. These sexist and culturally constructed ideals can either be legitimized or challenged by journalistic narratives, which is why it is important to discuss the processes of newsmaking before continuing. Alsina (2009) considers journalistic reports as a social representation of everyday reality. When thinking about the prohibitions imposed on WF in Brazil, it is not surprising that the sport has also been neglected by sports journalism, since the reporter tends to reproduce what is socially acceptable (Correia, 2005). Newsworthiness is the set of criteria and operations that make an event deserving of journalistic treatment, that is, to have value as news (Traquina, 2005). These criteria determine whether an event or subject is likely to make the news (Traquina, 2005). News values compose the dynamic that involves news selection and production. There are several attempts to classify news values. Silva’s proposal (2014) recommends twelve criteria for treating news events, which are: (1) Impact: the number of people involved in or affected by the event; (2) Prominence: people with notoriety, celebrities et cetera; (3) Conflict: wars, fights, protests; (4) Tragedy/drama: catastrophes and accidents; (5) Proximity (geographic or cultural); (6) Rarity; (7) Surprise; (8) Government: national interest, legislative decisions, and elections; (9) Controversy; (10) Justice: judgments, decisions, and investigations; (11) Entertainment/curiosity: sports and leisure; and (12) Knowledge/culture: discoveries, inventions, cultural activities, and religion. This is far from being the only attempt to categorize news values, but it is fairly

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comprehensive and takes many previous classifications into account, which is why we use this proposal as the basis for our analysis. 6 Madureira (2010) considers that the relationship between journalists and their audiences preserve their original functions, the former with absolute control over what will or will not be published, the latter in a merely reactive role. This is not the case anymore, especially after the emergence of digital social networks. The Internet offers an environment where it is easy to manipulate, distribute, and reproduce information, making it possible to follow multiple simultaneous events. People and institutions gained a new way of interacting with news, expressing opinions, and joining debates. For those reasons, Coche (2014) argues that the Internet can help fill the gaps left by mainstream media in WF coverage. In recent years, the emergence of several Brazilian blogs and social media profiles exclusively dedicated to WF7 show that the sport has supporters in the country. There is a content-starved and powerful audience (Mesquita, 2014), which demands more representation and visibility for women footballers. This process cannot be seen in isolation from political achievements related to recent feminist movements. In the 1980s, the relationship of women footballers to the feminist movements “contributed to the discussion of women’s rights in Brazil at the critical moment of democratization” (Elsey & Nadel, 2019, p. 146). In a complementary way, the mainstream media’s response to provide more coverage of the 2019 WWC is based on the perception that this audience is valuable and represents a lucrative market.

 he Eighth Edition of the WWC: Coverage T and Highlights The 2019 FIFA WWC was the eighth edition of the WWC, the international football championship contested by twenty-four women’s national teams representing member associations of FIFA. It took place between  Cf. Galtung and Ruge (1965); Gans (1979); Traquina (2005).  Initiatives such as Dibradoras, A Vitrine do Futebol Feminino, and Menina Joga.

6 7

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June 7 and July 7, 2019, with fifty-two matches staged in nine cities in France. In Brazil, Rede Globo de Televisão held the rights to broadcast the event, using its free-to-air channel TV Globo and its paid channel SporTV to broadcast the matches (the first being reserved for the Brazilian national team’s matches, as well as for the final match, and the latter for other matches). SporTV reportedly broadcasted 96% of the competition, whereas in 2015 it only covered 46% (Capelo, 2019). In addition to broadcasting the matches, Globo ran a series of reports on the WWC in its journalistic programs, introducing its viewers to the reality of Brazilian WF on a regular basis, even before the beginning of the tournament—for example, in May, the sports program Esporte Espetacular aired a 12-minute report explaining the “humiliation” and “prejudice” suffered by women’s soccer players in Brazil and the team’s struggle for survival on the eve of the World Cup. According to Kantar Ibope Media,8 the whole tournament reached more than 108 million people in Brazil. In 2015, the same championship reached 42 million viewers, but it should be noted that the media coverage on the occasion was much smaller.9 Worldwide, a total of 1.12 billion viewers tuned in to the 2019 tournament on TV or on some digital platform (FIFA, 2019). This means that the average audience per game more than doubled compared to the 2015 World Cup in Canada. The final between the United States and the Netherlands was the most viewed match in the history of WF, with an average audience of 82.18 million—an increase of 56% over the final of 2015 (FIFA, 2019).

Methodology and Procedures To assess the most recurring themes and news values associated with the WWC, we performed a thematic analysis of journalistic articles on the event. A thematic analysis is a qualitative method “for identifying,  “Women’s World Cup More than Doubles Audience of Previous Edition and Breaks Record in Brazil.” Available at: http://twixar.me/Sr61 (October 12, 2019). 9  The public broadcaster TV Brasil aired the matches of the Brazilian team from the group stage to the round of 16, while TV Band only aired the game of the Brazilian national team in the round of 16 (Capelo, 2019). 8

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analyzing, organizing, describing, and reporting themes found within a data set” (Nowell et al., 2017, p. 2). At the first stage of the study, the researchers who co-sign this study registered and classified all the articles about the WWC in the database (N = 984) published between June 7 and July 7, 2019, on five sports news websites: Torcedores.com10 (N = 440), UOL Esporte11 (N = 220), Globo Esportes12 (N = 160), the website of SporTV13 (N = 58), the Brazilian-based website of ESPN14 (N = 57), and the website of Placar Magazine15 (N = 49). The authors proceeded to familiarize themselves with the data, documenting theoretical and reflective thoughts, as well as insights about potential themes and news values. At this stage, we identified that the entirety of the articles published on the SporTV website were duplicated in Globo Esporte, as they both belong to Rede Globo. Therefore, SporTV was excluded from the sample, leading to a total of 926 units from the remaining websites, as Table 8.1 shows. The team of researchers then read each article independently and discussed what were the initial emerging themes in the database. We debated how to code each unit, observing aspects such as the most relevant topics, the depth of the article, the representation of gender, mentioned athletes or professionals, mentioned nations, the journalistic genre applied, among other aspects that we considered interesting. For the next phase (searching for themes), the researchers revisited the data to identify the most prominent themes (depending on the comprehensiveness of the article, multiple themes could be assigned to the same unit) and the news values associated with it, using Silva’s (2014) aforementioned classification as a starting point to interpret the role of the thematic categories in the context of WF.  The themes were labeled,  Unlike the others, Torcedores doesn’t belong to a mainstream media group and has over 500 collaborators around the country. 11  The sports section inside UOL, the second most accessed news website in Brazil. 12  The sports section inside Globo.com, the most accessed news website in Brazil, owned by Grupo Globo. 13  Paid sports television channel owned by Grupo Globo. 14  US-based paid TV network for broadcasting sports programs. 15  Brazilian magazine specializing in sports. It belongs to the publisher Editora Abril. 10

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Table 8.1  Sample description Website

Textual units

Torcedores.com UOL Esporte Globo Esporte ESPN Placar Total

440 220 160 57 49 926

Note: Author’s original work

reviewed, and peer-debriefed, from which it became clear that some of them didn’t have enough data to support them or the data were too diverse (justifying the creation of the category “Others”). The researchers produced a report with the most relevant quantitative results, then compared these to previous similar studies (see Barreto Januário et al., 2016, who studied most of the same news websites during the previous edition of the WWC). Next, the thematic categories were described and analyzed. Finally, the themes were associated with the most prominent news values and organized in a thematic network, which is a web-like illustration that summarizes the main themes constituting a group of texts, according to the perspective of Attride-Stirling (2001). In this study, the global theme is the WWC, and the basic themes that derived from the database are the categories named by the researchers— from there, we identified the news values from Silva’s (2014) proposal as organizing themes.

Main Findings During the WWC in 2015, Januário and Veloso (2019) analyzed sixty-­ nine news articles from some of the same national sports journalism outlets investigated in this study: Globo Esportes, UOL Esportes, ESPN, and SporTV.  The results then showed that the digital coverage of the WWC lacked diversity, being restricted to the news value of Entertainment and focusing exclusively on the performance of the Brazilian national team and reports that highlighted the role of Marta, the star of the Brazilian team. For comparison purposes, if we exclude the website

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Torcedores.com and Placar magazine, which were not quantified in the previous research, our database would have a total of 437 units, against 69 in the first study—a 533% increase in the coverage of the WWC on Brazilian sports websites. These numbers alone show the significance of the 2019 edition, yet the increase did not occur only quantitatively, but also qualitatively. In the eighth WWC, several new topics acquired relevance for the media. Below, we list the thematic categories identified throughout the coding process (Table 8.2). It should again be noted that the same unit may have been classified in more than one category, since an article could address more than one theme (Nowell et al., 2017). Below, we describe and interpret each category. Standard news—Information about the tournament’s calendar; results of each game; team lineup and training information; aspects about the World Cup (host cities, stadiums, etc.), without depth. Related to the Entertainment/Curiosity news value (Silva, 2014), this was the most common category in the sample, appearing in all analyzed websites. Media coverage—The fact that the media (especially television) gave unprecedented attention to the World Cup in France acquired news Table 8.2  Thematic categories Categories Standard news Media coverage Marta effect National team’s performance WC in numbers Manifestations of activism Prospects for the sport Athletes’ trajectories Other teams’ performances Discord and controversy Others

ESPN

Globo Esporte

Placar

Torcedores. com UOL

Total (%)

27 0 9 6

88 5 16 8

27 12 7 9

213 68 48 19

89 36 22 32

47.9 13 11 9

1 4

8 6

2 4

43 18

16 8

7.5 4.3

4 5 2

13 11 7

0 1 0

0 10 19

19 7 5

3.9 3.7 3.6

3

2

1

7

9

2.3

1

1

0

17

2

2.3

Note: Author’s original work

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values of Impact (number of people involved) and Surprise, which Silva (2014) also describes as “Unexpected.” This category includes reports on audience numbers; information about channels on which the viewer could follow the matches; and meta-analysis about the coverage. The category appeared on almost all websites, except for ESPN. The frequency of units categorized as “Standard news” and “Media coverage” demonstrate the importance of the recent increase in visibility of WF, especially if we observe studies on previous editions of the championship (Barreto Januário et al., 2016). When there is more coverage, people become more interested in general information about matches, team performance, and players. It is possible to suggest that the effects of feminist movements and the struggle for women’s representation in sport contributed to a paradigm shift in a field dominated by men (Goellner, 2005). We can also add that the interest in WF has also been driven by the increasingly frequent use of social media by niched sports news websites, many of which are led by women and carry out consistent work in giving visibility to the sport in Brazil. Also active on social media, many Brazilian sportswomen use their profiles to value WF and challenge traditional depictions of female athletes, adopting new strategies for identity construction (Toffoletti & Thorpe, 2018). These combined efforts, as well as a greater social demand for gender and race equality, leveraged by movements such as #MeToo and #BlackLivesMatter, have favored the construction of a content-starved and highly rigorous audience around WF, which expects equitable coverage from the traditional media outlets. Marta effect—Several articles highlighted the player’s leading role and her achievements in the Brazilian team, which is why she deserves her own category. The category is associated with the news value of Prominence (Silva, 2014) and includes achievements and records in the fields (number of goals, for instance), as well as the athlete’s protests calling for more support for WF. For example, “Marta chooses to play without sponsorship and carries a message on her shoes” (UOL). In addition to being a high-performance athlete, Marta has recently become a “celebrity player” (Taylor, 2001). She is the main reference when it comes to WF in Brazil, and promotes an identification–inspiration relationship with her fans. The elocution of a media narrative that presents certain sports personalities as capable of offering meanings that

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trigger behavioral, ideological, and image constructs as elements of aspiration for younger people is constant. What sets Marta apart from the stars of men’s football is the little interest in the athlete outside of the field: her image remains connected to the sports segment. However, this category shows that the star is being framed through multiple perspectives—for instance, her role as an equal-pay activist. It is important to note that some articles included in this category also involved “Manifestations of activism,” especially in Marta’s participation in Go Equal, an organization that fights for gender equality in sports. National team’s performance—Analyses, reviews, and articles discussing the performance of the team led by coach Vadão. In this category we found articles that displayed an in-depth analytical exercise, associated with the news values of Proximity and Entertainment. Criticisms of the tactical scheme, in addition to praise for individual talents, were noted. We also noticed moments when journalists highlighted their greater enthusiasm for supporting the women’s national team than the men’s. We should note that previous editions of the WWC (Barreto Januário et al., 2016) lacked this kind of reporting. Therefore it is our understanding that this category represents a great achievement for WF, as this is an “old” demand for coverage that is more focused on the game and its tactical points, not on the players’ aesthetics or their personal lives. The World Cup in numbers—Articles associated with the values of Impact and Surprise. This includes broken records, number of spectators in stadiums, and monetary transactions related to the championship. Activism and manifestations—Protests carried out by athletes such as Ada Hegerberg (Norway) and Megan Rapinoe (United States) in the fight for gender equality and other political agendas involving Conflict— news value in which Silva (2014) includes “Claim,” “Fight,” and “Dispute.” Among Rapinoe’s most reported feats is the fact that the athlete did not sing the US anthem in protest against former president Donald Trump, as well as declarations that if she were a champion, she would not make the traditional visit to the White House. The debate around equal pay in women’s sport—and in society as a whole—is not new. The asymmetries caused by the sexual division of labor and the impact of multiple journeys are evident in the female experience (Scott, 2007) and stem from established social relationships

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associated with gender/sex issues, historically and culturally adapted to each society (Louro, 1997). In the construction of a sexist and patriarchal structure, the hierarchy of domination was constituted by men in the productive sphere and women in the reproductive sphere (Connell, 2008). In the context of football, despite being four-time champions and valued in the United States, the women’s team does not have salaries equivalent to the men’s. Similarly, in Brazil, a country in which football plays an important role in the national identity, women football players do not receive the same praise as the men. Relevant athletes used the World Cup’s visibility to address these issues and became news, like Marta, who pointed out the gender equality symbol in her boots after scoring, and the attacking midfielder Megan Rapinoe, who refused to sing the US national anthem. Prospects for the sport—In which journalists, athletes, and coaches discuss actions that can strengthen WF.  For example: “Is there life after Marta, Formiga and Cristiane in the women’s team? Brazil takes steps, but reform may take time” (ESPN). Athletes’ trajectories—The World Cup was a favorable environment for journalism to give visibility to several heroines, extending its gaze to athletes other than Marta, which shows qualitative growth when compared to the previous edition. Articles that addressed the life story or personal moments of athletes and/or coaches were included in this category. Other players in the national team gained prominence, such as Cristiane, responsible for Brazil’s first three goals in the tournament; Formiga, the oldest athlete to compete in a world championship; and Tamires, the only Brazilian player to be a mother. These reports often emphasized the difficulties and struggles these athletes suffered throughout their life. For example: “Victim of Brazilian racism, French player overcame the ‘end of the world’” (UOL). Other teams’ performances—After Brazil was eliminated, the websites started to cover the dispute for the title, highlighting teams such as the United States, England, France, and Australia. In this category, content that falls within the Curiosity news value discussed the situation of WF in countries that were not necessarily present in the World Cup. For example: “Women report even greater barriers in Arab football: ‘Men looked with surprise’” (Globo Sports).

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Controversy—Facts framed by the Polemics/Controversy bias, such as President Trump’s clashes with Megan Rapinoe and alleged animosity between Marta and Emily Lima, the former Brazilian team coach. In addition, controversies related to gender discrimination and inequalities between the men’s and women’s national teams were covered. For example: “Emily Lima preaches respect but adds to controversy: ‘What did Marta, Cristiane, and Formiga achieve?’” (Torcedores). Other—Units that didn’t fit any of the identified thematic patterns. For example, memes created by internet users instigating rivalry between nations. Figure 8.1 shows the thematic network and the most prominent news values associated with each theme, using the method proposed by Attride-­ Stirling (2001). “Once a collection of Basic Themes has been derived, they are then classified according to the underlying story they are telling and these become the Organizing Themes”—in this study’s case, the news values. “Organizing Themes are then reinterpreted in light of their Basic Themes, and are brought together to illustrate a single conclusion or

Standard news

Marta effect Athletes’ trajectories Manifestations of activism

Entertainment / Curiosity

Prominence

Proximity Conflict Polemics Discord and controversy

2019 Women’s World Cup

Other teams’ performances Prospects for the sport National team’s performance

Surprise

• Media

Impact

• WC in

coverage

Numbers

Legend News values (organizing themes)

Fig. 8.1  2019 WWC thematic network. (Author’s original work)

Basic themes

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super-ordinate theme that becomes the Global Theme” (Attride-Stirling, 2001, p. 390). The increase in visibility and diversity of topics does not solve the set of problems faced by WF, but the mainstream media can be an ally to denounce the inequalities experienced by women in sports. Reports such as “In the Women’s World Cup, men still make up the majority of coaches” (UOL) and “FIFA spent 36 times more on the Russian Cup than on the Women’s Football World Cup” (Torcedores.com) show that there was space reserved for more in-depth discussions, enabling debates about gender hierarchies. But despite the increased visibility given by the media, we must remain alert: during the 2004 Olympic Games, Martins and Moraes (2007) noted a growth of over 2000% in the number of news insertions about WF in the Brazilian newspapers Folha de S. Paulo and Estado de S. Paulo. However, the authors concluded that it didn’t turn out to be anything more than an ephemeral trend, which ended after the Olympic Games. Mourão and Morel (2008) called the relationship between WF and the mainstream media a “yo-yo effect.” Observing WF between 1940 and 1980, Costa (2017) presented the same concern with the ups and downs of the sport’s visibility from time to time, leveraged by specific events, then forgotten. What remains to be seen is whether the legacy of the 2019 World Cup will allow the presence of WF in mass media to be consolidated more definitively and further defy the traditional codes of hegemonic masculinity (Connell, 2008) that permeate the football universe.

Final Considerations Previous editions of the WWC have had scant coverage in Brazil, which was mostly related to the news value of Entertainment. Research shows that in 2015 the presence of sexist stereotypes related to WF was strong and Marta was perceived as a lone star in the Brazilian national team. This study shows that the situation has changed significantly. The sexist portrayal of women footballers was reduced, giving way to more technical analyses and reviews of the matches, which can be considered a great feminist achievement. Longer articles told the personal stories and

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struggles of women in football, portraying athletes as heroines, and also discussing the role of gender inequalities in sports, another important feminist topic highlighted by the tournament. The diversity of news values and thematic categories identified in the sample shows the multiple ways in which the subject has been framed, which is a promising finding. Although almost half of the analyzed units are still short and bureaucratic articles about games and teams’ line-ups, several thematic categories included more in-depth and contextual reporting. The increase in thematic diversity is something to be commended, even more than the increase in numbers. Impressive audience ratings and the explosion of news on Brazil’s top sports websites confirm that the WF market has already become a reality—at least during a highly spectacular tournament like the FIFA WWC. The presence of TV Globo has undoubtedly helped to increase the perception that the WWC is an event worthy of attention, arousing the public’s curiosity about the female version of what is considered the most important football championship in the world. The quantitative and qualitative growth identified in this edition of the tournament demonstrate the media’s interest in expanding its coverage. It is important to monitor what happens next: will the mainstream media show the same interest in WF during other tournaments? We are far from considering that this is a homogeneous process or free from contradictions. However, the conditions seems favorable for a new understanding and visibility of WF in Brazil, where regardless of the performance of the Brazilian team, there seems to be a public willing to support it and that demands a more equitable treatment by the institutions involved in the sports market and media.

References Alsina, M. (2009). A construção da Notícia (1th ed.). Vozes. Attride-Stirling, J. (2001). Thematic networks: An analytic tool for qualitative research. Qualitative Research, 1(3), 385–405. https://doi. org/10.1177/146879410100100307

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Foucault, M. (2012). The birth of the clinic. Routledge. Galtung, J., & Ruge, M. H. (1965). The structure of foreign news. The presentation of the Congo, Cuba, and Cyprus crises in four Norwegian newspapers. Journal of Peace Research, 2(1), 64–91. Gans, H. (1979). Deciding what’s news: A study of CBS evening news, NBC nightly news, Newsweek, and Time. Pantheon Books. Goellner, S. V. (2005). Mulheres e futebol no Brasil: entre sombras e visibilidades. Revista Brasileira de Educação Física e Esporte, 19(2), 143–151. Knijnik, J. D., & Souza, J. S. S. (2004). Diferentes e desiguais: relações de gênero na mídia esportiva brasileira. In: A. C Simões, J. D.  Knijnik. O mundo psicossocial da mulher no esporte: comportamento, gênero, desempenho. São Paulo: Aleph. Louro, G. L. (1997). Gênero, sexualidade e educação (p. 20). vozes. Madureira, F. B. (2010). Cidadão-fonte ou cidadão-repórter? O engajamento do público nos grandes portais brasileiros. Master’s thesis. The University of São Paulo. Retrieved from https://www.teses.usp.br/teses/disponiveis/27/27154/ tde-­08112010-­115607/pt-­br.php Martins, L.  T., & Moraes, L. (2007). O futebol feminino e sua inserção na mídia: a diferença que faz uma medalha de prata. Pensar a Prática, 10 (1), 69–82. Mesquita, G. (2014). Interfiro, logo existo: a audiência potente e as novas relações no jornalismo. Doctoral dissertation, Federal University of Pernambuco, Recife, Brazil. Retrieved from https://repositorio.ufpe.br/ handle/123456789/13152 Mourão, L., & Morel, M. (2008). As narrativas sobre o futebol feminino o discurso da mídia impressa em campo. Revista brasileira de ciências do esporte, 26 (2), 73–86 Nowell, L. S., Norris, J. M., White, D. E., & Moules, N. J. (2017). Thematic analysis: Striving to meet the trustworthiness criteria. International Journal of Qualitative Methods. Retrieved from https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/ full/10.1177/1609406917733847 Scott, J. W. (2007). Gender as a useful category of historical analysis. Routledge. Silva, G. (2014). Para pensar critérios de noticiabilidade. In G. Silva, M. P. Silva, & M. L. Fernandes (orgs.), Critérios de noticiabilidade: problemas conceituais e aplicações (pp. 95–107). Insular.

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Part IV Experiencing Football

9 Trajectories and Professional Skills of High-Level Women’s Football Managers in Brazil Júlia Barreira, Rodrigo Lemes, and Larissa Rafaela Galatti

Introduction Women’s football has grown, gained popularity and received more attention in the scientific literature. Studies on exercise physiology and training provide important information for the technical, tactical, and physical development of the game (Kryger et al., 2021; Martínez-Lagunas et al., 2014), while studies on sport history and sociology are important to understand the cultural constructions that make the practice for girls and women over time difficult (Pfister, 2015). Still, a recent review showed that only 4% of international studies on women’s football in social sciences are related to sport management (Valenti et al., 2018) and, in the Brazilian context, we could not find any scientific paper on the management of women’s football until 2017 (Barreira et al., 2018). The need for these investigations is even more urgent in the Brazilian scenario that is

J. Barreira (*) • R. Lemes • L. R. Galatti Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP), Campinas, Brazil e-mail: [email protected] © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2022 J. Knijnik, A. Costa (eds.), Women’s Football in Latin America, New Femininities in Digital, Physical and Sporting Cultures, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-07976-4_9

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undergoing changes in the management of the sport. In the past decades, the women’s football was mainly promoted by local governments and clubs with less visibility (Souza Júnior, 2013). However, since 2019, as a consequence of new requirements of national and continental football confederations (Barreira et al., 2020), women’s football has been incorporated in the daily operations of the most relevant national clubs, which demand qualified professionals to manage. The educational system to work with sport in Brazil has some specific characteristics. As per federal regulations, one must have a university degree to work professionally in the sports realm. Thus, the undergraduate courses in physical education (PE) are divided into teacher’s training (licenciatura) and the bachelor’s degree, in which the former is responsible to train and prepare teachers to work exclusively in schools. Students who graduate from a bachelor’s degree can work as sports trainers and coaches, as well as fitness instructors and similar professions—but not as PE teachers in schools (Galatti et al., 2016). However, as second peculiarity, the demand for the bachelor’s degree does not apply to football, which has its own regulations. This scenario becomes even more complex when analyzing the training of football sport managers who can have a degree in PE (bachelor’s), management, or other areas, given the multidisciplinary demand for the job (Mazzei et al., 2013). It is common for managers with a degree in PE to report that they felt a lack of management subjects in their undergraduate curricula, as well as professionals with a degree in management to feel insecure about the specific demands of sport. These various possibilities for managers’ training generate debates among Brazilian scholars and reveal the several possible trajectories for occupying this position (Mazzei et al., 2013; Barros Filho et al., 2013). Although some studies have already investigated the pathways of Brazilian sport managers, these analyses are scarce in women’s sport and even rarer in football (Barros Filho et al., 2013). Just recently, Torga et al. (2020) investigated women’s managers in Brazilian football clubs aiming to analyze the barriers faced by professionals and the gender relations in their trajectories. The authors showed that women are underrepresented in management positions and suffered prejudice and discrimination in their career. Still, the authors pointed out that the managers currently “do not face gender problems on the part of the club, due to the political

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character that power relations are built within football clubs in Brazil” (Torga et  al., 2020, p.  6). Although the study has provided important knowledge on gender issues in football management, the educational trajectory of these managers and the necessary skills to deal with their daily challenges are still unknown. Based on this gap in the scientific literature, the specific characteristics of Brazilian educational system, and the relevant knowledge for sport practice, we intend to add to this debate, discussing the trajectories and the professional skills of high-level women’s football managers. Studies on this topic are important to understand the management of women’s football in Brazil and provide important information for the development of future sport managers.

Theoretical Background The USA has a major role in sport management worldwide, being the pioneers of academic “sport management” programs and meeting the demands of professional and university sport (Chelladurai, 2009). Consequently, a broad scientific literature has been produced by the country providing a rich panorama of the competences for sport management (Joaquim et al., 2011). However, the social, political, and economic factors of the country influence its sport management and should be taken into consideration when analyzing managerial competences (Houlihan, 2013) For instance, in the USA there are several graduate and postgraduate courses in sport management, while in Brazil there are only a few subjects in undergraduate PE courses (Mazzei et al., 2013; Quinaud, Farias, & Nascimento, 2019a). Furthermore, North American sport management has become professional, while in Brazil there is still a hybrid system of professionalism and amateurism (Quinaud, Mazzei, et  al., 2019b). These differences require caution and adaptation when trying to translate and apply knowledge provided by foreign literature in Brazil. We chose to use the study of Quinaud, Mazzei, et  al. (2019b) as a theoretical framework in our investigation because they provided a broad overview of the competence of Brazilian managers based on previous studies in the national context. First, the authors characterize the Brazilian managers as men with an average age of 45 years, graduated in PE, with

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little experience in the position and with a part-time job. According to the authors, sport management in Brazil is still not professional and the managers, in general, do not have sufficient training for the position. The management has been performed by former teachers, coaches, and a wide variety of other professionals who end up in this position due to the lack of qualified sport managers. The authors highlight that, even in this condition, several managers are performing efficiently. However, they could do even better if they had gone through a process of training and qualification in the area. An education process in sport management has become necessary, especially at a time when sport and its management become increasingly global and professional (Skinner & Gilbert, 2007). Hiring qualified people has become a need for organizations in the sport field and created demand for professionals with knowledge and skills in performance. In order to develop adequate sport management, it is necessary to combine the necessary knowledge and skills, articulating the theoretical and practical learning, as well as leading people and making decisions (Silva, 2004). It is recommended that sport managers have a deep knowledge of the environment in which they operate, which allows sport management to gain meaning and credibility to ensure greater possibilities for the professional intervention (Mazzei et al., 2012). Based on the current needs for the management of sport, Quinaud, Mazzei, et  al. (2019b) summarized the competences of Brazilian sport managers according to three dimensions: technical, contextual, and behavioral. The technical skills are considered the tools and procedures that support the planning and evaluation of sport projects as well as the preparation and control of finances. In turn, the contextual competences involve the interrelationships between the manager and the organization. Knowing the context, planning, decision-making, problem-solving, and promoting of relationships are all among the competences of this dimension. The third dimension is understood as the competences inherent to the subject and his/her personal behavior. The authors cited leadership, respect, ethics, patience, and responsibility as some of the behavioral competences. The three competencies and their respective elements are not isolated. Therefore, they interact and complement each other.

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The studies presented above provide a broad and interesting overview of the competencies of Brazilian managers, but women’s football at the club level may present some different characteristics and demand specific skills to lead in this scenario. The previous studies presented the competences for the management of different institutions such as confederations, federations, and non-governmental organizations. Clubs have their own particularity and may require a management focused on its characteristics. Similarly, managing a sport that is undergoing a process of consolidation, such as women’s football, can also present different challenges. Finally, studies reveal a predominance of men in management positions, indicating the need to look at the phenomenon from different perspectives.

Methods This qualitative approach study was based on semi-structured interviews as a method for data collection, providing a deep understanding of the perspectives of managers in women’s football (Andrew et al., 2011).

Participants Four women managers of elite football teams in Brazil participated in this study (Table 9.1). The participants were accessed using conventional and snowball sampling (Noy & Noy, 2008). As inclusion criteria, we considered only: (1) managers of women’s football teams; (2) teams that have a senior team participating in regional and/or national competitions. Table 9.1  Characteristics of the participants Participant Team Position P1

A

P2 P3 P4

B C D

Women’s football manager

Competition

Paulista championship Brazilian championship A1 Women’s football coordinator Paulista championship Women’s football manager Brazilian championship A1 Women’s football coordinator Paulista championship Brazilian championship A1

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Procedures We used semi-structured interviews for data collection due to the possibility of getting to know the participants’ experiences with women’s football and their perceptions about the management position. This approach provided an in-depth look at the phenomenon as well as additional information according to the progress of the interview (Skinner et al., 2015). The interviews were conducted across three main topics: (1) characteristics of the participants, (2) the organizational structure of the team, and (3) the competencies of the managers. Regarding the characteristics of the participants, we (1) investigated their education, experience in the area, and entrance in their current position. Regarding the organizational structure, we (2) tried to capture the characteristics and functions of their current position, as well as the challenges experienced in their daily life. In relation to the competencies of managers, we (3) investigated the knowledge and skills seen as important and necessary for a manager in the area. Questions like “Could you describe the necessary competences, that, according to your experience, allow you to be a manager in women’s football?” and “What knowledge do you consider necessary to be an efficient manager in women’s football?” were asked to comprehend the phenomenon and to provide more details on the topic. The order of the questions was carefully established to ensure reliability in data collection (Leech, 2002). The invitation to participate in this study was sent by email or mobile apps. We explained the aims and procedures of the research and informed that the interviews would be carried out at the time and place most suitable for the participant. The interviews were conducted after reading and signing the informed consent.

Thematic Analysis In qualitative studies, it is recommended that the process of data collection and analysis occur simultaneously (Baxter & Jack, 2008). Therefore, during the interviews, we took notes that were useful in the later data analysis. All interviews were transcribed and thematic analysis was chosen for data analysis. Thematic analysis, in a basic way, offers a method to

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identify patterns (themes) in a dataset, also helping to describe and interpret its meaning and importance (Braun & Clarke, 2006). In this study we used a semantic and deductive analysis in six phases: (1) familiarizing ourself with the data; (2) generating initial codes; (3) searching for themes; (4) reviewing themes; (5) defining and naming themes; and (6) producing the report (Braun & Clarke, 2006). After conducting these six steps carefully, we defined three themes: • “I was invited to be a manager”: the entrance process in women’s football • “Do you want to be a manager?” Welcome to the postgraduation courses • “Managing people is the main competence for me”: skills on management and knowledge on sport For producing the report, we selected parts of the interview that expressed the central contents of each theme and that complemented each other in the presentation of the findings. We preserve the identity of the participants and use numbers for their identification. Likewise, we preserved the identity of the clubs where they work. We also chose to present the results and discussion together, promoting a deeper understanding of the themes. Finally, the interviews were conducted in Portuguese and independently translated into English by the authors.

Results and Discussion “ I Was Invited to Be a Manager”: The Entrance Process in Women’s Football It is expected that, before the management position, the individual goes through a process of qualification, networking, and experiences in different areas that somehow transfer to the current position. Therefore, we investigated the experiences of the women’s football managers and their trajectory until the current position. Some participants had previous

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management experience and others reported it being their first experience in the area. P4 said that “this is the first club that I have worked as a manager, I’ve been here for 4 months … I received an invitation from Team D to stay within the club, since I was already part of the club, and become the manager of the youth teams.” In general, the managers reported a short time in the current position, ranging from four months to three years, which is a shorter period than reported in the scientific literature for Brazilian sport managers, ranging from three to eight years (Barros Filho et al., 2013). These differences can be explained by the current changes in the structure of Brazilian women’s football. My first experience as a manager was in Team C, and as I told you, I was already working at Team C, but in another department. With the CBF [Brazilian Football Federation] requirement in early 2019 for women’s team, Team C needed to organize itself in relation to women’s football. We didn’t have a women’s football team, we had it in the past in the 90s and in 2005, but nowadays we did not. And then my mission was to promote and structure women’s football. Looking for partnership, looking for a team, looking for athletes. And I accepted this challenge and in a management project. (P3)

Apparently, all managers were hired after the 2019 CONMEBOL policies demanding that South American professional clubs needed women’s football teams in order to join the main men’s continental competitions. This requirement was established by continental and national football organizations and has been promoting structural changes in the organization of women’s football in Brazil (Barreira et al., 2020). Based on the opinions of women’s football managers, we noticed that the clubs were directly affected by the new requirement, promoting internal transformations and establishing specific departments for women. It is worth noting that all participants were invited to assume management positions. P3 has been working “in the management area for 1 year and 6 months. … At the time, Team C’s football director invited me to create women’s football department and I accepted the invitation.” The other participant reported that a colleague had put her forward for the position and guaranteed that she would take over, without the need to go

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through a selection process. Finally, the participant with the longest experience with sport management was also invited to the current position. According to her, “my current position is women’s football is coordinator at Team B and I have been in the position for the third year. Before, I coordinated a youth program from 2012 to 2018 and then I accepted the invitation to the coordination of the adult team” (P2). The trajectories of the participants reveal the importance of networking for entry into the current position. Previous studies reported the importance of the informal networks within the sport organization for the maintenance and progression in leadership positions, being a factor that favors men’s careers and hinders women’s pathway (Cunningham & Sagas, 2002; Shaw, 2006; Walker & Bopp, 2010). In the coaching context, Walker and Bopp (2010) showed that, in general, women do not have access to great social capital (i.e., networks and mentors) to help make coaching opportunities available. Similarly, “women have been excluded from the hiring process in sport as a result of homologous reproduction and denial of access as a result of the ‘old boys’ network” (Burton, 2015, p. 7). Although international studies have shown the disadvantage for women in the field of leadership, driven by the lack of social capital and networks, in Brazilian women’s football we found a different scenario. Women’s relationships appear as the main gateway to the current position of manager, revealing the importance of previous experiences and social capital for the job. These results reinforce the importance of fostering relationships in undergraduate and postgraduate courses, leading us to the next theme of this study.

“ Do You Want to Be a Manager?” Welcome to the Postgraduate Courses During the interviews, we investigated the training and education of women’s football managers. We found that all of them value the process of formal education to work in the area. Corroborating previous studies, we found that the initial training of Brazilian sport managers, in general, relies on PE or sport sciences bachelor courses (Amaral & Bastos, 2015; Gomes et  al., 2014). Among the four managers interviewed, three of

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them have an academic background in PE, while just one of them has a background in another area not related to sport (language). These findings reinforce that sport management is a professional field for PE Bachelor’s and corroborate the importance of these subjects in the undergraduate courses (Mazzei et al., 2013). We found a similar trajectory concerning the education process of the participants. All the managers have postgraduate degrees and specialization courses, which indicates the need for further education to work with sport management. Well, I did several courses. I have a degree in Physical Education and a postgraduate course in exercise physiology. I received an invitation to take a management course at the University of Football. I got interested. I also took some courses at the International Olympic Committee, [and] took the course on Sport Management of the Brazilian Olympic Committee. (E4)

The same pattern was mentioned by another participant that has “a degree in Physical Education and three postgraduate courses: in sport training, sport management and physical training for adolescents” (P2). Similarly, P1 reported that “I have a bachelor degree in Physical Education … and I did the performance analysis course of CBF and other courses of the same institution. Then, I did the management course of School of Advertising and Marketing.” On the one hand, this extensive trajectory of formal education reveals professionals who are highly capable of managing women’s football. This finding reinforces that women in leadership positions in sport undergo an extensive qualification process in order to not have their competence questioned based on gender stereotypes. On the other hand, the high incidence of postgraduate courses in management also indicates a weaknesses in the PE tertiary curricula considering learning for such professional performance of the sport manager (Quinaud, Farias, & Nascimento, 2019a). In addition to the lack of management subjects in the PE curricula, Mazzei and Rocco Júnior (2017) alert that there is still a need for more qualified teachers to teach sport management courses in the area of PE and sports in Brazil.

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In addition to the undergraduate courses, postgraduate courses are also considered part of the educational environment. Postgraduate training helps professionals to acquire skills that can be useful to the management position (Ruas & Comini, 2007). Even if the program does not focus on sport management, the courses in management provide the acquisition of skills such as communication, self-confidence, and planning, as well as networking with other professionals (Quinaud, Mazzei, et al., 2019b). In Brazil, the options for specific courses in sport management have proliferated, but there is no detailed survey on the number, actual existence, or quality of these courses (Quinaud, Mazzei, et al., 2019b). Among the management programs mentioned by the participants are those organized by the Brazilian Football Confederation (CBF) and the Brazilian Olympic Committee (COB), reinforcing the important role of the sport organizations offering training courses for sport professionals. One participant presented in more detail the components of the CBF course: In 2019 I was already a manager in women’s football and did the management course offered by the Brazilian Football Confederation. This was my only formation in management. The management course of CBF is similar to a postgraduate course. In fact it permeates all knowledge related to football management, such as law, marketing, communication, and competitions. You really have to manage, but it’s the world of football. (P3)

This participant indicates the importance of some necessary knowledge for the management of football in Brazil, such as law, marketing, communication, and competitions. This knowledge is shown to be fundamental for promoting communication, allocating resources, managing events, and marketing, which are among the main roles of this position (Joaquim et al., 2011). More information about this course can be found at the official website of CBF. This 160-hour online course covers several subjects related to management (Table  9.2) and reveals the knowledge valued by the organization for the management of football in Brazil. This broad extension explains why the manager-associated course is a postgraduate program. Although the course is mentioned as important by participants, it is important to recognize its limitations in the Brazilian

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scenario. The cost of the course corresponds to R$10,800.00 which, in the current national economy, represents ten times the amount of minimum wage. Therefore, if postgraduate courses are important for the training and development of women’s football managers, the access to this profession is influenced by the intersections of class and gender (Torga et al., 2020). The football management course organized by the University of Football (UDOF) was also mentioned by the participants. The contents of the course are also presented in Table 9.2. The existence of a specific topic on women’s football is noteworthy, indicating specific knowledge for the management of this practice that is in transition in Brazil. P1 points out an important aspect of the course, as she says that it “approaches the political dimension of the sport and it is really very important. You will deal with federations that have different political positions. And there are also the confederations that I have to understand politically.” These interrelationships between the manager, the club, and other Table 9.2  Characteristics of the courses of CBF and UDOF for football sport managers CBF (160h)

UDOF (170h)

Structure, compliance, and governance in football Strategic planning in football Law in sport Sports marketing and commercial management Financial management, leadership, and people management in football Operations management—events and competitions Communication management in football Technical management of the football department

Structure, compliance, and governance Strategic planning Law for management Marketing and sponsorship Finance Management of events and competitions Communication management Women’s football: implementation and structuring Innovation and technology in football Fan support Social responsibility

Source: Information extracted and adapted from www.cbf.com.br/cbfacademy and www.universidadedofutebol.com.br

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organizations, as well as their political interests, characterize the contextual competences of sport managers (Quinaud, Mazzei, et al., 2019b). The participant stressed the existence of different political positions among the federations and confederations. Once a sport is characterized by tensions and power struggles between people and organizations, knowing the political environment of the sport is fundamental for the efficiency of sport managers (Houlihan, 2013). The political sensitivity and the ability to deal with the different political demands seems important to foster the action required for women’s football based on cooperation with different stakeholders. Therefore, knowing this scenario, the interests behind the sport and the relationships between the organizations are essential for successful management (Taks et al., 2014). In addition to recognizing the importance of relationships within the sport system, promoting good relationships within the club also appears to be a necessary competence for the management of women’s football, leading us to the next topic of this study. “Managing people is the main competence for me”: Skills on Management and Knowledge on Sport In the third section of the interview, we investigated the knowledge and skills that the participants consider important for the management of women’s football. All of them mentioned the importance of knowledge on management and sport science. According to P2, I don’t think you have to be an expert on tactical aspects of the game, but you need a minimum knowledge on high block, low block, line break, attack, when is the time to recompose, when the girl it’s already at her limit ... I think it’s important for the person in my position to know that, because how are you going to evaluate the employee if you don’t know these aspects? You don’t have to know 100%, but you can identify something that is very good or very bad. (P2)

The same opinion is shared by P3 when commenting that “you don’t have to be an expert, but you have to at least know what’s going on. For example, you’re carrying out traction training today, but the athletes have a game tomorrow. Won’t they be tired?” These comments reveal the concern about having a certain knowledge of sport science to evaluate the

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decision-making of other professionals. It also indicates the need for qualification in the field of sport science and management to work in the area. These findings corroborate previous studies, showing that the need for specialized knowledge of the sport is a competence that has emerged for sport managers since the 1990s onwards (Joaquim et al., 2011). When investigating the main competence for managing women’s football, the participants revealed the importance of leadership and managing people. One manager said that “managing people is the main [competence] for me. You have to know how to manage, and psychology is really important in this case” (P1). Similarly, another participant mentioned the importance of “promoting teamwork and dealing with very different realities because you have to manage the team. There are athletes who come from very different social and economic realities” (P3). P4 equally values recognizing individual differences: “for this position, you have to be able to listen a lot and to promote good relationship because you need to deal with the athletes, the professionals and promote connection with the club.” Therefore, the behavioral competences, characterized by managing people, seem to be the greatest challenge as well as the most important skill in women’s football. For Hoffman and Tadelis (2021), people-management skills can be defined as a manager’s ability to effectively interact with their subordinates. These include social skills, which are considered as the ability to communicate effectively with others (Borghans et al., 2014). These skills are considered important in the business context and are highlighted by the participants in the Brazilian football system. Once the sport brings together practitioners and professionals from different regions of the country, with different backgrounds and experiences, the ability to communicate with these populations and in different contexts is considered essential to maintain harmony and understanding within the club (Joaquim et al., 2011). Our findings and previous studies reinforce that Brazilian sport managers attach greater importance to the ability to manage people compared to technical skills or knowledge for their position (Amaral & Bastos, 2015). Actions like providing continuous coaching and guidance for subordinates, actively supporting professional careers and development, and generating a positive attitude in the team are among these social and people-management skills (Hoffman & Tadelis, 2021). It is worth noting

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that previous studies that promoted interventions for managers aiming to improve their communication skills and treatment of workers showed an enhancement in company performance (Schoar, 2016). Although this intervention was developed in the business environment, it is expected to find similar consequences for sport teams. Reducing attrition among professionals and improving workers’ productivity enhance teamwork and, possibly, sport performance. From a practical point of view, these results are extremely important as they point to elements that can be incorporated into qualification courses offering strategies to improve the development of future sport managers.

Conclusion In this study we analyzed the trajectory and the skills of elite women’s football managers in Brazil. The findings demonstrate that the entrance process of the managers in the sport was promoted mainly by the international institutional demands of structuring a women’s football department. The participants reported the importance of networking for entry into the current position and a long trajectory of formal education. We found that the initial formation of the managers, in general, relies on PE or sport sciences bachelor’s courses while the postgraduate courses are characterized by sport management. In this context, the sport management programs of the Brazilian Football Confederation and Brazilian Olympic Committee were cited and valued by the participants. The participants mentioned the need for skills and knowledge of sport and management to deal with daily challenges. The contextual knowledge was cited as important for the proposal of actions aligned with political positions of the club and with the power structure of football. Recognizing the political interests in football seems important for the managers’ performance. The behavioral competences were also found to be fundamental for the participants. The ability to communicate and manage people with different backgrounds and experiences was cited as a challenge for their work. Therefore, based on our findings, we provide some recommendations for sport management courses to improve women’s football managers development:

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• To foster relationships between participants (current and future managers), once the relationships are the main entrance point for this position in women’s football. • To address the political disputes and interests in Brazilian football, given that these aspects influence the management and that professionals should be aware of them. • To develop people-management skills, such as communication and leadership, as they were the main competences cited as necessary to manage the sport.

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10 Sobreviver jogando: Women’s Football Leagues of Bolivian Migrants in Sao Paulo, Brazil Julia Haß and Stephanie Schütze

Introduction “If it wasn’t for football, my life would have been much more difficult in Brazil,” says Ely, a Bolivian migrant and football player who has lived in São Paulo for about 20 years, when we asked about her migratory trajectory and the significance of football in her life. Ely’s statement points to the social significance of football for migrant communities, which extends far beyond the game itself. In the Brazilian metropolis football has become one of the main pillars of social life for migrants from neighbouring South American countries (Daniel, 2014; Alves Silva, 2011). In the The research underlying this article is a result of the research project “Football as space of belonging: Amateur football teams of Latin American migrants in Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo” funded by the German Research Foundation DFG from 2017-2022 (SCHU 1955/4-1).

J. Haß • S. Schütze (*) Freie Universität Berlin, Berlin, Germany e-mail: [email protected] © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2022 J. Knijnik, A. Costa (eds.), Women’s Football in Latin America, New Femininities in Digital, Physical and Sporting Cultures, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-07976-4_10

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context of all the tournaments we visited during fieldwork, we observed that “football get-togethers” create spaces for community life, which is expressed, for instance, by eating and drinking together at the side of the field. Also, football tournaments have deep cultural meanings for South American migrants because they are connected to rituals, festivities and customs in their countries of origin (Müller, 2013; Müller & Murillo, 2014). In São Paulo, football tournaments are organized around every major event of the Bolivian community. For example, every Sunday a mixed football tournament takes place next to the Bolivian street market on the Praça Kantuta in the centre of São Paulo, where many Bolivians live and work. These phenomena are an indication of the important social significance of football for the organization of community life in Andean countries (Müller, 2013). But Ely’s introductory statement goes even further: it also refers to the fact that football can serve as a social vehicle for South American migrants. During our fieldwork, we noticed that playing and organizing football is very important in the women’s trajectories as it provides the opportunity to move around the city, engage in social networking and gain prestige within the community. Thus, this essay focuses on the significance of football for South American migrant women in São Paulo, how migrant football tournaments become spaces of belonging, yet at the time involve exclusionary processes. Since 2017, we have conducted ethnographic fieldwork focusing on migrant football leagues in São Paulo with special attention to gender-specific and transcultural practices. We focused on women’s football teams—mainly composed of Bolivians but also of Paraguayans, Peruvians and Brazilians—which are claiming a space in a sport dominated by men (Rial, 2013; Da Silva Pisani, 2014). During our research stays in São Paulo we accompanied the Bolivian-­ Paraguayan-­Brazilian women’s team Rumberas. Our first contact with the team occurred prior to commencing our research project, when we visited “our” first migrant women’s tournament in the district of Bom Retiro in 2015. From 2017 onwards we accompanied Rumberas to tournaments in São Paulo and visited them at home during several short (August– September 2017 and February–March 2019) and one longer research stay (September–December 2018). We conducted semi-­ structured

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interviews with football players focusing on their migration history and their football trajectory that were then analysed using the coding procedures of grounded theory (Glaser & Strauss, 1967). It was not easy to interview players because they have little leisure time. Therefore, ethnographic observation and field notes became a main empirical basis. Nevertheless, we were able to conduct interviews with three Rumberas players whom we present in the last part of the essay. The women are from Bolivia and from Paraguay, and range in age from mid-­twenties to early forties. They migrated to São Paulo several years ago (Julia and Emma), and in one case (Ely) twenty years ago. We begin with a brief discussion of previous research on the creation of spaces of belonging and exclusionary processes in migrant football leagues. Then we present an overview of South American migrant football in São Paulo. Finally, we analyse the trajectories of the three women players based on the analysis of their interviews and ethnographic insights.

 igrant Amateur Football Leagues: Spaces M of Belonging and Processes of Exclusion Amateur football teams and leagues are a common phenomenon among migrants in many cities throughout the world. There is a lively discussion in sport studies as to whether migrant football teams can be interpreted as a way of integrating into the receiving society or if they recreate cultural boundaries (Braun & Nobis, 2017; Tiesler, 2012, amongst others). Based on ethnographic research in São Paulo we assume that both processes take place at the same time: people who share a cultural background play together to maintain or recreate a sense of belonging to the country of origin. For migrants, football means a space of cultural and community life, where they express the common origin of a country, a region or even a locality. At the same time, amateur football games among migrants are linked to transcultural strategies. They also express integration into Brazilian culture, given the popularity of amateur football as a sport and form of recreation in the country.

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The role of football for the constitution of a sense of belonging for migrants has been highlighted in other studies (Knijnik, 2015; Tiesler, 2012). Tiesler shows the importance of “Portuguese” football—playing in Portuguese amateur football teams and collectively watching games of the Portuguese national team and of Portuguese football clubs—in the life of Portuguese immigrants in several migration contexts (Tiesler, 2012). Moreover, Knijnik demonstrates the significance of football fandom and the adoption of a new football club as a “home team” for migrants to “feel at home” in the country of arrival (Knijnik, 2015). As a national sport, football is particularly visible in cities and is part of daily life for many Brazilians (Damo, 2005). Today in major metropolitan areas, amateur football mainly takes place on small football fields. It differs from street football because players belong to permanent teams, generally have fixed playing positions and meet regularly to play against other teams. Although football practice lasts only a few hours, the social aspect during and after the game is very important for the players. Since amateur football in Brazil is privately organized and not part of the national football association, the continued existence of leagues and tournaments depends on individual initiatives or funding from businessmen (Haß & Schütze, 2021). Although some Bolivian amateur football leagues in São Paulo have financial backing from local companies of the same ethnic origin, they must compete with other groups for sports infrastructure. Studies of amateur football leagues in other parts of the world show how migrants—excluded from expensive private infrastructure—have to negotiate the spaces where they practice their sports, such as public parks and community football fields (Borrás Tissoni, 2014; Nelson, 2016). Migrant football activities are often closely related to urban conflicts with local resident groups and civic authorities over space (Trouille, 2013; Strunk, 2014; Roura Expósito, 2014). Through these processes, football places become “contested spaces,” sites of social contest or conflict when a discriminated group questions existing power relations (Enke, 2007). In Brazilian cities, residents of popular neighbourhoods have to compete for spaces to carry out their sporting activities, and migrants are among those most affected by social exclusion (Koch, 2018).

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Not only social class, cultural and national origin, but also gender are criteria used to exclude certain groups from sports and the places where they are practised. In recent years, research on football from a gender perspective has addressed football spaces in many different countries as masculine and heteronormative (Faust, 2019; Kreisky & Spitaler, 2006; Rial, 2013; Da Silva Pisani, 2014). In the majority of Latin American societies, men have dominated football for decades, and football fields have been significant for male socialization for a long time (Archetti, 2003; Ardila, 2021; Rial, 2013). Whereas football has become a popular sport for women in both Brazil and Bolivia in recent decades, “sport spaces” are still characterized by unequal power structures and mechanisms of exclusion. As our ethnographic study reveals, the intertwined criteria of gender, social class, cultural and national origin are central to the accessibility of urban sport spaces. Yet few studies deal with the interrelationship of migration and gender in football (Allgäuer et al., 2014; Müller, 2013). In one of the few studies on the interrelationship of migration and gender in football (Allgäuer et al., 2014; Müller, 2013), Juliane Müller analyses Bolivian migrant leagues in municipal sports spaces in Sevilla, Spain, with a particular focus on the existence and significance of female migrant teams (Müller, 2013). She shows that family as well as work networks are central to the constitution of these teams. Moreover, Müller argues that for players from Bolivia and other Andean countries—who mainly work as domestic servants for Spanish families—football represents a “break” and an important moment of “freedom” in their stressful daily life (Müller, 2013).

Bolivian Migrants in São Paulo In recent decades, São Paulo has been a central point of arrival for Bolivian migrants, the most important migrant group in Brazil. São Paulo is the largest South American city and offers—as “economic heart” of the subcontinent—many job opportunities. These factors can explain the city’s strong appeal for migrants from Brazil and from other South American countries. According to the Observatório das Migrações Internacionais,

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124,169 Bolivians arrived in Brazil from 2010 to 2018 (Observatório das Migrações Internacionais, 2019). Yet due to the predominantly irregular nature of their migration—explained in part by the absence of strict border controls between neighbouring countries—the estimated number of immigrants is much higher than the official figures. From the 1990s onwards, migration to Brazil intensified, especially to São Paulo. Despite its growing importance, there has been little research on Andean migration to Brazil. Most of the published research deals with Bolivians in São Paulo (Baeninger, 2012; Da Silva, 2006; Lins Rossi, 2005). It indicates that for more than twenty years, most migrants have been young (both men and women), with an average educational level and lower-class background. They are mostly from La Paz and Cochabamba and emigrate to seek employment in the textile industry, particularly small garment workshops. Recent ethnographies provide insight into the living and working conditions of South American migrants in the garment workshops in São Paulo (Coutinho, 2015; Miranda, 2017, 2019). In the case of the Bolivians, family members and acquaintances who already live in São Paulo are a significant factor in recruiting new migrants. The first garment workshops to employ Bolivian, and later Paraguayan and Peruvian, migrants belonged to Korean entrepreneurs who migrated to Brazil in earlier decades (Souchaud, 2012). In the 1990s, successful Bolivian migrants began opening their own workshops in the centre of São Paulo, in districts such as Bom Retiro and Brás, employing other South American migrants (Coutinho, 2015). When they first arrive, migrants often become victims of exploitation in the garment industry (Coutinho, 2015). Newcomers to São Paulo who find jobs in garment workshops often sleep at their workplace. There, migrants work 12–15 hours daily from Monday to Friday and half days on Saturday (Coutinho, 2015). Despite efforts by state institutions, civil organizations and NGOs to eradicate these harsh labour conditions, situations of confinement, retention of documents, threats and ill-treatment continue. Long working hours, the unstoppable rhythm of the clothing industry and the absence of unions and minimum wage enforcement reinforce these practices. Despite these coercive aspects, migrant labour mobility in this sector continues uninterrupted (Miranda, 2017).

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The textile industry has flourished in São Paulo’s traditional and central districts, such as the Bom Retiro and the Brás neighbourhoods. This industry has spurred the development of other Bolivian businesses, restaurants, cultural institutions and organizations in recent decades. On Rua Coimbra in Brás, restaurants serve Bolivian food. People looking for work can find job announcements on a notice board in the street (mostly for work in the textile industry) and foreign exchange offices transfer funds to Bolivia. The Bolivian market Feira Kantuta is held on Sundays in Bras, where cultural events, religious ceremonies and men’s and youth soccer matches take place. Bolivians also work in traditional public markets in downtown São Paulo as distributors of local produce, importers of products and buyers of local goods for resale in Bolivia (Freire da Silva, 2008, 2014).

Migrant Football Leagues in São Paulo In São Paulo, amateur football leagues of South American migrants— men and women—have existed for almost 20 years. Every weekend, migrant tournaments are held in many places—especially in the centre and northern part of the city. During our fieldwork, we found various places where this occurred. Some are public spaces, some are private, while others are self-constructed and migrants have to negotiate their right to play in these locations. In addition, not all migrant tournaments are equally accessible for all migrants. Bolivians dominate the South American football leagues in São Paulo, although Paraguayan, Peruvian and sometimes even Brazilian players also participate. There are tournaments organized by Bolivians in which a maximum of one non-­Bolivian woman per team can participate. However, in other tournaments the teams are composed freely and include players of different nationalities—Bolivian, Paraguayan and Peruvian—and others will even accept a moderate number of Brazilian players. Yet Brazilian players are not easily accepted, because they have more chances to train than migrant women, who have to work longer hours in the garment workshops.

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Although football leagues and tournaments accompany almost all important events involving South American migrants in Brazilian metropolises, the topic has received little scholarly attention. There are only two published studies on Andean migration and amateur football: one on Bolivian amateur football leagues in São Paulo (Alves Silva, 2011) and the other on Peruvian amateur football leagues in Rio de Janeiro (Daniel, 2014). Our own work on female migrant teams in São Paulo shows that women have to negotiate their space not only with Brazilian sports authorities but also within the dominant men’s migrant football leagues (Haß & Schütze, 2018, 2019, 2021). Women used to play on smaller fields or play after the men’s games. In many places, this still happens. However, recently men and women in São Paulo have been taking turns and there has been a gender-equal distribution of sports infrastructure. This has to do with the popularity of women’s football within the Bolivian migrant community, which we saw throughout São Paulo, where large groups of spectators were present at the games: husbands, children and friends came out to watch the women football tournaments.

 rajectories of Women in Migrant Football T Leagues in São Paulo We became acquainted with leagues and football tournaments in São Paulo mainly through a group of women led by Ely, the Bolivian football player quoted at the beginning of this essay, who play together on a team called Rumberas. In addition, they have worked together in her garment workshop, lived together in the same house for some years and become friends. They told us that they support each other in their new lives in São Paulo, which we also observed during the time we spent with them. Football is a release that allows them to break out of the narrow surroundings of the garment workshop. For these women, football means empowerment, but it is also a social vehicle, as we can see by following the trajectories of Ely, Julia and Emma. Their success in football is interwoven with their personal and professional development.

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 ly: “I’m Dying to Play Football. It Is the Only Passion E I Have!” The interview with Ely took place in Bom Retiro following my invitation to a Korean restaurant in September 2017. Julia accompanied us. Although Korean restaurants are an important part of the neighbourhood, Julia and Ely told me that it was the first time they ate Korean food. One reason is that although many South American migrants have worked for Korean employers in the garment sector their relationship is marked by social distance and vertical working relationships. The other reason they mentioned is that eating in Korean restaurants was beyond their economic possibilities. Ely was born in La Paz in the late 1970s. She grew up playing football with her brother and other boys, even though it was not yet considered a “female sport” in Bolivia: Women rarely played. Most of time women were mixed with men, as in my case. I was the only woman and there were 21 men. With me we were 22 … Later, I was chosen by women’s teams. In Bolivia, in school, they hold tournaments between schools. From there, it’s the interdepartmental competition. That’s where the best are chosen. They saw me play there and I was called to represent Bolivia. That’s where it all began. (Ely)

In the 1990s, Ely participated in numerous amateur and semi-­professional competitions and even played on a national women’s team in Bolivia. Today, football has developed into a very popular sport played by women in both rural and urban areas (Müller, 2013). When Ely came to São Paulo in the late 1990s, she began in a garment workshop where she first worked for an oppressive Bolivian boss. After a few years, she was able to rise professionally: she owned her own garment workshop in Bom Retiro and employed other migrant women from Bolivia and Paraguay as seamstresses. Ely became empowered in part because of her participation in football tournaments, which helped her to grow a professional network and eventually start her own business. In fact, she says that if it were not for football, she would not have known how to build a life in São Paulo. She also founded her own football team,

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Rumberas. As she explains, the team was another example of personal success—not only for Ely, but also for other women: Thanks to us they were excited again. Because when they saw us play, because I handled the ball well. And they always told me: “I want to play the same as you.” So, I think we have been an inspiration to the majority of Bolivian women. Because they learn to play and to go out on football fields. (Ely)

In 2012, Ely founded a women’s league in the neighbourhood of Bom Retiro. They play on the football fields of the Clube da Comunidade Nacional do Bom Retiro, which was founded in 1914 near São Paulo’s city centre. There are two football courts at the club: a large grass field where men play and a smaller synthetic field where women play seven vs. seven. The women’s tournament is a Bolivian “mixed” league in which three “foreigners” are allowed to play on each team: Paraguayans, Peruvians and Brazilians. The Bom Retiro league was supported by a Paraguayan businessman, who has a clubhouse, a small store and a disco next to the football courts on the same grounds. He also used to sponsor some of the teams by providing uniforms and helping them pay the enrolment fee to participate in tournaments. As Ely explains, for women who work all week in garment workshop until Saturday afternoon, these sports and leisure places offer the perfect opportunity to relax: [Football is] a social gathering where you get distracted; it helps you get everything out that you have inside because you work all week. It’s the only get-together you have on Saturday and Sunday. Playing football is a passion for me. I’m dying to play football. It’s the only passion I have. (Ely)

The importance of football practices and of the football courts as a place to relax for working-class women migrants is also described in the studies of Müller (2013) and Allgäuer et al. (2014). Their interviewees mainly work as domestic workers in Spanish households and—similar to Ely and her teammates—have almost no leisure time in their everyday life. For these women, the time they spend playing football on weekends

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with their friends is also very valuable, as they can enjoy themselves and leave their work-related stress behind for a moment (Müller, 2013). Unfortunately, for the last two years the Bom Retiro league has not been available to players in the amateur migrant league because their sponsor was facing taxation issues with local authorities. Nevertheless, Rumberas team members do not only play in the Bom Retiro league. Most of them have a reputation as excellent players and are invited to participate in other tournaments and play on teams elsewhere in the city.

J ulia: “Football Is Very Nice Because as It Takes You to Far-Away Places, Different Places” The interview with Julia took place in November 2018 at a pizzeria near Ely’s garment workshop in Bom Retiro. We were accompanied by her Brazilian girlfriend, Sthefanny, who offered her opinions on several issues, as she also plays football and works with Bolivians. Julia is a Paraguayan player on Ely’s team, who used to live and work with her as a cook. She was born in the early 1990s in Ciudad del Este on the Paraguayan– Brazilian border. During her childhood, women’s football was virtually non-existent in Paraguay: Few girls played football. They saw it as a man’s game. Most of them played volleyball, handball too. But most of all, you would see volleyball courts everywhere. In Paraguay we also played football with boys, mixed girls and boys, on the street. But on the courts, organized girl’s football teams? This didn’t exist. After I got here, yes, I started to go out and get to know football fields. But Bolivians are more fanatical, more than the Paraguayans. (Julia)

Julia started to play on a women’s team after migrating to São Paulo in 2005 as a teenager. Like Ely, she uses the term “going out to the fields,” which means that for these women playing football represents an escape from the narrow surroundings of the garment workshop, becoming empowered and controlling their own lives. Julia started to work in a garment workshop with Bolivians as a cook, but the working conditions were difficult. Her earnings were meagre and she was unable to go out:

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I came with my friend to a Bolivian workshop. I came there as a cook. Before that she was the cook. She brought me, I stayed in her place and she started to work on the machine, and there I worked for about two months. I just couldn’t take it, because it was a lot of work. I practically didn’t leave the apartment. She told me that she could only give me an increase—at that time I was earning 250 [reais]—and she was going to pay me only 300 [reais], maximum. (Julia)

After changing workplaces several times, Julia became acquainted with Ely. She began working for her and moved into her house, which also meant that she started to play on Ely’s football team. Her life changed completely, because she started to move around the city: After I got to Ely’s house, I started to go to the courts with her. We were playing in many neighbourhoods. I went with her and that’s how people, the Bolivians, began to know me, and that’s how I began to meet many people from other places that I never imagined knowing: Bolivians, Peruvians and Brazilians. (Julia)

Julia says she enjoys football because it takes you to far-away places and is a way to get to know people of different origins. By following Julia’s football activities, we got to know a very different sports infrastructure in Tucuruvi, located in the northern part of the city. Here the football league is “indoors” and is held on a court behind a gym. Although the space is limited, Bolivian and Paraguayan food is sold at the entrance, where there is a barbecue stand and a bar to buy drinks. Men and women play alternately in the Tucuruvi gym: men play and then the women play. Only two foreigners—Peruvians, Paraguayans or Brazilians—are allowed per team. Among them are well-known players such as Julia, whose Uber or taxi trips are paid for by the “team organizers” who also buy them drinks and food after the game. Julia explains the appeal of playing in Bolivian tournaments: It seems that for them it’s a source of pride to have a strong team and they pay a lot of attention to the players. After playing, they ask you: “What do you want to drink? Do you want a coke, do you want a juice, are you hungry?” … Let’s say, the woman organizer knows that I play well, that I do a

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lot for the team. And if I say: “I’m playing somewhere else and I don’t know if I’m going to arrive by bus on time.” And then she says: “I’ll pay you for the Uber or the taxi.” Instead, in Brazilian tournaments they don’t give you anything, no matter how good you play, nothing, nothing, they don’t pay your expenses. Everything has to come from your own pocket. Obviously, they thank you for playing, but that’s all, and that’s the difference … But in Bolivian tournaments, they give you money, they pay you to play. They give you money and if you play well, the team owner recognizes that. (Julia)

During our fieldwork, we noticed that being a “team organizer” or even “league organizer” conveys high prestige in the Bolivian migrant community in São Paulo. Women often organize the female teams— often with their husbands. Some have never played football, but see the organization of a team as a social challenge. Though the practice of paying players seems unusual in the amateur football context, it is a common practice used by “team organizers” to build a very competitive team, as they gain prestige when they are successful in tournaments.

 mma: “Go Ahead, Go Out to Play, That’s What E You Most Love!” We interviewed Emma in December 2018, in the kitchen of the apartment she shared with Ely and Julia in Bom Retiro. She was born in the mid-1990s, and also comes from La Paz. Like Ely, she had already played football as a child in Bolivia on mixed-gendered teams. When she first arrived in Brazil, she lived for some time in Itaquaquecetuba, near Guarulhos—northwest of São Paulo where the international airport is located. Although situated near metropolitan São Paulo, Itaquaquecetuba remains a village in the countryside. Emma told us that more than 90% of its population are Bolivian (Ladin, 2019). Initially, she worked with her sister and her brother-in-law, who owned a small garment workshop. Emma’s sister was the first to encourage her to play football in Brazil: “Go ahead, go out to play, that’s what you most love!” So, Emma started to play football in different parts of the city:

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I played in various places. I started in Itaquaquecetuba and later I played in San Miguel, Vila María, Casa Verde, Jandira, Osasco. There is another place where I went to play two hours away, I don’t remember the name. Then here in Bom Retiro. (Emma)

Through her football, Emma started to move far beyond her neighbourhood and got to know many parts of the cities where Bolivians live, work and organize football tournaments. Finally, she got to know Ely and moved in with her in Bom Retiro. At the time, she was working in another garment workshop where the boss made her work long hours: When I came here to Ely, I went elsewhere to work with a lady. Only that lady made me work from six in the morning until one [the next morning] and she wouldn’t let me go out and she still hasn’t paid me. And Ely told me: “Come here. Why did you go somewhere else?” I also wanted to go out and do things. Here with Ely it’s different because we get along very well. She treats me well. (Emma)

Since her first boss in Bom Retiro would not let her “go out,” Emma left and began working with Ely. She also became part of the Rumberas team and started to travel with them to various football tournaments in the city. But Emma also plays on other teams. During our fieldwork, she was invited to participate in a football tournament in Itaquaquecetuba, where the Bolivian community organization had built a football field in a ravine on the outskirts of the village. Bolivian food and drink are sold next to the field. The tournament is 100% Bolivian and the participation of “foreigners” is not allowed. Emma explains how these invitations work: “That girl plays well” or “let’s go find her.” I believe that the directors, as we call the organizers, when they set up their team, say: “I know this person, why don’t we call her, look for her on Facebook.” Most look for you on Facebook and even if I don’t know the person, they tell me: “Emma, we’re going to play at this and that place. I can pay your ticket or how much do you charge per game?” And I say “okay.” (Emma)

Team organizers who are looking for new players communicate via Facebook. Players such as Ely, Julia and Emma have a reputation in the migrant football community in São Paulo. They receive incentives to play

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for other teams: uniforms, food and drink, rides to the games and even small amounts of money. Although Emma says that these incentives are not important, because she plays football out of passion, she is one of the players who occasionally is paid. For playing in the tournament in Itaquaquecetuba she earned 100 reais, plus her Uber fare. Emma receives a small salary working in the garment workshop. Even if she doesn’t say it, gaining extra money by playing amateur football helps with her everyday expenses. The football skills of Emma, Julia and other migrant women not only increase their social prestige in the migrant community, but also provide at least some small measure of economic empowerment.

Conclusions Based on an ethnographic study, this essay analyses the significance of football for female players in the context of amateur football tournaments of South American migrants in São Paulo. As we have seen, football represents an appropriation of space for cultural and community gatherings. At the same time, migrant amateur football is closely linked to transcultural strategies since it is a widespread and popular sport in Brazil. Our study pays particular attention to migrant women’s amateur football teams that claim their space in a male-dominated sport. Although women’s football is gaining prestige within the migrant community in São Paulo, players still have to fight for space. The trajectories of the three football players discussed here show that football is a personal passion that helps them cope with the difficult work situation they face in São Paulo’s textile industry. At the same time, participation in football tournaments is a social vehicle that enables these women to become mobile within the city, build new social relationships, improve their economic situation and gain social prestige within their migrant communities. All these findings should be further explored, precisely because the football leagues of migrant women have received so little scholarly attention. Moreover, further research should strongly consider the role of the women who organize these teams and leagues. It would be valuable to learn more about their motivation, ambition and experiences in occupying a position performed by men in most football contexts.

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11 Examining Social Capital in Brazilian Football: Lessons from a Girls’ Sport for Development Project Eva Soares Moura

Introduction In recent years, sport and physical activity have been sites in which diverse societal challenges, such as poverty, climate degradation, gender inequality, or quality education, have been promoted and discussed. The trend to use sport as a ‘tool’ for social change has grown, especially within contemporary international development. The UN recognised sport’s strategic role in promoting development within the UN’s Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and then within the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), thus becoming a key player in the expansion and broader legitimation of what has become known as the Sport for

E. S. Moura (*) Faculty of Social Sciences, Department of Sociology, Charles University, Prague, Czech Republic e-mail: [email protected] © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2022 J. Knijnik, A. Costa (eds.), Women’s Football in Latin America, New Femininities in Digital, Physical and Sporting Cultures, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-07976-4_11

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Development and Peace (SDP) sector.1 Based on the assumption that sport can deliver ‘social good’ to people and communities worldwide, the SDP sector has been gaining in force since the early 2000s (Coalter, 2008; Giulianotti, 2012; Levermore, 2009). By acknowledging the role of sport in the broader development agenda, the UN has subsequently nurtured the spread of sports-based programmes across the world, and particularly within the Global South. These programmes have been using sport to pursue a wide range of goals related to the broader SDGs, including health promotion, empowerment of women, poverty eradication, as well as peacebuilding and education for young people. Within the wider debates about sport and its role in facilitating social well-being, significant attention has been paid to the notion of using sport as a vehicle for building social capital among disadvantaged groups (Burnett, 2006; Skinner et al., 2008; Spaaij, 2009). Recent research provides evidence about the role sport and sport organisations play in promoting social integration, civic participation and facilitating social connections (Blackshaw & Long, 2005; Seippel, 2006; Nicholson & Hoye, 2008; Darnell, 2012). Within this trend, SfD organisations have engaged with diverse approaches to facilitate social, human and community development for disadvantaged and disaffected youth through sport (Sandford et  al., 2006) to achieve broader social benefits that would extend beyond mere participation in sport (Frisby & Millar, 2002; Spaaij, 2012; Vail, 2007). Despite the prevalence of significant scholarship in the SfD field on an international scale, only a small amount of research has been done on SfD and social capital from the perspective of young women and girls. In this chapter I analyse, first, to what extent development programmes at the community level assist in fostering the social capital of young women and girls, and second, I explore the diverse effects of social capital on young women’s experiences within and outside of sport.

 The term Sport for Development and Peace (SDP) refers to the broader concept that aligns with the scope of the 2030 Agenda. However, the ‘peace’ element is not discussed in this chapter, and the term ‘sport for development’ (SfD) is utilised throughout this chapter. 1

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The chapter aims to encourage critical debate relating to social capital and its effects on sport-based development initiatives. Embedding this chapter within the social capital framework and gender perspective might challenge the often-repeated distinction between positivist and critical approaches in the field of SfD and contribute to a greater understanding of the role of SfD initiatives in creating social capital of diverse groups, especially women and girls.

Social Capital and Sport for Development Sport has been used widely as an effective tool through which young people built social capital and a support networks (Blackshaw & Long, 2005; Fokwang, 2009; Seippel, 2006; Nicholson & Hoye, 2008). Broadly defined, social capital refers to social networks and norms (social and group), facilitating people’s reciprocity and trustworthiness, which provide individuals or groups with mutual benefits and advantages (Coalter, 2008). Defined as ‘connections among individuals—social networks and the norms of reciprocity and trustworthiness that arise from them’ (Putnam, 2000, p. 19), social capital is treated as a feature of large collectivities (communities, regions, cities) rather than a trait of individuals and small community groups. It can be simultaneously a ‘private good’ and a ‘public good’, which means that those who do not participate in direct contributions also benefit from trustworthy interactions and social bonding between the members. It has been also suggested that a ‘good’ stock of social capital is more likely to have a positive effect on communities in terms of lower criminality, better health, higher educational achievement and better economic growth (Putnam, 1993). However, SfD scholars have been rather critical of the use of the concept of social capital as analytical framework to understand how SfD programmes work. Current studies on SfD engaged, instead, with critical perspectives to challenge the positive appearance of the ‘power of sport’. For instance, scholars accentuate the lack of knowledge of the local context when projects are implemented, resulting in the promotion of universal and simplistic solutions to social problems (Forde, 2015); criticise the neoliberal model of development which reproduces broader global

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inequalities (e.g., see Darnell & Hayhurst, 2014); or contend that sport programmes may be donors-driven, and when implemented in the Global South also neo-colonial (Darnell, 2012; Mwaanga & Banda, 2014). In addition, diverse unintended consequences of development programmes on targeted groups, especially women and youth, have also been revealed (Hayhurst et al., 2014). Previous research investigated sport participation as a tool to engage marginalised groups, especially youth, and to foster a wide range of goals associated with social capital (Adams et  al., 2018; Lindsey & Adams, 2014; Storr & Spaaij, 2017). For example, Adams et al. (2018) suggest that social capital enhanced through SfD programmes was rather individual, and Spaaij (2009) argued for the understanding of the social benefits of sport in terms ‘of the creation, maintenance, transference and diminution’ of different forms of capital (p. 1133). In line with the critical approach to study SfD programmes, scholars argued that broader context and structural factors might significantly hinder the potential for disadvantaged youth to convert the skills and knowledge acquired by the programme into capital resources (Spaaij, 2012). SfD programmes may thus reproduce established social relations rather than contribute to fundamental change and transformation (Hartmann & Kwauk, 2011) when social networks and status positions created through a sport replicate social divisions instead of contesting them or resisting them. In this sense, social capital is a useful framework, particularly given the fact that it is not disconnected from wider structural relations (Morrow, 2001; Lin, 2001) but facilitates privileged individuals and groups to protect and advance their prosperity (Bourdieu & Wacquant, 1992; Fine, 2001; Storr & Spaaij, 2017).

 port for Development, Football and Gender S in Brazil Sport may serve as a positive vehicle but can also serve as an expression and reproduction of inequalities (Eitzen, 2006), particularly when considering women’s experiences within the sport-based projects. Hence,

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regarding social capital, an exclusive focus on marginalised youth is insufficient given the gendered nature of some sports, particularly football (e.g., Dempsey, 1992). There are restrictions and constraints for women to participate in sport, originating from the diverse realities of girls’ lives across different geographical, religious and cultural contexts (e.g., Hayhurst et al., 2015; Oxford, 2019; Zipp, 2017). Despite Brazil’s importance in global football, football in the country still has been an arena reserved for men. Although football has grown in popularity among women and girls, they often encounter prejudice and discrimination, their abilities to play are contested, and they must constantly negotiate and resist attempts to exclude and ban them from this sport (Goellner, 2021; Knijnik, 2015; Martins et al., 2021). Specifically, discursive representations in which beauty and femininity are perceived as something to be preserved are still prevalent and generate limitations on women’s football participation (Goellner, 2005, p.  144). Although during the periods of global mega-events and competitions this sport and women playing it become more visible, Brazilian female football players remain rather underrepresented in sport media, sports clubs and associations, physical education at schools and public leisure policies (Goellner, 2005; Votre & Mourão, 2003). Many female footballers, including Marta, have however, recently raised their voices and protested against unequal conditions and treatment in Brazil’s women’s football. While these were efforts made by elite female footballers, the actions were supposed to bring more profound transformations for women and girls, in general, to be able to conquer their space within and outside of football (Goellner, 2020). There has been also continued commitment to gender equality in the UN’s SDGs. This global agenda has also positioned sport as a tool to achieve gender equity and brought global attention and funding opportunities to projects targeted towards the inclusion and empowerment of young women and girls (Hayhurst & del Socorro Cruz Centeno, 2019; Collison et  al., 2017). Feminist scholarship on SfD has demonstrated various ways in which sport has enhanced girls’ and women’s health, challenged and transformed gender norms or provided them with leadership opportunities (Hayhurst et  al., 2014). Leadership opportunities may especially enable women to launch collective action, which can bring

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about change. But, rather than uncritical acceptance of romantic visions of sport’s emancipatory potential, it is through the adoption of a critical view that it is possible to reveal SfD work’s limitations and avoid an overemphasis on the optimistic quality of sport (Darnell & Hayhurst, 2011). Previous studies also pointed out the prevalence of barriers to include young women in SfD programmes that result from the historical connection of sport and norms of masculinity (Shehu, 2010; Hayhurst et al., 2014). To pursue a critically informed analysis of SfD programmes and their outcomes related to social capital, it is crucial to ask what social benefits programmes create for young women and to what extent they can profit from the programme fully once they enter.

Methods and the Sport Project This chapter draws upon six months of ethnographic research conducted between 2017 and 2018 within non-governmental sport-based organisation Bola Dourada located in the São Paulo metropolitan region in Brazil. Only pseudonyms have been used throughout this chapter to protect the identities of research participants and the organisation involved in this research. This particular study, which was part of a broader research project, consists of fifteen research interviews with young women aged 11–23, five interviews with coordinators (male/female) aged 18–32, and six with the parents of some participants (male/female) aged 35–48. In addition to formal interviews, I recorded field notes from casual talks and sport sessions. Interviews with Brazilian informants were conducted in Portuguese. By the time of the study, Bola Dourada worked actively on a sport-­ based community project with about 600 community children and young people. The SfD initiative brought young working-class, predominantly non-White women with similar backgrounds together, who were able to share one space and strengthen their networks. The aim of the project was to utilise sport activities in combination with specific discussions about drug use, health, future plans and education. While the project was not explicitly aimed at challenging gender stereotypes and

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addressing female empowerment, it provided the sports in a mixed-­ gender setting with an emphasis on the inclusion of all regardless of gender, sexuality, age or religion. Moreover, the coaches encouraged intolerance of gender-based discrimination and homophobia. Sports training for girls once a week was provided, and sports events and festivals for women and girls from the community were organised regularly. In order to explore how women and girls see themselves, how they explain the project outcomes and to pursue potential analytic ideas about them, I followed a set of particular principles and practices. I commenced organising the data ‘by means of coding and indexing’ (Hammersley & Atkinson, 2007, p. 162). The coding process consisted of breaking down the data into separate units and categories of meaning (Charmaz, 2006). During this procedure, I highlighted essential words and phrases, and made many notes in the margin that emphasised relevant, surprising and common features in each response. I started with the generation of open codes that helped the initial codes to stand out in participants’ stories. Then, I gathered similar codes into more conceptual and more specific categories (such as girls talking about sport, about discrimination) that were further expanded into more abstract and analytic categories (evaluating individual improvements, wishing to make a difference in the community, challenging gender norms). The process of generating open codes revealed different topics linked to gender inequality, social capital, leadership and well-being.

 ocial Capital, Sport S and Community Development Involvement and participation in sport can generate positive experiences for the individual and the community (Portes, 1998). Female participants usually emphasised the diverse aspects of their personal lives to which the sports project brought improvements or changes, as for example, enhancement of their general well-being, mental health and amelioration of family relations. But sport also raised their self-esteem and provided them with more strength to deal better with challenging life

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situations and personal problems. As Jacqueline, a 16-year-old female participant described, ‘I was very stressed, furious. I was a tough girl to deal with. I fought too much with my mother—almost every day. After I started playing ball, I changed my behaviour.’ There was, however, a broad range of project outcomes that went beyond individual developments and gains. The sport project offered diverse opportunities for young women as it allowed them to invest in new networks and relations not available in other spaces, such as school. These were usable as valuable resources in their future, potentially generating access to additional forms of capital, such as economic capital. As coordinators and coaches described, the commitments that came together with sport participation were crucial to improving young people’s personalities and learning new skills necessary for their future and their ‘employability’. As Marcos, Bola Dourada’s sport coach, explained, We try to teach youth that they must come on time to the session and should come regularly. It is a commitment they have. Imagine, if they come to work late, they will get fired, and nobody will give them a job if they are irresponsible. It is part of our work to create responsible citizens here. (Marcos, 33 years old, September 2017, Campinho)

In this broader sense, sports programmes aimed to nurture employable skills in young women, ensuring them wider access to economic resources (Bourdieu, 1986). When social capital assists individuals or groups to find work or access finance, it possesses economic value (Tonkiss, 2000). While the programme was not focused on financial aspects and development but on generating social well-being and personal development, Marco’s statement illustrates an interplay between different forms of capital (Bourdieu, 1986; Storr & Spaaij, 2017) that cannot be isolated from each other. From the perspective of young women, some of the outcomes mentioned were tightly connected to Bola Dourada’s internship programme, which focused on building youth skills as community leaders. The internship programme offered a monthly scholarship and was restricted to participants who were 16  years or older. Especially young women were encouraged to apply and engage in essential activities ranging from

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preparing sports equipment to leading sports sessions by themselves. I often witnessed these young women in charge of sports classes. It required them to possess diverse skills, such as responsibility, and to develop sports competencies and particular knowledge of sports rules. They also cultivated relationships with their peers based on trust and mutual respect. The attendees of sports classes were boys and girls, which sometimes brought challenges for female leaders to defend their leadership position in sport and required conflict resolution skills. Each intern obtained these competencies throughout the internship. In this sense, the sports programme enhanced social capital that depends on social relationships, exchanges and interactions among people (Putnam, 1993). It provided space in which relationships with other community members (i.e., boys and young men) were developed and moved from a phase of distrust and little acceptance, to a phase of meaningful connections. As girls themselves reported, after some time playing together, boys accepted girls and even started to help other girls to improve their skills in football. Vitoria was an intern by the time of the research, and she found the opportunity to be a leader valuable for her future. As she said, she could learn from older coaches and educators and train others leadership skills. Vitoria received significant support to work as a leader from her parents because they saw her work in Bola Dourada as essential for her future achievements, increasing her chances on the job market. Vitoria was once a project participant, but only as a leader did she feel she could contribute to the social transformation and community development using knowledge acquired through the sport organisation. In other words, being a young leader further increased social capital, which could be transformed into broader social benefits and community participation in the future. Vitoria explained: My goal is to change the minds of these children, who think that they can’t have a happy life. They will be happy, yes—both inside and outside of sport. My goal is to improve myself as well, little by little. I want to make a difference in my life, in other people’s lives. Now, I’m an intern. In the future, I can be a teacher. As an intern, I already help others. As a teacher, I can help even more. (Vitoria, 16 years old)

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The NGO plays a vital role in promoting civic participation and supporting young people to change the broader community. Through their involvement in the sport project and relationships with adults, girls such as Vitoria were encouraged to learn essential social roles and were prepared to perform leadership roles within their local communities and the broader society (Putnam, 2000; Zeldin, 2000). Young women see this opportunity as more meaningful than their personal well-being or short-­ term benefits. They emphasise their wish to make a difference in their communities, thus enhancing their own, but more importantly, others’ social capital. In this light, the SfD organisation fosters a sense of community connectedness. It serves as a vehicle to build connections and a sense of purpose to further contribute to other community members’ broader well-being and quality of life. However, for some attendees, active community life and civic participation were not facilitated: some of the girls had to move away from the neighbourhood because their parents had to work somewhere else or had to abandon the project to find a job and help their parents at home. In the next section, I unpack gendered access to social capital and the constraints that young women face.

Gender Norms and Access to Social Capital Together with other kinds of capital resources, social capital tends to be distributed unevenly between individuals and groups (Portes & Landolt, 1996; Tonkiss, 2000). Such a perspective is critical in understanding the effects of social capital on young women involved in SfD programmes and their access to it. In Brazil, but also in different social and cultural contexts, such as Colombia (Oxford, 2019), women have struggled to enter into the arena of football, a setting that is still reserved for men (Goellner, 2021). In the interviews, the female youth explained that they started to play football for the first time in the community streets in which they lived. They described various barriers and constraints, such as broader gender inequalities, preventing them from enjoying the same opportunities and support reserved for their male counterparts—the issue prevalent in other

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countries in Latin America and the Caribbean (e.g., López de D’Amico et al., 2016), including contexts of SfD programmes (e.g., Oxford, 2017; Zipp, 2017). More specifically, girls reflected upon fewer opportunities to engage in football, which brought them many disadvantages. Fran reported, ‘Boys practice football from an earlier age and this is why they have more experience and skills than us. We are expected to take care of younger brothers and sisters.’ Isadora, for example, mentioned that when she started to play football, she faced strong resistance and disapproval from her family: My grandmother did not accept that I play football. My aunts also don’t like it even today. Once, they asked me: ‘Why aren’t you doing ballet?’ And I said, ‘Because I don’t like it. If I liked ballet, I would do ballet.’ My grandmother, nowadays, accepts more. I arrived these days home and she says, ‘Oh, playing football again?’ And I say, ‘Yeah, grandma.’ (Isadora, 16 years old)

These narratives speak to unequal and gendered access to sport and social capital identified by the sport project. As young women and girls in Brazil are expected to practice only ‘suitable’ sports or not be involved in sport at all (Goellner, 2005), they have only limited opportunities for enhancing their social capital and developing new social interactions for their personal and collective benefit (Portes, 1998). When talking to Adriana, Natasha’s mother, she recognised the outcomes of the sport project. She especially mentioned that sport made her daughter’s time and mind ‘busy’ and created new opportunities for her to learn. However, conforming to gender norms was understood as a precondition. As Adriana’s mother revealed, Sometimes Natasha cries a lot to go [play football] when I say, ‘You won’t go.’ I say this just to keep up the pressure, so she doesn’t forget the things she should do here at home. Because if not, she leaves everything dirty and goes out. And then I tell her, ‘You’re not going today, and you are not going to train anymore.’ (Adriana, 46 years old)

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Hence, the enhancement of social capital through the programme is significantly limited due to the family and community environment. Social capital and access to it depend on broader structural relations (Morrow, 2001; Lin, 2001). In this sense, negotiations of traditional gender norms regarding sport in a family defined not only whether young women entered the project as suggested in previous studies (e.g., Jeanes & Magee, 2014), it also shaped how they engaged in the project and to what extent new opportunities for meaningful friendship, support networks and new skills were generated for them compared to young boys and men. Social capital generated, formed and distributed through the sport project might be available only to smaller groups of individuals that possess more power in society in general (see Harvey et al., 2007). As illustrated in this section, even after permission to participate, it is not guaranteed girls can fully benefit from the project as broader structures of gender inequality still impact their lives significantly and also shape their sporting experience.

 pportunities for Bonding and Greater O Change Through Sport While the previous section illustrates that more systemic and palpable structural changes were not experienced by the female project participants, to a certain degree SfD programmes at the community level assisted in fostering the social capital of young women and girls. Natasha participated in a female football group on Saturdays, and football was her passion. As she added, ‘I feel happy because at home I’m stuck and I like to move my body, run, play. I like it very much. Because sometimes new people come and join us too, so we make friends and learn new passes.’ Natasha enjoys resources, networks and trust, and she shares with her friends and other project participants a particular form of bonding capital. In addition, women and girls also regularly mentioned they welcomed various opportunities to meet more girls in Bola Dourada interested in football, which provided them with a sense of belonging and support

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networks. This is important considering that they would not have these opportunities in other spaces outside of the NGO. As Jacqueline said, ‘Here in Bola Dourada, we can meet other girls who play football’, which was viewed as rare and unique, following Isadora’s words: ‘You don’t meet many girls who play football.’ One of the opportunities for meaningful exchanges with other girls playing football was a community festival. To celebrate National Women’s Day, sports coaches from Bola Dourada decided to organise the women’s football festival and invited other community sport teams and groups to participate. The event was held in the community sports centre, where similar events usually took place. The audience consisted predominantly of young men—friends, classmates or boyfriends. Following the explanation provided by coach Victor, ‘don’t make girls feel uncomfortable’, they were not allowed to enter the sports centre. They had to stay behind the fence and were allowed to watch the games only from there. After historical exclusion from leisure activities such as football, socially reserved for men in Brazil (Knijnik, 2015; Goellner, 2020), the event celebrating Women’s Day offered an opportunity to do what these young women and girls desired—compete with girls from different neighbourhoods in a safe space and test their skills. In addition, young female players revealed that the event was fundamental for them in terms of new contacts and opportunities for social interactions with players they would not otherwise be able to meet. ‘These girls play well, and it is important for us to play with someone we don’t play every day, and we don’t know’, commented Simone, a participant from Bola Dourada, during the festival. The event contributed to strengthening social capital and bonding similar individuals or groups. Indicators of bonding capital among young women, such as trust or cooperation, were evident in their responses and actions during the festival. Young women exchanged contacts and numbers with others and believed that they could meet to play football together in the future. However, somewhat artificial divides between women and men decreased possibilities for bridging. Putnam noted that groups can bond along some social markers while bridging across others (Putnam, 2000). In this vein, the event brought together people of the same class. However, it created divides across gender lines and hindered opportunities for

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broader reciprocity among heterogeneous groups (e.g., girls and boys). Moreover, leaving young men behind the fence symbolically placed women in the position of those who ‘need to be protected’, that is, reproduced mechanisms of gender stereotyping. Hence, as described previously, within the longer-term period, the NGO facilitated bridging capital and new social interactions among different groups based on gender. While the one-day events could have been crucial for strengthening more youth’s established connection with other community members (e.g., young boys and men), on the contrary, it was the daily effort to bring about positive community change through sport and internship programmes and youth’s continuous sport engagement that seems to have a more significant impact in terms of bridging capital (also Skinner et al., 2008). In this sense, the sport project has the potential for more profound change in the future. The project contributed to social bonding because young women developed trust and a sense of cooperation. Lari further explained: There is a friend of mine who plays only because I play. Because she thought like ‘I wanted to play, but I was afraid.’ I even teach some girls outside of Bola Dourada. On Saturday, some girls don’t know how to play. Those are new. They called me to help them, and I said, ‘If you want, I’ll help you.’ So, once a week, we call each other when we have nothing to do, and I teach them basic things. (Lari, 15 years old)

The community-based organisation contributed to enhancing social capital based on close-knit ties, that is, to bonding similar individuals or groups. In Putnam’s words, it provided opportunities to significantly increase ‘connections among individuals—social networks and the norms of reciprocity and trustworthiness that arise from them’ (Putnam, 2000, p. 19). Not only could young women meet their peers with similar backgrounds that made them interested in playing football, it was the very act of support from other girls such as Lari that changed less skilled young women’s perceptions about themselves. They were shown in a safe space where they could play football and learn from more experienced players without prejudice. Thus, the NGO provided girls and women adequate

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space to mobilise themselves and inspire other girls to engage in football, a bastion of hegemonic masculinity from which they were historically excluded (Knijnik, 2015). Similar strong in-group loyalty among female participants was also evident outside of sport. When walking throughout the community, I usually met groups of girls from Saturday’s session, playing together at community pitches even when the sessions were not held, spending free time together, or returning home together when the evening session was over. It was not only social capital that could be converted in the future in other forms of capital, but it was also the amount and quality of those resources that the project provided that the young women described as unique to them (Bourdieu, 1985).

Conclusion To play football in Brazil implies that women must surmount many barriers both on and off the pitch, mainly emanating from culturally inscribed norms. Given the continued commitment to gender equality in the UN’s SDGs, SfD organisations position sport as a vessel for women’s inclusion and empowerment. In this chapter, I focused on the question of to what extent development programmes assist in fostering the social capital of young women in Brazil, which is a broad context of persistent social exclusion and gender inequality. Following my analysis, two considerations can be made about the potential of SfD programmes to create social benefits and increase social capital for young women. First, SfD programmes serve as an effective vehicle for building and increasing social capital for young women and girls. Young women enjoyed the programme’s sporting opportunities, created new friendships and gained skills by participating in the project. This is in line with the broader definition of social capital, which refers to social networks and norms, facilitating people’s reciprocity and trustworthiness, which provide individuals or groups with mutual benefits and advantages (Coalter, 2008). However, and second, the access to the broader social benefits from the SfD programme is gendered, as the wider gender inequalities limit how

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young women can be involved in, benefit from and increase their social capital through their participation in the SfD programme. Constant negotiations around gender roles shape to what extent the participants benefit from the project, particularly regarding access to the diverse forms of capital. While the project fostered bonding social capital among women, social capital tends to be distributed unevenly between individuals and groups (Portes & Landolt, 1996; Tonkiss, 2000). Thus, it is essential to pose a question such as: In what ways does the enhanced social capital of one group further reproduce gender hierarchies? It is important to conclude that male privilege and the patriarchal order in which both women and men act under the script of men’s privilege and women’s subordination limit, first, the potential of youth to establish a new relationship with their peers, and second, the impact of SfD initiatives aiming to increase social capital for young women and girls. While there exist negative consequences of social capital, such as the exclusion of certain groups (Portes, 1998), the social capital framework and gender perspective might conciliate the sharp distinction between positivist and critical approaches in the field of SfD and generate a greater understanding of the role of initiatives in creating the social capital of diverse groups, especially women and girls.

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12 “Rivals on the pitch, sisters in the struggle”: Women in Fan Culture in Brazil Mariana Zuaneti Martins, Kerzia Railane Santos Silva, and Gabriela Borel Delarmelina

Introduction Recently, Brazilian women football fans or torcedoras have become involved in collective action to give visibility to women’s participation inside stadiums and clubs, as well as to demand equality to exercise certain functions and occupy certain spaces in the fan culture (Martins & Santos, 2020; Moraes, 2018). These women have organised themselves in the format of a network of female supporters, collectives, and activists seeking equality in the stands, one made visible by the organisation of the National Meeting of Women Football Fans (2017, 2018, 2019). In addition to women members of torcidas organizadas (active supporters’ groups from different clubs across the country), the network also has the support of the National Association of Organised Supporters’ Groups (ANATORG), a civil society association that brings together the country’s main torcidas organizadas.

M. Zuaneti Martins (*) • K. R. Santos Silva • G. B. Delarmelina Universidade Federal do Espírito Santo, Vitória, Brazil © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2022 J. Knijnik, A. Costa (eds.), Women’s Football in Latin America, New Femininities in Digital, Physical and Sporting Cultures, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-07976-4_12

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Although this is a new initiative, the presence of women in the stands at football matches is far from novel. There are reports that, in Brazil, women were a significant part of this audience in the first half of the twentieth century (Hollanda, 2008). However, as football became more popular in the country, a particular form of youth fan organisation began to emerge in the 1960s: torcidas organizadas (TOs) (Hollanda, 2008). With the advent of these organisations, the visibility of women’s participation in football fan culture declined. Especially in the 1980s onwards, women lost visibility and space within the football stands, as violence increasingly became a social problem in the fan culture. The construction of violence in football stadiums as a social problem in the country meant that members of TOs were portrayed as irrationally violent and aggressive (Lopes, 2016), reaffirming aspects of aggressive masculinity (Monteiro, 2003). This was motivated in part by the rise of news about hooliganism in Europe (Dunning, 2003), as well as by the fact that one of the leaders of a large Brazilian TO was murdered in 1988  in an ambush—the motive of which, although not legally proven, was likely related to his role in football (Lopes, 2016). The visibility given to this type of masculinity in the fan culture made the presence of women in this context invisible or viewed as unsafe or inauthentic (Jones, 2008). This invisibility of women in spaces dominated by TOs is related to the way in which, in Brazil, football has been characterised as a men’s only social context, one from which women have been prohibited or interdicted, in which they have been silenced or made invisible (Dunning, 1986; Goellner, 2005; Dunn, 2014). This discrimination raises two relevant questions that we aim to address in this chapter: first, how have Brazilian women led efforts to form collective organisations aimed at overcoming this invisibility in football fan culture? Second, to what extent does such an organisation identify with collective struggles that challenge gender inequality in football and in Brazilian society more broadly? Considering this scenario, the objective of this chapter is to describe the network of organisations of women fans in Brazil in relation to feminisms. Considering that the network of these activist fans constitutes a collective identity with a shared repertoire of actions, we rely on the

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notion of social movements conceived by Della Porta and Diani (2020) to describe and demonstrate the relationship between feminisms and demands for gender equality and against sexism in the stands. To do so, we triangulated data produced from semi-structured interviews with 37 torcedoras, as well as posts from fans on social media. In dialogue with the literature, we present our interpretations in three categories of analysis: (1) feminist identities in the stands, (2) collective action against sexism, and (3) political disputes within this network.

 omen Fans as Part of the Feminist W Social Movement The advent of new technologies as a form of debate and expression of the feminist agendas of recent decades has had the effect of pluralising forms of feminism, as well as its protagonists (Munro, 2013). In Brazil, the consequence has been a diversity of organisations and a decentralisation of the feminist movement, which has shifted to “sidestreaming” (instead of having one “mainstream” version) (Alvarez, 2014). As part of these transformations, non-traditional organisations have joined the feminist movement, and the agenda of demands has diversified, enabling, for example, the incorporation and reception of women interested in advancing feminism in football (Antunovic & Hardin, 2015). To understand how these female fans have engaged in feminism, it is necessary, first, to explain what we understand as a social movement. A social movement, according to Della Porta and Diani (2009, p. 20), is a specific type of collective action characterised by three elements: (1) the presence of a conflict action against a clear antagonist; (2) the constitution of a specific collective identity, forged from the symbolic dimensions of their demands and strategies of action and protest; and (3) a continuous process of informal networks of solidarity that unify the organisations and groups that constitute a social movement and that form a collective, a “we.” Thus, more than a single formal organisation, a social movement is here understood as a set of diverse organisations, groups, and individuals (Diani, 1992).

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Melucci (2001) conceptualises the social movement as an analytical abstraction. The author states that this concept allows connecting the fragmented and urgent social struggles as part of a relational texture that articulates the present time with memory and with future projects. Therefore, the existence of the social movement is not empirically observable as such, but it is necessary to identify, describe, and analyse the mechanisms through which individuals and groups are linked and share a common ground of identification (Tatagiba, 2011). Therefore, the movement is the result of a negotiation between different organisations and agents seeking to constitute a shared symbolic universe of demands and/or values, whether they be material or post-material. Culture, therefore, is a central element, related to politics, which ceases to be “a level on a scale in which there is a hierarchy and determinations, and becomes a dimension of social life, encompassing all social practices” (Gohn, 1997, p. 123). Our analysis of women’s activist networks in the fan culture of Brazilian football is based on these authors’ conceptualisation of “social moments”. These concepts were used to trace the connections between the various organisations, their shared identity and repertoire of actions, and the way they operate collectively, regardless of their continuities or discontinuities.

 he Emergence of Activist Women’s T Collectives in Football Fan Culture The existence of activism in the fan culture is neither a recent phenomenon nor one exclusive to women in Brazil. There are records of intersections between political agendas within groups that organise to watch football (Djordjević & Pekić, 2018; Spaaij & Viñas, 2013). For example, Spaaij and Viñas (2013) describe the case of active supporters in Spain who engage with “left-wing” causes such as the fight against racism, fascism, or the commercialisation of football. Numerato (2015) demonstrates how Italian ultras began to produce a certain degree of reflexivity with contemporary football, through the motto “Against modern

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football,” which served as a form of criticism of neoliberal trends in the sport. Examples like these also unfold in Brazil, in ANATORG’s struggle against the elitisation or the so-called “modernisation” of football stadiums (Lopes & Hollanda, 2018). However, such descriptions centre their analysis on football played by men and on collectives composed mainly of men. In general, the profile attributed to the torcedor (member of a TO) is male, even though this term is not directly “gendered”. This could leave us with the impression that there are few women in fan culture, or that those present do not engage in the political activism of these organisations. There are few examples of the activism of female fans in mixed collectives (Dunn, 2014; Pitti, 2019). As on other occasions, women, in these narratives of activism, are unusual, if invisible, and allegedly inauthentic (Dunn, 2014, p. 7). The lack of legitimacy leads to a series of questions about the presence of these women in football stadiums. For example, being in the stands, especially seated close to a club’s TO, women have to worry about the way they dress so as not to be confused with “cheerleaders” or be labelled as going to the stadium looking for a “man” to get mixed up with (Dunn, 2014). These representations also translate into gender inequalities within football fan culture and its activist collectives. For example, according to Carrie Dunn (2014), women who work in the supporters’ trust co-­ operative movement in England need to negotiate with sexism and do not ascend to positions of visibility. According to Pitti (2019), this scenario is also repeated among women ultras in Italy, who, despite being part of supporters’ groups, are not viewed as potential candidates for prestigious positions. In response to these inequalities, in different contexts there are records of the existence of activist collectives composed exclusively of women in fan culture. As highlighted by Toffoletti (2017), the emergence of digital technologies contributed to women fans being able to assert their identities as such more easily. Furthermore, these virtually constructed networks have allowed women to express alternative forms of identity outside the ways they are traditionally represented by the media, and build links with others in contexts and places other than their own. As a result, in this new landscape, such networks have contributed to the growth of

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women’s participation in the fan culture, causing these activist collectives to create or dispute a legitimate space to engage in the fan culture, problematising sexism and the unequal power relations practised there (Gye, 2015; Pfister et al., 2013). These networks, however, seem to be detached from men’s supporters’ groups, causing the problematisation of sexism to occur, based on the incorporation of the criticism that hooliganism reproduces irrational violence (Jones, 2008). In this case, there seems to be a critical silence about the existence of women’s activism within the fan culture of supporters’ groups. The Brazilian case can contribute to the understanding of the potential and limits of this new feminist football activism, and its relationship with the TOs and the ANATORG.

Methodology To carry out this research, we interviewed 37 women from all five macro regions across the country. At the time of the interviews, they were all members of TOs of different football clubs in Brazil, from the first to the fourth division of the national championships. We employed semi-­ structured interviews (Rubin & Rubin, 2005) with these torcedoras (woman members of a TO) in order to capture their perceptions and thoughts about their participation in the stands and whether this could be seen as a new form of feminist action.1 For participant selection, we used the snowball sampling method (Noy, 2008), as there is no database whereby we can access the universe of the population of women who attend stadiums. Each torcedora interviewed referred us to one or two others to contact. As the referrals started to repeat, we inferred that the sampling process became saturated. The interviews were conducted through a virtual camera connection via the interviewee’s preferred application. They lasted an average of one hour and thirty minutes. The inclusion criteria was: first, the interviewee had to have been recognised by her  The present research was approved by the Research Ethics Committee of the University of Espírito Santo, and the participating supporters expressed consent to participate in the interview for research purposes. Their names and clubs have been kept anonymous to avoid identification. 1

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supporter peers as part of the activist network; second, the torcedora should have been able to demonstrate that she had been frequenting football stadiums weekly for at least two years with some fan collective. In addition, to capture the narratives of the national meetings of torcedoras, we carried out content analysis on public documents produced by women’s torcedoras groups, such as notes about the national meeting of women’s fans, official statements, and the sources produced by the two main organisations that promote national meetings of women fans: the Women of the Stands (MDA) and the Women’s Movement of the Stands (MFA). The time frame was from March 2017 to March 2020, comprising the beginning of the movement until the stoppage of the national championship games due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The interviews were transcribed verbatim and coded based on the framework of this study on social movements, to map the way in which a shared identity and repertoire among different organizations and people are constituted. We performed latent coding (Aberbach & Rockman, PS: Political Science & Politics, 35(4), 673–676, 2002), selecting excerpts from the interviews that captured their ideas about fan culture, demands, and actions that describe, in the interviewees’ view, their action(s) within the activist network. Specifically, the interview segments were coded demonstrating discourses that approached the network of feminist identities; those who materialized the network through anti-sexist actions and, finally, those who expressed divergences in conducting this feminism within the network, showing the plurality of views they possess. These are the three main themes that guide our interpretations of the constitution of the activist network among the torcedoras. As a way to deepen these interpretations, promoting greater details about the events, as well as the contexts of the interviewees’ statements, we also used torcedoras’ documents as sources, collected during the research. To analyze them, we “triangulated” data from interviews and the written sources, in order to seek answers to the research questions combining the different sources (Tarrow, Bridging the quantitative-qualitative divide. In Rethinking social inquiry: Diverse goals, shared standards (pp. 171–181). Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2010).

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Feminist Identities in the Fan Culture  he National Meeting: Toward a Collective Feminist T Action in the Stands The event that allowed us to trace the network of activists and, therefore, describe the feminist identities in the fan culture was the resumption of the National Meeting of MDA initiated in 2017. We describe the torcedoras’ approaches to feminism, based on their discourses and the solidarity network they built among themselves, which has allowed them to share their narratives and realise the common interdictions they face within their respective TOs or in the stands. The National Meeting was an initiative that commenced in February 2017. It was started by women from different states and organisations who met at another event on football and democracy, a meeting of left-­ wing collectives linked to fan culture. Initially, the torcedoras began planning the event by meeting within the scope of the MDA collective through social media and collaborative digital platforms such as WhatsApp. They collectively decided on the details surrounding the organisation of the event and worked to bring together representatives of various TOs throughout the country. As a result of this first National Meeting, an open letter was written by the torcedoras with a series of demands ranging from combating sexism to promoting greater representation of women in leadership positions within football, TOs, and at ANATORG.  In addition, the letter convened specific demands such as: dedicated women’s facilities in stadiums (accessible to elderly and disabled women), better security, and the presence of a women’s police station within each stadium during major matches (Moraes, 2018). With the motto “empowerment and resistance,” this meeting triggered a series of initiatives for state meetings of torcedoras, for example in Rio de Janeiro, Minas Gerais, and Rio Grande do Sul. The national meetings contributed to consolidating a network and joint proposition between the active supporters, who at first wouldn’t dare cross the boundaries of club rivalry. This idea has developed into “rivals on the pitch, sisters in the struggle” against any kind of

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manifestation of sexism (gestures, words, harassment, oppression, etc.). According to the official note from the MFA, Departing from normatisation, what is fundamental is the fight against sexism and the extreme rivalry that football has established as popular culture. So, we’ve advanced. “When Women come forward, no one can make us go back!” (MFA)2

 haping a Feminist Space in the Football Stands: S The Struggle Never Ends Insofar as football, especially the space of the TOs, is seen as a male reserve (Dunning, 1986; Jones, 2008; Dunn, 2014), sexism is present as a way of blocking the inclusion of those who dare to cross into that territory. To deal with this sexism, there are several strategies that women have developed. Strategies to deny their gender and “masculinise” themselves are quite common (Campos, 2010). There are also those whose strategy is to recognise the existence of sexism but minimise it and/or claim that this type of behaviour is inherent to football, embracing the stereotypes (Jones, 2008). The stance of problematising these sexist behaviours is opposed to these more complacent strategies. In addition, these activists are wagering on solidarity among torcedoras of different clubs as the way to face the problem of sexism, and so on. Indeed, there is a concern and resistance that aims to guarantee and reaffirm women’s inclusion in the fan culture of football stadiums, strengthening the processes of deconstruction of sexism. The central idea is to strengthen the ideals of feminism and sorority, as well as to achieve new connections among the supporters and collectives that constitute the movement. As a Yellow team3 supporter states,

 Movimento Feminino de Arquibancada (18 January 2020). Em breve saíra o calendário das organizações do ano de 2020 para o Movimento Feminino de Arquibancada. Retrieved from: https:// www.facebook.com/mfanacional. 3  Interviewees are identified here by their club’s colours. 2

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I think these movements are used to hit that same note, right? The fight for space for women in football, the fight against sexism, oppression, etc. As much as it is a note that we always hit, if there are movements like these, it is because there are still cases of oppression. So, the movements come as a process of female empowerment to reaffirm that women can and do go to stadiums, attend war games, write about football, play the drums … It’s a big job. No one is born feminist and empowered. The movements will at some point strengthen the idea of sorority, feminism, and empowerment. (Yellow supporter)

In these meetings, these fans shared their narratives and their views on what it means to be a woman actively supporting in the stands. Some reports portrayed the discrimination they suffered while others did not emphasise this aspect but empathised with peers who did. After the first meeting, many torcedoras found significance in the idea that they fraternised together. This feat was unprecedented for many of the women according to whom sitting at a bar table with a rival club had seemed, until then, totally impossible. As Della Porte and Diani (2009) have suggested, people begin to participate in a social movement based on a personal connection with other people already involved. In this sense, the call to the National Meeting and participation in it contributed to the recruitment and participation of women in this movement.

Actions Against Sexism in the Stands In 2018, torcedoras from the MDA organised the second National Meeting of torcedoras, in the state of Ceará. The meeting’s agenda included: feminism in sport, sexism in football, policing in stadiums by officers specialised in women’s issues, and women’s football.4 This event was important to trigger other national campaigns, such as #deixaelatorcer (#lethersupport) and #machistometro (#machistmeter). The #lethersupport campaign grew out of support for a female journalist who had been the victim of sexism. In this case, the reporter Renata  Read more at: https://www.blogmulheresemcampo.com.br/news/ii-encontro-lugar-delas-e-nabancada/. 4

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Medeiros was assaulted by a supporter inside the stands.5 Even though this case motivated the campaign, it is not unique. Other reporters similarly have experienced events of sexual harassment and violence in stadiums. Recognising that women needed to unite to ensure their inclusion in football, a space traditionally reserved for men, the torcedoras also joined in a similar campaign, namely the Deixa ela trabalhar (Let her do her job) movement, due to a female sports journalist who was attacked on social media platforms. These strategies, such as sharing the same collective action or promoting a similar discursive repertoire, allow different organisations in the same social movement to coordinate (Melucci, 2001). In this case, it is by pursuing feminist demands, through recognition of women’s work and their right to participate in a space dominated by men, that the torcedoras weave a network that brings them closer to the social movement. The fact that this campaign is rooted within the sport contributes to the strengthening of this approach, which then translates into the hashtag #lethersupport. Consequently, the hashtag #lethersupport, which shares the same objective as the previous initiative, was launched to promote more visibility of and respect for women in football. Another action was held on Women’s Day, when, following complaints of harassment, the torcedoras network acted to bring together women from various regions, supporters, and collectives to think about feminism in football fan culture. Therefore, the torcedoras reinforce their identification with the feminist movement, which happens, not by adhering to a common material demand, but through the way these women, with different points of view, collectively promote and demand new social relations and lay claim to alternative ways of life that challenge the limits of the status quo (Melucci, 2001). Thus, the network catalysed the creation and strengthening of female sectors within TOs and the fan culture in general, expanding the space of women in the stands as well as promoting the constitution of collectives made up only by women. These sectors would function as counter-­ publics (Fraser, 1990, p. 67), whereby members of subordinated social groups can “invent and circulate counter discourses, which in turn permit them to formulate oppositional interpretations of their identities,  Read more at: https://cpj.org/2018/04/brazils-let-her-do-her-job-campaign-demands-respec/.

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interests, and needs”. Through those female sectors, women could strengthen anti-sexism discourses and dispute their visibility within the fan culture. In this case, the stadium becomes a place for mobilisation, negotiation, and visibility of these political issues, often transcending to other spheres and territories of contestation, such as presence in street protests (Spaaij & Viñas, 2013). These conquered and constituted spaces in the stands also boosted the integration of other women, as well as internal actions that aimed to guarantee the adhesion and permanence of new women members. The formation of the sectors, with a view to improve women’s access and opportunities to actively support their clubs, made it possible to carry out women’s caravans to watch games in stadiums outside their hometown. So, what for decades was an activity deemed appropriate for “only men” became a feminist celebration of freedom for the torcedoras. It also made it possible for women to play instruments during games and/or to command their TO’s banners, flags, and chants: What do you mean I can’t go on the caravan? I must go on the caravan. I’m of age, vaccinated, grown up. I take responsibility for my actions. I’m there living the everyday life of the fans. Why can’t I go? … Because I’m a woman? I’ll set up a van with only girls, and I’ll be responsible for that sector of our supporters. There was a game that we couldn’t go to, so a caravan was set up just for the women supporters. And off we went! (Green supporter)

In the stadiums, some other collective actions, mainly against sexism, have taken shape. These collective actions, as well as criticism of the sexist practices that took place in fan culture, contributed to reinforcing the networks among torcedoras. As suggested by Della Porte and Diani (2009), participating in these collective actions contributes to the recruitment process and to the overall structure of a social movement, strengthening the network, practices, and discourses of this counter-public. Some of the ways in which these women supporters began to materialise their feminist identity and their adhesion to the struggle included actions such

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as the “machistometer,”6 which tracked harassment, and the exclusion7 of songs or chants of a sexist and/or homophobic nature, as well as taking positions contrary to the hiring of players who have committed aggressions against their wives/girlfriends.8 A player [who was accused of committing aggression against his girlfriend] had only scored one goal during the year but the club’s board stated that he would continue playing [despite the accusations] … So, we carried out a campaign about reporting [domestic violence to the police] …. (Red supporter)

These women challenge sexism as a network online, one that manifests itself in a particular context in each TO or city. The network seems to empower women to face situations of sexism in their daily lives that also permeate the fan culture. This makes them prioritise their feminist and gender identity, regardless of their passion for the football club, which in turn compels them to fight to change sexist traditions. This situation in the Brazilian context clashes with some reports of women supporters in other countries where it is common for women to prioritise fan identity over gender (Jones, 2008). It is important to mention that identity is not “an autonomous object, nor a property of social actors; we mean, rather, the process by which social actors recognize themselves—and are recognized by other actors—as part of broader groupings and develop emotional attachments to them” (Della Porta and Diani, 2009, p. 91). For this reason, identity is somehow negotiated and fluid at the same time that it is strengthened by participation in collective action. For Brazilian women, being a feminist is as important as being a supporter. These discourses have contributed to torcedoras’ embracing the creation of bonds and collective actions, contributing to the establishment of a shared identity as a torcedora juxtaposed with a focus on identifying merely as their counterparts’ rival.

 Read more at: https://www.facebook.com/vascainascontraoassedio/photos/398590104003372.  Read more at: https://www.instagram.com/p/Bn1bJ70AqdL/. 8  Read more at: https://www.facebook.com/MidiaNINJA/posts/1031014410390037/.

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Feminisms in Dispute According to Melucci (2001), the unity of a social movement is also unstable. In the case of the torcedoras, this instability has been mainly motivated by the intersection of politics and football fan culture. Although the torcedoras’ could count on an institutional organisation to minimise the existence of conflicts, it faced a moment of tension during the country’s polarising presidential elections in 2018, disputed by a controversial far-right candidate, namely Jair Bolsonaro, and a centre-left candidate. In the 2018 elections, more broadly, the Brazilian feminist movement joined other political activists on the left in a campaign entitled “Ele não” (“Not him”) whose objective was to exercise direct opposition to the platform defended by then candidate and notable anti-feminist Bolsonaro. As a result, there were acts of protest on streets across Brazil, as well as campaigns on social networks, expressing disagreement with the candidate’s anachronistic views regarding feminism, as well as his strident misogyny (Silveira & de Santana, 2019). The involvement of the torcedoras’ movement in these protests was the subject of internal conflicts and a separation of organisations, which occurred in 2019. A part of the movement argued that it should assertively position itself with regard to the election, since the far-right candidate was radically against the feminist agendas in which their demands were rooted. According to one torcedora, “We protested in favour of the ‘Not him’ campaign. We were the first crowd to speak out because we didn’t think it would be right to elect a homophobic, sexist, racist guy” (Brown supporter). This sector of the torcedoras maintained that the movement had to position itself assertively against Bolsonaro during the electoral period. It should be noted that the tense relationship between parties and social movements is not exclusive to the torcedoras’ movement. There exists a debate surrounding the autonomy of social movements in relation to political parties and the state. It is argued that the organic relationship between them could lead to the co-optation of the former by the latter (Gohn, 1997). However, more than two autonomous spheres,

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social movements and political parties, share some institutional intersections, as activists belong to multiple types of organisations at the same time (Mische, 2007). On the other hand, despite this alliance with the feminist movement, some torcedoras said that it was the role of the MDA to take an explicit stance against involvement in the elections. These torcedoras, although defending a position contrary to this candidate, claimed to respect both women and members with diverse political views. This posture of separation of political issues from football is not exclusive to the Brazilian case. The profusion of the idea that football transcends politics has contributed to the perpetuation and reproduction of supremacist postures within fan culture and a move away from anti-fascist and anti-racist ideas (Djordjević & Pekić, 2018). This conflict demonstrates that, as Spaaij and Viñas (2013, p.  187) have suggested, “sport is a microcosm of society and, as such, can reveal a lot about a society’s hegemonic (and counter-hegemonic) ideology, values, and goals”. As the conflict that blurred the border between elections and torcedoras’ movements took place, it became clear that the torcedoras’ alliance is based on “ideological flexibility, heterogeneous identities and interests, and a diffuse message, [one] whose solidarity is based on a sense of shared struggle” (Spaaij & Viñas, 2013, p. 187). As a result of this ideological conflict, at the beginning of the following year, a portion of women in the MDA left to found the MFA, taking charge of the organisation at the third National Meeting of torcedoras, which took place in September 2019. The existence of these two organisations shows the multifaceted character of the movement and demonstrates that, despite a shared collective identity and feminist positions, there are divergences, and their performance is dynamic. As Ann Mische (2007) emphasises, in a social movement, there are multiple styles of communication that compete and collaborate over time in shaping its collective identity, and activists balance and choose amongst multiple identities at particular times. It also evidences that the social movement is composed of more than one organisation and that the links that unify them are dynamic and fluid and are part of the cultural terrain we inhabit (Melucci, 2001). This instability, at the same time a mark of the contemporary feminist movement (Alvarez, 2014), also serves, in this context, to

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update the narratives about the relationship between football and politics, at the intersections of feminisms and football fan culture.

Final Considerations Although women have been made invisible in football fan culture in Brazil, they have built their own space, forming organisational networks among fans of different clubs, which materialised, starting in 2017, into three national meetings. From these meetings, the fans wove networks of solidarity and began to share a common identity and repertoire. Despite the club identifications that would make them adversaries, these women, standing together, forged a collective identity of torcedoras in the stands. In this sense, their political performativity brings them closer to the feminist movement and brings to the forefront of the fan culture the demands of this social movement, for example through campaigns to combat violence against women, sexual harassment, and the myth of fragile femininity. These women intend not only to conquer more space and visibility in fan culture, but also to contribute to transforming it into a more inclusive and diverse space. These alliances do not happen, however, without disputes and tensions. Rather, divergences about how feminisms intersect with fan culture divide the torcedoras and update narratives about the relationship between football and politics in their organisations. Considering this theoretical scope, the present study is not meant to be representative of all Brazilian female football fans. Looking at identification and social movements as a process, our conclusions remain limited to a specific time and to particular social agents. Finally, it is important to emphasise that social movements are understood as a process, full of tensions and disputes. In this chapter, we captured a picture of this process through the lens of its participants. Funding:  It is important to be mentioned that this research was funded by FAPES, CNPq, and CAPES.

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13 From the Stands to the Center of the Court: The Women in Futsal Refereeing in Brazil Andressa Hartmann, Myllena Camargo de Oliveira, and Angelita Alice Jaeger

Introduction The inclusion of women in football has faced multiple obstacles, since in many countries this sport is still regarded as a space of male predominance (Krasnoff, 2019; Palmer, 2008; Pelak, 2010; Scandurra et  al., 2017; Themen, 2014). In Brazil, the situation is no different. Amidst disputes and barriers, even a government decree was passed to prevent women from playing football because it was believed to be incompatible with their bodies (Camargo, 2020). This ban had disastrous effects on the development of the sport. However, some countries have advanced and invested more in women’s football than others, which results in the encouragement and involvement of girls and women, as observed in

A. Hartmann • M. C. de Oliveira • A. A. Jaeger (*) Universidade Federal de Santa Maria, Santa Maria, Brazil e-mail: [email protected] © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2022 J. Knijnik, A. Costa (eds.), Women’s Football in Latin America, New Femininities in Digital, Physical and Sporting Cultures, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-07976-4_13

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Sweden (Andersson & Barker-Ruchti, 2018) and in the United States of America (Balardin et al., 2018). However, even in territories where women’s football is popular, they are paid less than men (Archer & Prange, 2019; Kimbell et al., 2018). Therefore, the sport constitutes itself as a field of disputes that is tensioned by women, due to the unequal conditions that the sport offers them. Even so, they blur social borders and produce different resistance strategies (Silva & Nazário, 2018) in order to enhance their inclusion, permanence, and expansion in the football field (Devide, 2005). Furthermore, they fight hard to enjoy the same football rights that men enjoy, due to the same work performed (Archer & Prange, 2019). The subterfuges, maneuvers, and difficulties that mark the presence of women prevent their free movement in different social spheres and sports activities. These hardships can be understood using the concept of gender. Butler (2003) states that gender is the effect of a discursive system that repeats and reinforces statements produced in a given culture, based on the linearity between sex, gender, and heterosexuality, whose meanings operate in the performativity of bodies. The strength of a discourse that is repeated daily creates a kind of script to be followed, and acts in the regulation and production of sexual binaries, materializing gendered identities in the bodies of men and women. In Brazil, the effect of these discourses and practices built the sports territory as an inadequate space for women (Goellner, 2016). Such inadequacy is superlative in football, as it is understood as a sport for men (Almeida, 2016), where physical preparation, violence in disputes, and bodily configurations point to a masculinizing practice. This perception is enhanced when the place occupied by women is the referee’s position (Stahlberg, 2016). It is widely recognized that Léa Campos was the first Brazilian woman to officially become a referee. During the military dictatorship, she fought for her training in refereeing to be recognized by the national sporting authorities. In 1971, FIFA integrated Léa into its refereeing squad (Goellner, 2015), marking her protagonism in Brazilian sport, not without producing resistance and overcoming interdictions (Monteiro & Mourão, 2016). Other Brazilian women are also noteworthy in the field of football refereeing, such as Manoelita Valinho Rodrigues, who in 1980 took a refereeing course with the São Paulo Futsal Federation, when

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women were still unable to referee official matches. It was only in 2002 that the CBF (Brazilian Futsal Federation) women’s referee team was formed, and in the following year they took charge of competitions (Nascimento & Nunes, 2014). In 2007, the international cadre of futsal referees who worked for FIFA received the nomination of four Brazilian women: Renata Neves Leite, Giselle Torri, Katiucia Meneguzzi, and Alane Lucena (Diniz, 2011). In 2019, an all-female referee team headed a men’s youth championship in the country, and a year later, the Brazilian Anelize Schulz (Castro, 2019), from the refereeing board of the men’s Futsal World Cup qualifiers. In May 2021, a list published on the CBFS website had 85 women in the aforementioned roles, 45 of them occupying the position of referees and 4 of them participating in the FIFA board (CBFS, 2021). These data reflect the situation of 27 states (including the Federal District), where only 19 of them have women in the role of futsal referees. While in the international literature different studies analyze the experiences of women in football refereeing (Forbes et  al., 2014; Kim & Hong, 2016; Sánchez et al., 2021), research on football or futsal referees is still scarce in Brazil. Therefore, the aim of this study is to investigate the reasons that led women to pursue a career in futsal refereeing, highlighting the challenges faced in this trajectory and the actions needed to increase their participation in this role.

The Methodological Journey This research1 used a qualitative exploratory approach, as it sought to examine a little-studied topic (Sampieri et  al., 2013), such as women’s careers in futsal refereeing. One of the authors2 of the study is a futsal referee, and as a result, has a network of relationships with other women in this profession. From this network, we used an intentional sample (Creswell, 2010) with five futsal referees, who have national and  This Project received ethics approval from the University HREC (97073918.4.0000.5346).  Andressa Hartmann is a referee of the Rio Grande do Sul Futsal Federation (FGFS), of the Brazilian Futsal Federation (CBFS), of Rio Grande do Sul Football Federation (FGF) and of the Brazilian Football Federation (CBF). 1 2

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international prominence, with significant experience at the professional level, four of whom are part of the FIFA refereeing team. Two started to work as referees in the late 1990s and the others in the early 2000s. Ages vary between 29 and 41 years, all are single, and two of them have children. All signed the informed consent form to voluntarily participate in the study. The research data were produced from semi-structured interviews, which consisted of a small number of previously defined questions (Creswell, 2010) associated with new questions relevant to the time of the interview (Sampieri et al., 2013). The extensive work schedules, the displacements across the country, and the locations of the referees’ homes in Brazil required the use of the WhatsApp communication application to capture their interviews. Considering the features of the app, we chose to type a question, wait for the feedback in the form of audio or text, and then follow up the conversation. This protocol proved to be productive once it opened space for reflection and allowed the referees to respond in their time gaps. Next, we transcribed the audios and linked them to the texts, resulting in a single typed file for each interviewee. The next step was then to organize the material for the qualitative analysis, whose process consisted of five phases, namely: compiling, decomposing, recomposing, interpreting, and concluding (Yin, 2016). We started the compilation cycle, reading and rereading the documents, seeking to order the interviews from the testimony of the most experienced referee to the most recent in the profession. Then we carried out the decomposition process, which required new readings, resulting in the production of smaller parts of the interviews that received identification codes. In the third phase, exhaustive readings of the documents triggered approximations, comparisons, and amalgamations of excerpts, constituting the recomposition process, resulting in different arrangements that meet the research objectives. In the interpretation cycle, we assume that we produce a reading of research sources from our perspective, whose interpretations were discussed and anchored in the reflections produced by the theoretical framework, constituting a way of looking, among many others possible (Jaeger, 2009). In the writing of the article, we used some excerpts chosen from the repetition, meaning, coherence, and impact on the composition of the results of the topic under study. Finally, we reached

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the conclusions reinforcing the findings of the study and pointing out some necessary actions to advance women’s access to different professions related to the sporting context.

 otivations and Challenges in the Futsal M Referees’ Careers Currently in Brazil, women occupy roles in different sporting areas. In futsal, they act as players, head coaches, fitness trainers, and physiotherapists. They also win regional and national awards as the best coach of the year, and serve on technical committees, including within the Brazilian national women’s futsal team. In refereeing, as in other spheres of professional sports, women have been breaking down stereotypes, crossing barriers, and occupying spaces. Two of this study’s participants, broke into the territory of football refereeing in the 1990s and in the 2000s. Their achievements demonstrate the conquest of pioneer referees and the capacity of the new generation to provide innovative solutions in a hostile environment. Thus we queried them about their motivations for entering into the referee trajectory. The answers point to multiple possibilities, as we see in the following excerpts: I was part of the state team that played in futsal championships. So, I got to know futsal in ’95 ... I met referees who were from the Federal District and who refereed futsal. ... So, I ended up taking the referee’s course so that when I stopped playing, I could continue in the sport. (R1) In college I met a colleague from the referees’ association and she had some friends who founded an autonomous group of referees .... I got involved ... and I always wanted to stay in futsal. As I had stopped playing ..., refereeing was the best opportunity that came up. (R2)

The referees point out that, maintaining the link with futsal, the financial perspective arising from refereeing and the possibility of getting to travel and discover new places were all elements that motivated them in the pursuit of the profession. Such incentives converge with the results

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presented in other studies (Monteiro et  al., 2020; Stahlberg, 2016), added to the improvement in the area (Farias, 2014). The approach to refereeing as a way to stay in the game also motivated Canadian referees (Reid & Dallaire, 2020). In addition, the trips undertaken to referee enable new discoveries and added to their lived experiences. When analyzing the justifications that move women to undertake the professional role of referees, we note in their statements that the exercise of the profession constitutes an enormous challenge for them, which comes with a range of hurdles. The gendered issues are clearly identifiable in their interviews: I believe that the difficulties ... are still the issue of prejudice, that I’m inside a court and that a person doesn’t know me, they look and they don’t see a professional, they always see the person’s gender. ... [E]ach game is a new barrier that you overcome. (R1) I can’t complain about rosters, but I’ve never had the same rosters or number of rosters that men have. ... [W]e continue to hear the same jokes, the same curses from the crowd that I used to hear 15, 16 years ago when I started, which are the basic ones: “go wash clothes, of a woman piloting a stove!” These things from the crowd we still listen to. But inside the court it got better. (R4)

The aforementioned gendered prejudices—such as making them doubt their professional competence—as well the discrimination that robs some of refereeing opportunities, are part of their everyday lives. These are all gendered experiences connected to a single social marker: being a woman. Such situations are not exclusive of the futsal refereeing context, since in other sports this sort of discrimination also happens, for example in the Brazilian Women’s Basketball League (Passero et al., 2019) and in football (Monteiro & Mourão, 2016), both spaces that also treat women as second-class professionals. Similar situations can be seen in other countries, such as in the United Kingdom, where women referees in men’s football matches are constantly being questioned about their ability and decisions taken on the field (Forbes et al., 2014). Similarly, in Portugal, female roller-hockey referees report hostile criticism of their performances relating to their gender (Jaeger et al., 2010). Although the

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cultural contexts and sports are different, the presence of women in this terrain still causes discomfort, as they disturb the discourses and practices that perform gender. Butler (2003) argues that both sex and gender are cultural constructions that mark subjects’ bodies and identify them in one way or another. The fact is that being a woman produces effects that place them in certain places, at the same time in which other spaces are forbidden to them. By occupying territories naturalized as masculine, they break with the binary logic arising from a patriarchal system, anchored in normalizing discourses and practices, whose contents sustain that this place is not theirs. Having clarity about how this system operates makes it possible to understand that the discourses that constitute the sports field are not neutral, and that statements about women in sport are produced amidst power relations in dispute with men, who occupy the center of the sports scene (Jaeger, 2009). If discriminatory practices are losing strength within the field/court, they can also spill over to other social instances, producing new discourses and social arrangements. However, these women referees are not willing to leave this field. They face the challenges imposed and double their efforts to expand their spaces of action in line with movements that occur in the most diverse professional areas, reaffirming that a woman’s place is where she wants to be.

Refereeing Trajectories After having dedicated a large portion of their lives to sports practices, these women challenged the reservations regarding their capacity to be leaders on the courts. They also defied the cultural gender prejudices within the football arena, to push back and to control their refereeing trajectories. They sought further professional training, and, infused with courage, they produced their stories in refereeing. The interviewees say that being a professional futsal referee in Brazil represents recognition, happiness, and personal and professional fulfilment: this profession helped them to consolidate several life goals and ambitions in their career. The following excerpts demonstrate that the referees acknowledge the satisfaction achieved on the futsal courts.

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Nowadays, after a lot of personal struggles that I went through alone across the state ..., I get to many places and get congratulated, people expect me to be there. ... Many people treat me with great care and attention. In short, what we all want is recognition for our efforts, and to do the best job possible, always! (R2) I went to the men’s world championship as a reserve referee, then I went to the women’s world championship, I went to the South American one, I went to many international competitions, including the World University games. (R4)

When looking at their trajectories, we notice that the referees put a lot of effort into their careers, and enjoyed the recognition of their work, which translates into the attention and affection received, and the invitations to participate in outstanding national and international competitions. A study carried out with professional football referees pointed out that public recognition and participation as international referees indicate a measure of professional success (Ferreira & Brandão, 2012). Both studies point out the aspects mentioned that constitute the apex of their professional journeys. However, one event in particular strongly defines the trajectories of these women: motherhood. I intend to improve as a referee, grow more. Currently I know that I’m not able to get to a FIFA squad ... It was something I always wanted. Today, because of having been a mother twice in a short period, perhaps, it became an impossible dream ... [T]here would have to be some release specifications for women because like it or not, we deal with a lot more things than men: home, children, family ... [L]et’s say, from a biased point of view, this is “woman’s work,” a woman’s responsibility and that we have to find a way when we are the ones who leave the house. I can see for myself, I have two children, I have to know how I’m going to leave them, something that a man leaves home and he doesn’t care because he has his wife, his wife does that! (R5)

In this excerpt, we observe that motherhood limits the full development of women’s careers in refereeing because the care of their children is still delegated to them. The task of reconciling motherhood with travel schedules and games is an almost impossible task when there is no robust organization of the family nucleus. This is what we observed in a report

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published in El País, whose content points out that of the 23 athletes in the Brazilian team, only one of them is a mother and, in the men’s team, only six players are not yet fathers (Pires, 2019). Another survey carried out with ten football referees informs that all of them remained single. However, there is no information about motherhood, from which we deduce that they are not mothers (Monteiro et al., 2020). A Korean study sought to identify the reasons that lead women to give up refereeing in football and concluded that motherhood deeply affects the work in refereeing, as there is no support in the football community for career continuity after pregnancy (Kim & Hong, 2016). In Brazil, the Constitution of the Federative Republic (1988) prevents women from being dismissed without prejudice from their work, up to five months after childbirth, which does not prevent them from having their salary reduced during the period of absence from activities. As we can see, maternity has a great impact on women’s sporting lives, making them always considered as the second option for executive positions in decisive spheres (Ferreira et al., 2013). To examine this context, it is important to consider that between the 1980s and the 1990s, a set of crises pushed women into the domestic environment, producing deep inequalities between couples. This was associated with men’s refusal to share domestic tasks and care for their offspring and the shuffling between the places occupied by men and women in society (Badinter, 2011). Decades later, we still observe the difficult conciliation between motherhood and professional performance. In sport, this disparity is wide open, since the sport structure is, for the most part, run by men who seek to maintain the status quo. What is observed in sport is the reproduction of a patriarchal model of society that seeks to maintain football as a male-dominated area. Another aspect that emerged in the interviews regarding the referees’ trajectory concerns their future projects and desired achievements, suggesting that the career span in refereeing is short. So I would love to make it to the Women’s World Cup before ending my career. But I, at first, have no pretensions to becoming a FIFA instructor. ... I believe that when I finish my career I should not continue as a referee’s instructor nor as a federation instructor. Even because I’m moving my professional life towards a more academic side, I’m starting a master’s degree .... (R4)

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Unfortunately I didn’t reach the FIFA refereeing panel for reasons beyond my control, and today I’m already thinking about saying goodbye to this career. I achieved most of the goals I had. I’m very proud of what I achieved, because I know how difficult it was. I am fulfilled as a referee. Everything that was within my reach and depended only on my effort and work ethics, I achieved. (R2)

The referees’ statements indicate that after a path of achievements built over time in refereeing, they aim for other professional pathways. They are willing to make these changes with happiness. However, an unfulfilled aspiration stems from one of the statements, to join the FIFA refereeing board, as this sporting entity constitutes the sovereignty of professional football in the world, which has control of the sport through confederations, federations, and sport clubs (Pizarro & Rial, 2018). The analysis of the excerpts allows us to underline that the professional trajectories show achievements, desires, and aspirations, with some being conquered, others abandoned along the way or even nurtured. The uncertainties that accompany the careers of the referees find shelter in the gender inequalities that constitute and cross the sports field and strongly mark Brazilian society.

 he Persistent Inequalities Experienced by T Women in Refereeing The barriers overcome by women in the sports terrain result from boldness that blurs borders, building bridges between the past and the present, multiplying spaces for sports inclusion and expanding opportunities for new referees to reach the courts and the fields (Monteiro et al., 2020). However, even today the “whistle women” need to prove, in each game, how proficient they are in their role. The testimonies of the participants make clear that each new day brings a new, hard challenge for them: ... we have to know the rule of the game, and have it at the top of our head, and also know how to apply it, to a greater extent than any other man, than any other men whistling. We have to know more than they do to be recognized by our effort. (R5)

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... there is always bigger pressure on us … The truth is, we need to dedicate ourselves a lot more to the game, because we know that they are evaluating what we do today in a match, to appoint us for the next one. There is no relief. So, you have to dedicate yourself to the fullest. Running a lot, being on top of the game, signalling well, and always trying to do your best. (R4)

It is clear that many inequalities affecting women’s sports changed during the twentieth century. However, we cannot forget that these inequalities are constantly updated and incorporated in social life by new asymmetries (Jaeger et al., 2010). This is evident in our participants’ lived reality, as they need to prove themselves at every single moment, to demonstrate that they are good enough to perform their roles, hence being called to referee new matches. Simultaneously, as the participants attest, the demands on the men’s referees are, at the very least, different. In addition, the referees also mention the hegemony of men in the leading positions of the Brazilian refereeing management, which configures yet another gender inequality in sport. So, I think that in the leadership positions, or within the sports federations, there are very few women. Look, not to say 90% or 95% are just men. There are no women. If you were to do a survey in the federation, I’m guessing that 90%, a little more, are just men. The thinking heads of futsal, today, are just men. (R4).

Based on the statements of our participants, we searched the website of the Brazilian Futsal Confederation, where we found that the most prominent positions are held by men, totaling 13, from the presidency and deputies, advisory positions, and the board of directors. The low representation of women in command positions can be explained through the metaphor of the “glass ceiling,” which is nothing more than an artificial and invisible barrier that impedes women’s access to positions of leadership and higher up the hierarchy. This metaphor indicates that women occupy inferior positions, from which they visualize the positions above them through the transparency of the glass ceiling, but they have difficulties in surpassing it because they are women. Studies identify that the glass ceiling metaphor is

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appropriate to the context of sports administration (Hancock et al., 2018) or even in the experiences of coaches (Kristiansen et al., 2014). As there is no permeability to overcome obstacles and reach higher positions, they need to be able to break or shatter these barriers (Rocha, 2006). To break the “glass ceiling” it is essential to develop strategies to increase the participation of women in the various sporting sectors and, in particular, in refereeing. The interviewees shared with us their viewpoints on how these hindrances could be overcome: ... we needed more women, maybe, in the leadership of futsal, to look a little more carefully at the feminine side of it, for women. ... At CBFS, there are few who work in leadership positions. So, I think we need more women within the federations, you know, so maybe they would care a bit more of us, women. (R4) ... perhaps having a more active and effective participation of women in the administration of associations, federations, and, in general, in the organization of competitions and events, would make society more aware of the active participation of women in the sport. (R2) There is the Anafutsal, which is the national association of referees, that has some active women, but we need to have a greater number, not only at a national level, but at the state level, it needs to be more effective, firmer. ... It is an ongoing fight! (R5)

The referees indicate different strategies in order to increase their participation in the sporting scene. Their suggestions converge on the expansion of the presence of women in decision-making positions, since their exclusion from such positions constitutes discriminatory action, which considers them unfit for the exercise of the role (Devide, 2005). To deconstruct this structure, we need public policies that provide working conditions and decision-making power in equal levels for men and women in the sports field. An example of this is the United States of America, which through an amendment approved in 1972, prevented the exclusion or discrimination of girls and women in educational activities, requiring universities to create programs to encourage women to practice sports, resulting in an expansion of opportunities for them (Cooky & Lavoi, 2012). In England, cultural changes in the way of understanding the careers of coaches, their training, in addition to more investments

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and support, have contributed to the progression of women into coaching positions (Norman et al., 2018). In Brazil, there are still no records of public policies that aim to expand the inclusion of women in different spheres of sports organization.

Final Thoughts The study participants point out that the exercise of futsal refereeing is constituted amidst several paradoxical experiences: on the one hand, the strong bond with the sport motivates them; on the other hand, their careers have been stained by prejudice, discrimination, and lack of work opportunities due to the low number of rosters received. Personal achievements, satisfaction with the profession, studying, and motherhood, affect the careers of the referees. The difficulties in reconciling the demands of personal life with refereeing, make some consider retirement. However, they claim that they managed to conquer and mark their participation in the world of refereeing as legitimate. At the same time, they point out that futsal is a gendered territory, since hierarchical relationships place men at the center and at the top of decisions that impact on the expansion of the presence of women in sport. The practice of futsal is widespread in Brazil, so actions that allow them to shatter the “glass ceiling” are essential, signaling that they can occupy any position in the sporting industry. Finally, better working conditions, opportunities, and remuneration can encourage women to take refereeing as a space that is also theirs, and therefore constitutes a professional career among many other possible ones within the growing futsal industry in South America.

References Almeida, C. S. d. (2016). Bela e feras, nós e as masculinizadas: Discursos, corporalidades e significações. In C.  Kessler (Ed.), Mulheres na área: Gênero, diversidade e inserções no futebol. Porto Alegre: UFRGS Editora. Andersson, R., & Barker-Ruchti, N. (2018). Career paths of Swedish top-level women soccer players. Soccer & Society, 20(6), 857–871. https://doi.org/1 0.1080/14660970.2018.1431775

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Part V Another Football Is Possible

14 The Ethnofootball of Brazilian Indigenous Women Maria Beatriz Rocha Ferreira and José Ronaldo Mendonça Fassheber

Introduction Social changes in this study are viewed in a long-term historical perspective from which our time has emerged. They are inserted in networks of interdependencies or figurations of events that are intertwined in broader processes, that is, in an extensive network of individuals and institutions, and influenced by different internal and external aspects of society (Elias, 2001).

M. B. Rocha Ferreira (*) Vulnerable Groups, São Paulo, Brazil NGIME, Universidade Federal de Juiz de Fora (UFJF), Juiz de Fora, Brazil J. R. M. Fassheber Vulnerable Groups, São Paulo, Brazil Graduate Program Coastal and Insular Environments, Universidade Estadual do Paraná - Campus of Paranaguá, Paranaguá, Brazil © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2022 J. Knijnik, A. Costa (eds.), Women’s Football in Latin America, New Femininities in Digital, Physical and Sporting Cultures, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-07976-4_14

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Indigenous women in football represent an important social change and an achievement in Brazilian society. When we see the participation of the Xerente indigenous women in the world football championship of the Indigenous Peoples’ Games held in Canada (Magno, 2016) and in Brazil (UNDP, 2017), as well as these different women’s indigenous games in a city championship, or even in a field within a village, we must grasp these social phenomena in a broader historical perspective. The aim of this article is to contribute to the debate about indigenous women in ethnofootball in Brazil. This expression incorporates the mimetic representation of ancestral games and European football. The text not only fills in a gap in Brazilian women football literature, but also provides insights into the workings of gender and ethnicity in the country. It discusses the emergence and dynamics of ethnofootball practised by indigenous women in Brazil in recent times, considering the historical processes in which these women were silenced and obliterated, as well as the current forms of struggle for their rights. The method of this work was based on content analysis and the data obtained through bibliographic review to situate the indigenous peoples in Brazil, historical research publications, and ethnographic and journalistic data of ethnofootball to grasp the object of this study. The information from the fieldwork conducted by the authors came from research during ten national and regional Indigenous People’s Games events and in the Kaingang indigenous lands in Paraná.

 Brief History of Indigenous Peoples, A Highlighting the Women The impact of colonisation deeply interfered with indigenous societies. The colonisers claimed to be ‘civilised’ and had superior power to dominate, as the result of their weapons, written communications and maps, strategies and spread of pandemic-generating diseases. The pendulum of the balance of power has most often swung in favour of the colonisers. At the beginning of colonisation, indigenous women represented an affront to European standards. Female nudity was the first custom to be noticed and commented upon by colonisers, travellers and missionaries.

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It was progressively associated with lust, animalisation, sin, cannibalism, misogyny and demonisation of the feminine universe. These women were cursed, possessed, caught by the lasso1 and enslaved (Kok & Rocha Ferreira, 2011; Monteiro, 2001). Outside this narrative, indigenous women were relegated to historical oblivion, although their contribution to Brazilian society has been significant. The fact that the founding accounts of Brazilian historiography were created by men, including chronicles of colonisers sent by the crown, missionaries, adventurers and painters hired to show the life of the ‘savages’, all contributed to the invention of the indigenous peoples and the idealisation of the woman (Monteiro, 2001). In 1641 Albert van der Eckhout,2 a Dutch painter hired by Mauricio de Nassau, represented in his work, the degree of European behaviour incorporated. He painted a Tupi woman on a colonial farm, with braids, a white skirt, bare breasts, carrying a naked child and a water container made from the fruit of the calabash tree. She holds on her head, with her left hand, a straw basket filled with manufactured goods. The author represents in another paining a Tapuia3 woman, covered by a tuft of leaves, holding a basket of vegetable fibres with a band on her head. Inside the basket is a gourd made from the fruit of the calabash tree and a severed human leg, and in her right hand she holds a cut hand. These two women represent the view of the painters, the different levels of contact and internationalisation of European behaviour at the same time. The colonisers used different strategies to curb or accelerate behavioural changes, through the violence in different physical and symbolic forms. They enslaved them, inferred a feeling of uselessness and shame and granted them no citizenship rights (Monteiro, 2001). ‘Shame’ is one of the most powerful feelings in these processes, associating with the sense of inferiority, both personally, as of the family, and of the wider  ‘Caught by the lasso’ is an expression used in the past to show the way the colonisers possessed the indigenous women. 2  These paintings are in the Ethnographic Collection, The National Museum of Denmark, Copenhagen 1641. They are available in different publications (Ribeiro & Velthem, 2008). 3  Tapuia is a term of Tupi origin that was used during the early colonisation period of Brazil to designate all indigenous people who did not speak the ancient Tupi language. They lived in the countryside and were later contacted by the European. 1

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society, being internalised in the long term in the civilising process (Goudsbloom, 2009). This feeling of worthlessness was reinforced by state policies. The indigenous peoples until the end of the twentieth century were considered transitory subjects to be integrated into ‘civilisation’, which integrationist policy facilitated by the non-recognition of diversity and by withholding the right to citizenship. The Indigenous Protection Service, established in 1919, was charged with the mission to integrate indigenous peoples into Western civilization aiming at forming a single Brazilian nation. This service was replaced by the National Indian Foundation (FUNAI) in 1967, initially with the same philosophy (FUNAI, 2021). The recognition of the social organisation, customs, languages, beliefs, traditions and original rights of indigenous peoples was only acknowledged in the Brazilian Constitution of 1988. This represents a historic milestone for the country and gave rise to new perspectives, which have been supported by different national and international organisations in favour of this cause. This achievement was of course part of a larger human rights process that was already taking place in Brazil and around the world. Between 1970 and 1980 indigenous women became visible in different sectors of society and gave voice to the demands of their communities and indigenous peoples throughout the country. They discussed different agendas, such as family, inter-ethnic violence, means of generating income, reproductive health, food sovereignty and women’s participation in government policy decisions, among others. Some of these women managed to gain audiences in the National Congress, United Nations, local governments, and national and international non-governmental organisations (Verdum, 2008). The scientific publications interrelated with the social movement, media and other mechanisms of society contributed to the acceleration of indigenous women in public and political life. They participated in institutionalised organisations and founded new entities. In the 1980s the Association of Indigenous Women of the Upper Negro River (AMARN) and the Association of Indigenous Women of the District of Taracuá, Uaupés and Tiquié River (AMITRUT) were created. In the following decade, the Ordinary Assembly of the Coordination of Indigenous

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Organisations of the Brazilian Amazon (COIAB), the Grumin Network of Indigenous Women, the Association of Indigenous Women of the Upper Negro River, the Continental Alliance of Indigenous Women, and the National Council of Indigenous Women (CONAMI) were created, among others (Kok & Rocha Ferreira, 2011; Verdum, 2008). Their voices began to be heard inside and outside of their villages in the claiming of human rights, adequate education and health care, control and self-determination over natural resources and biodiversity located in their territories, as well as fighting for their rights alongside men to act as agents of the state, teachers, health representatives, or in bureaucratic functions of government and non-governmental bodies providing assistance to indigenous peoples (Sacchi, 2006; Verdum, 2008).

Indigenous Ethnofootball Indigenous ethnofootball is a symbolic concept that congregates the mimetic representation of ancestral games together with western football. To clarify, mimesis in this concept is understood not as the imitation of real life, but as a representation of real life. As Elias and Dunning argue (1986, p. 288), ‘the mimetic character of a sports contest, such as a horse race, a boxing match or a football game, results from the fact that aspects of the feeling-experience associated with a real physical struggle enter the feeling-experience of the “imitated” struggle of a sport’. Ancestral indigenous games produce mimetic effects, which are defined as … bodily activities, with playful characteristics, where myths, cultural values go through and that congregate the (im)material world of each ethnic group. The games require specific learning of motor skills, strategies and/or luck. They are usually played ceremonially, in rituals, to please a supernatural being and/or to obtain fertility, rain, food, health, physical fitness and success in war, among others. They also aim at preparing the youth for adult life, socializing, cooperating and/or training warriors. The games take place in determined periods and places, the rules are dynamically established, there is generally no age limit for players, there are not necessarily

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winners/losers and do not require awards, except prestige; the participation itself is loaded with meanings and promotes experiences that are incorporated by the group and the individual. (Rocha Ferreira et al., 2005)

Many of the indigenous games were condemned by the colonisers because they were considered to be part of diabolical rituals. Nevertheless, some remained in the memory of the elders and in published historical accounts, and since have been revitalised and re-signified in different current events. Fassheber (2006, p.  29) defines ethnosport as ‘the mimetic capacity that involves the ethnic identity expressed in the body of the indigenous player, resignifying the original model of the sport’. The author proposed indigenous ethnosport as ‘the practice of physical activities both in the form of specific traditional games and the mimesis that dynamizes these games, and in the form of adherence to the process of global sport mimesis of the Fóg (non-indigenous) society’. In other words, it is the capacity of each indigenous person to adapt to modern sports without, however, losing his/her ethnic identity. In this way, we agree with Taussig’s assumption of mimetic faculty, ‘the nature that culture uses to create second nature, the faculty to copy, imitate, make models, explore difference, yield into and become Other’ (Taussig, 1993, p. xiii). In other words, by mimesis a culture does not copy the original, but recreates and gives its own identity to what has been learned. The indigenous person doesn’t cease to be indigenous because he/she uses a mobile phone or computer, plays football or becomes a rapper. The new and possible identities are claimed not by us, but by the indigenous populations. They are the ones to recognise and legitimise these identities (Rocha Ferreira & Fassheber, 2009).

 thnofootball: Accounts of Female Players E in Indigenous Peoples’ Games Football had become widespread for women in Brazil by the end of the twentieth century. Although it was officially banned from 1941 to 1979 in the official agenda (BRAZIL, 1941), the game continued to be

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played by women throughout the country. Participation of women in football has not been easily accessible, and the effective participation of indigenous and non-indigenous women in this sport has demonstrated the power of resilience of these individuals in recent times. Indigenous women’s demands are also embedded in greater participation in ancestral indigenous games as well as football. In both cases, there are gender restrictions, since social roles differ, although the equity of these relations is increasingly being altered. Ethnofootball is intertwined with the ethos of each group. It is a representation of the ancestral and European cultures. Women’s ethnofootball also aggregates issues of empowerment and political claims within and outside communities, which is described below. Native people discuss new agendas and themes in various scenarios. Any events in which indigenous people gather, the women are there, coming out of their peripheries to the proscenium. Among these spaces, the Indigenous Peoples’ Games appear as a great opportunity for the revitalisation of memory and political discussions. Many indigenous leaders, women we know today, raised their voices at these events and demanded their participation in the football games. The research carried out in three different situations are: observations and accounts in locu during the Indigenous People’s Games, ethnography and literature review in the communities, and information through newspapers and social media regarding the Peladão4 and other championships. The Indigenous Peoples’ Games (JPIs) have been organised since 1996 by the idealists Carlos Justino Terena and Mariano Marcos Terena, as well as other governmental and private stakeholders. These events congregate elements from the ancestral culture with standard sport rationality, including organisational structural, rules and more. There were 12 national editions that influenced the organisation of regional events. We (first author and the research team) followed eight national and two regional events from 2001 onwards (Freitag & Fassheber,  Peladão is considered the largest championship of peladas in Brazil and the world, held in the city of Manaus, since 1973, with the peripheral and riverside populations of the city. The competition lasts five months and, besides the football matches, holds the contest of the Queen of Peladão. Pelada is an informal game of football between friends, played in any open. 4

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2011; Rocha Ferreira, 2011; Rocha Ferreira & Camargo, 2016; Rocha Ferreira & Vinha, 2015). Women’s football is a part of these events and represents an important mimetic moment, resignification and empowerment. During the first years, the women played barefoot, and afterwards began to use football cleats and uniforms, and became better organised and showed their empowerment. For this work, we chose the results of the research conducted during the 2011 Indigenous Peoples’ Games in Porto Nacional–Tocantins, which was collected and published by the co-authors Rocha Ferreira and Vinha (2015). The analyses of the accounts of the female players in football were made by the linguists Guimarães and Guimarães (2015, p. 159–161). Karajá 1: ‘I learned with my father and mother, they like sport a lot, I learned with them.’ Patajó 1: ‘We learn in the village … it’s the sports that have both Indians and whites doing this kind of sport. I learned with my family, through my brothers, they’ve been playing since they were little, so women didn’t play in the past but now they do.’ Paresi 1: ‘From an early age ... From an early age, you learn.’ Pataxó 2: ‘With the elders and the teachers of culture within the village.’ Manoki 1: ‘Ah ... Seeing these games, we also see the sports of the other relatives. We learn. [But only after we’re grown up]’ Paresi 1: ‘In the Paresi village we learn by living, seeing, going out .... we have known [football] for a long time. They went out to see, travelling and participating with the white people and they liked it and learned ... and then ... they were learning.’ Kaingang 1: ‘So, football is a national issue, right? Sports are one of the ways of working, there is very little leisure alternative within the indigenous lands, maybe it is one of the causes of addiction, alcoholism.’ Pataxó 2: ‘Football was brought to the village by Raoni [Pataxó indigenous]. And in my time, I learned it in the indigenous school.’ Manoki 1: ‘Ah, in the village they often play football. They start playing football from a very young age.’ Pataxó 3 (three girls and one male representative): ‘I think it was with the arrival of the white men in the village that they got to know football. Raoni brought football into the village, the knowledge of football among

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the Pataxó’s people. The man who was present in the interview said, Football came to our community when FUNAI arrived in 1973. The Pataxó’s people didn’t play football, the first balls were made out of leather, they used to make them and then, after the first ball came, which went to the Pataxó community, they spent some time playing without boots, without knowing how to use them ... without knowing how to use this sporting instrument, and then it gradually grew and grew, and when the ball punctured, they invented a ball made out of mangaba milk, like a syringe, right, we have mangaba trees that give a lot of milk, they made a little ball and started to practise, practise ... By the 1980s they were already doing very well, they were already going out to neighbouring towns and today the Pataxó’s people in our region already take part in the municipal championships that take place.’ Kamayurá 1 (this interviewee was a man): ‘Ah ... this has been going on since ... old ... There are photos from a long time ago ... black and white ... when Orlando Vilas Boas arrived there, people were already practising football ... team shirts ... So football for us is a serious thing, like it’s a serious thing ... for us it’s also fighting, fighting is like football, it’s a serious thing. So, not only for us, but for women too, women take football very seriously. We won today, two victories ... women also won yesterday, two victories, we are doing well in this football competition.’

In these accounts, we can observe the different levels and timing of the contact and practice of football. The will and enjoyment to play that are already present in the community show that the women conquered their space, although gender equality is not well balanced. Many of the ethnic groups do not allow women to leave the land. As the Karajá man put it, ‘the girls were invited, although the mothers did not allow it because single girls cannot walk alone, they have to be accompanied by their father and mother, but even so we invited them’ (Guimarães & Guimarães, 2015, p. 142). The lack of structural organisation shows clearly the difference compared to the Canadian team that played in the World Indigenous Peoples’ Games, which operates under a confederation called NIFA (Native Indian Football Association) and has been operating since 1990, with more than 300 affiliated athletes. Almeida (2011) studied the sportivisation of body practices, including football, in the IX edition of the Indigenous Games of 2007, held in the

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city of Recife. He observed changes in the rules of the games for men and women and violence amongst the losers in the male games. But in the Bororo, Xikrin, Karajá and Baikari indigenous women’s games there was no violence. On the other hand, during the free times of the event programme, the men organised futsal games, the peladas, with three players on each side. In this case, there were no conflicts and the public cheered and enjoyed the techniques and goals scored. Almeida understands that football has been appropriated by different indigenous societies and adapted to their cultural diversity. He does not enter the realm of mimesis, and his understanding of football is an intercultural element which, practised within the framework of high-­ performance sports, contributes to certain values, attitudes and behaviours being assimilated by indigenous peoples of different ethnicities.

Ethnofootball in the Communities from Ethnographic Studies The following paragraphs follow the accounts and observations of women’s football in different communities within Brazil. Vianna’s research on Xavante’s footballers in the late 1990s describes the game as being less present among women, but they occupied the centre of the village to play after the men left the field and even held championships. Gender indistinctness was common among boys participating in a predominantly female game, or it could occur in the case of girls playing with boys (Vianna, 2001). The first memories of the Kaingang’s football date from the beginning of the twentieth century. In the case of this group, football served as a metaphor for the warfare of the ancient games, called Kanjire. This is one of the oldest recorded indigenous games in Brazil, played since the 1830s and throughout the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. This game was considered cursed by the colonisers process, as well as violent and not suitable for the standards of the time (Fassheber, 2006). The Kaingang’s football became notorious in all indigenous villages in Brazil. Fassheber (2006) describes the centrality of the football fields, the

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time this activity occupies in the daily life of the villages, and that the great instrumental ease of its practice are examples of how football occupies a very interesting space of internal social relations. Played by men, football in the villages has been seen by women since its introductory origins. At the time that the research was conducted in 2006, few women were allowed to play. Power relations have since changed and there are now more Kaingang women’s teams participating, although under their organisational system of extended family and authorisation by parents or husbands. Fassheber observed that female fans, during social relations inside and outside the villages and even when traveling with the teams, use language as a form of resistance, making their jocular shouts and swear words incomprehensible to others—mainly to the white people, called by them “the pale-faces”. Single women had a greater participation in the games, but because they marry very early, few were allowed to play soccer by their husbands (Fassheber, 2006). The Dourados Indigenous Reserve, the territory of the Kaiowá, Guarani and Terena, is one of the most conflictive places in the country. Football functions as a kind of ‘white flag’, not in that it solves all the problems, but it brings about fun and the possibility for young people to eschew drugs and violence. There is an indigenous coach who organises the training and the championship for boys and girls and follows a specific rhythm, recognising the demands and the diversity of the groups. In most cases of inter-city championships, the rules are defined and publicised beforehand, but there may be changes if the tournament coordinator considers it necessary. The father or husband (when married) must grant permission for women to play football. Therefore, women must depend on a male figure, either to receive consent or guidance from the family, or because of their coach who facilitates training, competitions and conducts the organisation of the sport’s practice (Rodrigues, 2014). Beauty and feminine aesthetics are traits valued by the Guarani, Kaiowá and Terena and which reverberate in football. The Guarani player Suzeth, Miss Indigenous in 2011, rejoices in her beauty on the field and was a success on social networks having thousands of followers (see Rodrigues, 2014). She personifies the current indigenous woman in sports and social networks and opens paths for others who want to play.

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The Peladão and Other Championships In the first thirty years of the Peladão, events in the city of Manaus, the capital of the State of Amazonas, women participated only in the parallel competition to obtain the title ‘queen of the peladão’. The women started to participate as athletes in a parallel championship in 2005. During that year the indigenous men and women football games were also created (Chiquetto, 2016). The women went from ‘queens’ to ‘boleiras’ (a term meaning women who like and play football), breaking the macho barriers that saw women as simple objects of desire. Although the queen contest remains, the standard of beauty for women has shifted from the ideal of beauty to the athletic type. Another noteworthy team is the Selvagem Football Club (Brasil, 2014) founded in 2012 by the Sateré-Mawé people from the Waikiru community and located in the Redenção’s neighbourhood in the central-western zone of Manaus. The Selvagem is one of six female indigenous football clubs competing in the peladão championship. With eleven players and seven reserves, the only man on the team is the coach, Eduardo Rosseti Araújo, a 30-year-old native of Maraguá ethnicity. Last year, the club won its first title in the peladão. Although there is a great deal of commitment on the part of these indigenous women, there is no sponsorship for their activities. Thus, they depend on various kinds of fundraising, from cow-raising to the sale of handicrafts and natural products for food consumption. The Hiwy is a mixed-gender team that was founded eleven years ago and currently has sixteen players, including the eleven starters and the indigenous reserves. They are organised by the Sateré-Mawé, Tikuna and Mura peoples, whose traditional territories are in Amazonas. Some individuals live in communities far from Manaus and travel to the capital to participate in the league’s games, whether or not they are selected for the tournaments (Lobato & Lima, 2019). In Alagoas, in the northeast of the country, the journalist Josué Seixas (2019) describes the situation of football practice. The twenty women from the Wassu-Cocal’s people share a battered ball on a field full of holes that floods when it rains. Most of them play in tennis shoes because there is a shortage of football cleats. Sometimes they borrow men’s equipment.

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And, like the other ethnic groups, they go through various trials and structural difficulties to play, but they do not give up. On the other hand, there are academic (albeit modest) experiments in training as well as technical and structural support, with positive results. The NGO Ginga FC located in the city of São Paulo, aims to create and connect experiences that can contribute to, aggregate and transform peoples and communities through football. The organisation had the Utawana Football Project for the Mehinakos indigenous people in Xingu National Park since 2015 for boys and girls in various age groups. They had also the Xondarias’ Project at the Guarani Mbya community, located in Pico do Jaraguá in the city of São Paulo. The goals of both projects were to provide spaces and opportunities for female empowerment, social transformation and visibility through football (see @ginga.fc). In all places one finds uninterrupted battles and plays of life where one perceives the need to advance in space, in time, and in the domains of the Other (Freitag & Fassheber, 2011).

Final Considerations The protagonism of the indigenous woman in society has always existed but was hidden in the imbricated figurations of power that have disfavoured her. The first narratives were written by men with a Eurocentric view of the customs of the time. The end of the twentieth and start of the twenty-first centuries can be considered the era of human rights, and the indigenous woman is becoming stronger in various sectors of society, and with her, the ginga (swing) in ethnofootball—a ginga that can also be considered symbolic, in facing the social structures imposed by men from inside and especially outside the villages. We notice that it is not only material and structural restrictions that restrict women’s football. Machismo, misogyny, possessiveness, early marriages and jealousy generate a network of internal and external gossip that sometimes becomes quite conflicting in these communities. Thus, many times there are restrictions by indigenous peoples regarding women’s participation in this sense. However, in many of the opportunities that the football games provide, in which indigenous women participate

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and bring their rituals and also usually broaden these encounters, making other struggles come to light. Football championships in different locations, as well as the events of the Indigenous Peoples’ Games, represent places of memory, resignification and model spaces for indigenous women (and men). The women are present, in their speech, dress and body practices. As football players, they can redefine themselves, have a new identity and overcome the shame and the feeling of being inferior in their lands and public life. The participation of women in ethnofootball has come later than that of the men, but is in a process of acceleration and is not for this reason any less passionate. These women face the same precarious situation as their male partners, and even so they must still fight not to be subjugated in this practice. They must break yet more barriers to reach a resilient female identity in ethnofootball, for at this time, these women still struggle much more than the men who practice the sport. There is still much to be researched and discovered in this area of study. Much important information about indigenous women has been lost and continues to be lost in the face of incessant colonialism, as we intended to show in this text. The authors encourage other researchers to develop further studies in this field and to shed light on an area considered exclusive to men, all of this without taking into account the mimetic diversity of Brazil. But after all, women, including indigenous women, have shown signs of breaking away from these models, adapting, mimetising and establishing new positions of conquest.

References Almeida, J. A. M. (2011). Esporte e cultura: esportivização de práticas corporais nos jogos dos povos indígenas. Gráfica e Editora Ideal. BRAZIL. (1941). Legislação informatizada  – Decreto-Lei, 3.199. Retrieved November 10, 2020, from https://www2.camara.leg.br/legin/fed/declei/1940­1949/decreto-­lei-­3199-­14-­abril-­1941-­413238-­publicacaooriginal-­1-­pe.html Brasil, Katia (2014). Copa 2014: futebol indígena feminino mantém via cultura desportiva na Amazõnia. Amazônia Real. Retrieved February 2, 2021, from https://amazoniareal.com.br/copa-­2014-­futebol-­indigena-­feminino-­ mantem-­viva-­cultura-­desportiva-­na-­amazonia/

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Chiquetto, R.  V. (2016). A Cidade do Futebol, etnografia sobre a prática futebolística na metrópole Manauara. PPGAS US. Elias, N. (2001). The society of individuals. The continuum International Publishing. Elias, N., & Dunning, E. (1986). Quest Excitement. Sport and Leisure in the civilizing process (p. 288). Basil Blackwell. Fassheber, J. R. M. (2006). Etno-Desporto Indígena: contribuições da Antropologia Social a partir da Experiência entre os Kaingang. Tese de doutorado. Universidade Estadual de Campinas. Freitag, L. C., & Fassheber, J. R. M. (2011). Um estranho no ninho? O Futebol nas identidades indígenas. In V.  R. T.  Camargo, M.  B. Rocha Ferreira, & O. R. M. Simson (Eds.), Jogo, celebração, memória e identidade. Reconstrução da Trajetória de Criação, Implementação e Difusão dos Jogos Indígenas no Brasil (1996–2009) (pp. 111–126). Campinas. FUNAI – Fundação Nacional do Índio (2021). Retrieved January 22, 2021, from http://www.funai.gov.br. Goudsbloom, J. (2009). A vergonha: uma dor social. In A. Gebara & C. Wouters (Eds.), O controle das emoções (pp. 47–60). Universitária. Guimarães, M. C. F., & Guimarães, M. H. (2015). A comunidade indígena e suas percepções dos XI Jogos dos Povos Indígenas JPIs. In M.  B. Rocha Ferreira & M. Vinha (Eds.), Celebrando os jogos, a memória e a identidade: XI Jogos dos povos indígenas Porto Nacional  – Tocantins, 2011 (pp.  119–168). Universidade Federal da Grande Dourados. Kok, G., & Rocha Ferreira, M. B. (2011). Jogos Nacionais: espaços de visibilidade da mulher indígena. In V.  R. T.  Camargo, M.  B. Rocha Ferreira, & O. R. M. Simson (Eds.), Jogo, celebração, memória e identidade. Reconstrução da Trajetória de Criação, Implementação e Difusão dos Jogos Indígenas no Brasil (1996–2009) (pp. 111–126). Campinas. Lobato, A. & Lima, J. (2019). Mulher joga futebol: a superação das indígenas do time Hiwy. Amazônia Real. Retrieved February 3, 2021, from https://amazoniareal.com.br/mulher-­joga-­futebol-­a-­superacao-­das-­indigenas-­do-­time-­hiwy/ Magno, A. (2016). Canada soccer world indigenous games. Retrieved November 10, 2020, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LS6M9GcZxt4 Monteiro, J. (2001). Tupis, Tapuias e historiadores. Estudos de História Indígena e do Indigenismo. Tese de Livre-Docência, IFCH-Unicamp, Campinas. Ribeiro, B. G., & Velthem, L. H. (2008). Coleções etnográficas. Documentos materiais para a história indígena e etnologia. In M. C. Cunha (Ed.), História dos índios no Brasil (pp. 104–112). Companhia das Letras.

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Rocha Ferreira, M. B. (2011). Jogos dos Povos IndÍgenas: identidade e figurações. In V. R. T. Camargo, M. B. R. Ferreira, & O. R. M. Simson (Eds.), Jogo, celebração, memória e identidade. Reconstrução da trajetória de criação, implementação e difusão dos jogos indÍgenas no Brasil  - 1996–2009 (pp.  29–40). Campinas, Editora Curt Nimuendajú. Rocha Ferreira, M.B. & Vinha, M. (2015). Celebrando os jogos, a memória e a identidade: XI Jogos dos povos indígenas. Porto Nacional – Tocantins, 2011. Dourados, . Rocha Ferreira, M. B., & Camargo, V. R. T. (2016). Figurations, celebration and dissemination: indigenous people’s games. In S.  C. Saura & A. C. Zimmermann (Eds.), Traditional Games (pp. 69–88). São Paulo, Pirata. Rocha Ferreira, M.B. & Fassheber, J.R.M. (2009). Juegos indígenas: figuraciones y mimesis en Norbert Elias. In: C.V.  Kaplan y V.  Orce (Eds). Poder, Prácticas Sociales y Proceso Civilizador. Los usos de Norbert Elias (pp. 207-213). Buenos Aires: Noveduc. Rocha Ferreira, M.  B., Vinha, M., Tagliari, A., Fassheber, J.  R., & Ugarte, M. C. D. (2005). Cultura corporal indígena. In L. P. Costa (Ed.), Atlas do Esporte no Brasil (pp. 35–36). Rio de Janeiro. Shape Editora e Promoções Ltda. Rodrigues, L.  B. (2014). A prática do futebol entre indígenas de Dourados  – MS. Dissertação de Mestrado. Universidade Federal da Grande Dourados. Sacchi, A. (2006). União, luta, liberdade e resistência: as organizações de mulheres indígenas da Amazônia brasileira. Tese de doutorado. Universidade Federal de Pernambuco. Seixas, J. (2019). Índias de Alagoas enfrentam condições precárias para jogar futebol. Folha de São Paulo. Retrieved February 4, 2021, from https://www1. folha.uol.com.br/esporte/2019/10/indias-­de-­alagoas-­enfrentam-­condicoes-­ precarias-­para-­jogar-­futebol.shtml Taussig, M. (1993). Mimesis and Alterity: A Particular History of the Senses (p. xiii). Routledge. UNDP United Nation Development Programme (2017). World indigenous games. Celebrating is what matters! Brazil, 2015. UNDP in cooperation with the Ministry of Sports in Brazil (ME, the Intertribal Committee (ITC) and the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). Verdum, R. (2008). Introdução. Mulheres indígenas direitos e políticas públicas. In R. Verdum. Mulheres Indígenas, Direitos e Políticas Públicas. Brasília: Inesc. Vianna, F. L.B. (2001). A bola, os ‘brancos’ e as toras: futebol para índios xavantes. Dissertação Mestrado. São Paulo: Universidade de São Paulo.

15 The Team from the Heart of the Amazon: An Ethnography of Iranduba Esporte Clube Mark Biram

Introduction At first glance, the choice to carry out an ethnography of Iranduba Esporte Clube may appear counterintuitive. The development model for South American women’s club football in recent years has been characterised by two main factors. First, the priority given to the integration of women into the traditionally male-dominated clubs, and second, a modus operandi of inclusion rather than equality (Elsey & Nadel, 2019, p. 10). These two shifts are inextricably linked to the flagship policy of the South American confederation (CONMEBOL), requiring the larger traditional clubs to open a women’s division in order to keep their seat at the top table in the lucrative men’s Copa Libertadores (Barreira et  al., 2020; Goellner, 2021).

M. Biram (*) School of Modern Languages, University of Bristol, Bristol, UK e-mail: [email protected] © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2022 J. Knijnik, A. Costa (eds.), Women’s Football in Latin America, New Femininities in Digital, Physical and Sporting Cultures, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-07976-4_15

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This policy, targeted directly at the traditional clubs, with scant regard for the rest, has changed the landscape of women’s football on the continent. It has undoubtedly multiplied the number of opportunities for women players across the continent to earn a (semi-)living from the game. However, on many occasions, there has already been evidence that women’s divisions within the traditional clubs have been treated merely as an (obligatory) addendum to the main part of the club (Mendonça, 2019). In this way, male hegemony over the game has not only been left untouched, but arguably has even been consolidated in some respects by the changes. In summary, to some degree the women’s game is markedly more visible than it was a decade ago (Rial, 2013). However, it is already clear that dislodging the everyday banal patriarchy (Biram, 2021) pervasive in many of the leading clubs will be a much greater undertaking. For precisely this reason, this chapter draws upon an ethnographic visit to a club that is a clear outlier to the paradigm described above. Iranduba Esporte Clube differs significantly from many of its rivals insofar as its women’s team is the main attraction and the principal concern of the club’s owners. For example, the club president Amarildo Dutra told me that the women’s team always occupies over two-thirds of the club’s budget. Being from Manaus, a place as distant as possible from the ‘country of football’ social imaginary (Fontes & Buarque de Holanda, 2014; Goldblatt, 2014; Kittleson, 2014; Bocketti, 2016), the club and players are able to mobilise an oppositional antagonistic identity, pitting the local Amazonian team against the clubes de camisa (big name clubs) of the perceived economic, sporting and political centre. Moreover, the impressive attendances of the women’s team are such that they have even surpassed those of Brazilian men’s teams competing in the country’s top-flight Serie A (Padin, 2017). Despite many of the laudable achievements of the club, this chapter finds both ruptures and continuities of a gendered social order expressed through football. Similar to struggles elsewhere on the continent, Iranduba typifies the peculiar state of semi-professionalisation at which the women’s game currently finds itself (Garton, 2020; Garton et  al., 2021). To even be at this stage of semi-professionalisation marks significant progress, as less than ten years ago it was only possible to earn a

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living, even semi-professionally, in 30 out of 123 FIFA-listed women’s football countries (Agergaard & Tiesler, 2014, p. 3). On the one hand, the surprise success of the club proffers a profound symbolic challenge and offers an alternative to the top-down mainstream development model. By the same token there are numerous instances that evidence deep-rooted unacknowledged assumptions about the social masculinity of football. The women players are presented as being strong characters with considerable control over their career paths. The reality on the ground is one of precarious contracts, the continued objectification of women and the persistence of male gatekeepers overseeing every step of the women’s sporting lives. As Toffoletti (2016, p. 200) has it, ‘the complexities of a postfeminist cultural landscape cast women as empowered agents and yet it fails to dislodge the persistent devaluing and marginalisation of female athletes and women’s sporting pursuits more generally’. This chapter, then, considers the balance of these experiences, arguing that the particularities of Manaus, as a place outside the country’s traditional (masculine) football imaginary, has allowed women’s football to make significant ground in a short space of time, in ways that would be difficult, if not impossible, elsewhere in the country. Manaus is an outpost in every regard: politically, economically and, far from coincidentally, in a sporting sense too. For precisely that reason, it is an instructive case in problematising prevailing institutional assumptions about the possibilities for the growth of women’s football. I travelled to Manaus in October 2018 just as Iranduba were about to host the 2018 Women’s Copa Libertadores. This event represented the culmination of a period of breakneck growth for the club. Unexpectedly they challenged many of the country’s clubes de camisa on a regular basis in women’s competitions. In 2017 they reached the semi-finals of the Brazilian women’s championship and in 2018 they had another run to the quarter finals. Meanwhile the Iranduba men’s team languish in the fourth division of Brazilian football, not even making a serious impact on the Amazonian state league.

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Methodology This chapter draws on a three-month ethnography that allows the level of detail necessary to begin portraying the complexity of the lived experiences of women footballers. On a fundamental level, participant observation ‘aims to record and present the nitty-gritty of everyday life and ordinary cultural practices, and analysing them in ways that produce maximum illumination for readers’ (Willis & Trondman, 2000, p. 398). Using participant observation, as opposed to decontextualised white-­ room interviews, for example, provides the most rigorous way to achieve an in-depth understanding of social groups, and lays the foundations for more meaningful later interviews. Between October 2018 and February 2019, a total of ten players were interviewed in Portuguese at a range of venues for a period of between 20 and 40 minutes each. Conducting interviews in my third language (Spanish is my second) facilitated a certain outsider persona which, I believe, made the players inclined towards sharing information candidly and portraying as vividly as possible their realities. On the other hand, on certain delicate issues, such as the relationships with male gatekeepers, I felt that a female researcher may have been able to obtain more detailed information. As I accompanied players on a daily basis to training, on team buses and on team outings, I became part of the everyday experience in a way that allowed a certain mutual familiarity to grow, to some extent attenuating unconscious biases the players may have had about me and vice versa. Players were complimentary about my sometimes laboured Portuguese, often comparing it to their initial experiences playing outside Brazil. Their own outsider experiences allowed them to show great empathy and ultimately the longer ethnographic experience allowed me to hone my interview questions to the individual situations in each setting rather than ‘come in blind’ (Willis & Trondman, 2000, p. 24), as described above. From a number of reliable accounts, it is known that women players on the continent have often been silenced with the threat of sacking. There have been well-documented cases of the abuse of players (Pinochet, 2019), and on a number of occasions players have been connected to clubs without contracts or any appropriate insurance cover in the case of

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injuries (ACOLFUTPRO, 2020). For this reason, gaining trust with players was challenging and there were several concerns that were covered rigorously during the process of applying for ethical approval from the Faculty of Arts Ethics Committee at the University of Bristol (UoB). There were no comparable projects both in terms of length, nor in nature, and for that reason much thought had to be put into how to approach certain possibilities during fieldwork. The research underwent full ethical review and was approved in August 2018 by the UoB Faculty of Arts Ethics Committee. Permission documents were produced first in English for review and subsequently in Spanish and Portuguese for those participating. These were handed out to everyone who participated at any stage of the research and were accompanied by a full oral explanation.

Ruptures with a Gendered Social Order The following section sets out indicative examples of how the experience of Iranduba makes symbolic and real breaks with the assumptions underlying a gendered social order. Differing from the banal patriarchy embedded in a clube de camisa like Santos FC (Biram, 2021), the particularities of Iranduba, together with the agency of players, engender numerous ruptures with a gendered social order.

Representing Iranduba/Amazonas Early in my stay with Iranduba I realised that, for the great majority of the club’s players, Manaus represents a home away from home. The club has uprooted a number of young aspiring players and brought them to the Amazon region. The club pursued an accelerated route to getting a competitive women’s team—they decided to recruit proven players from elsewhere in the country. Using the contacts of Lauro Tentardini, who used to work for another prominent women’s team, Kindermann, a significant number of players were brought to Manaus from Santa Catarina—almost on the south end of the country. Others joined from

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the northeast, and on occasions São Paulo and Minas Gerais, both states in the southeast part of Brazil and with a flight distance of at least four hours. The shared experience of each being far from home in Amazonas has clearly been a factor influencing the strong bond that has developed between the players. Since the beginning of the Iranduba project, there have been mainstays who have almost come to personify the club in different ways. One of these is Djeni Becker, who is part of the Santa Catarina contingent. She has gone on to represent Brazil at youth and senior level. She moved to Manaus at the age of 20. At the beginning, she recalled immense difficulties in connecting with the public in Amazonas. She explained that initially bridging a perceived cultural gap was difficult as the players were pigeonholed as outsiders to the region. It was perceived that as they were not from Manaus, they were unlikely to represent the city and region with pride. As the team proved to be successful, these fears were quickly cast aside. When interviewed Djeni concurred with Tentardini in believing the embrace of the club is, in large part, related to being successful and, more than anything, to the feeling of challenging and often beating the clubes de camisa—who to many of the club’s players and fans represented the country’s political and social elites, according to many of the players I interviewed. A number of the players from Santa Catarina commented on the deep sense of isolation they felt upon joining the club. It was impossible to go home during the season and even visiting other places was out of the question. On an academic level a huge lacuna in the literature is the state of mental health of women footballers—given the precarious contracts, living conditions and discriminatory treatment many face. Only in the context of COVID-19 has the topic begun to be recognised (Clarkson et al., 2020). Nonetheless, each day at training it was evident that the players were determined to turn this negative into a positive, or at least put a brave face on it.

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A flechada: Evoking the Amazon From the outset the humidity of the Amazon was stifling. The cadences of cicadas, the chirping of crickets and hundreds (or thousands) of white-­ winged parakeets perched on the trees, all competed with the sounds and sights of urban sprawl around the training ground. Owing to the climate of the Amazon region, all Clube Esporte Iranduba’s training sessions began at 8 a.m. or even earlier to avoid the unplayable midday heat. On the first day, I initially wondered if I had come to the right right place.1 I eventually saw a ramshackle training ground in the distance, which I later discovered belonged to lowly local Serie D men’s team Nacional FC.2 There I glimpsed the faces of three established Brazilian international players: Andressinha, Camilinha and Raquel. Andressinha and Camilinha were both contracted to the United States NWSL, whereas Raquel had just returned from playing in the Spanish women’s league. The three had been loaned in at considerable expense by Iranduba specially to compete in the Women’s Copa Libertadores tournament. Early on in my stay with Iranduba I became aware of a popular pre-­ match ritual whereby the players would mimic firing an arrow. My immediate instinct was to believe that this formed part of a wider strategic instrumentalisation of indigeneity emanating from the club’s hierarchy (already responsible for the slogan o clube do coraçao da Floresta—the team from the heart of the Amazon forest—the name Iranduba and the Amazon green kit). Nonetheless, over a period of time, my scepticism slowly dissipated as I discovered that the gesture originated with the players themselves as a way of making light of pervasive racist stereotyping of the Amazon emanating from other (whiter) parts of the country.3 This manifestation of player agency was particularly interesting as a body of work testifies to the multifarious ways women players use strategies from their own creativity to promote themselves in the absence  The Arena da Amazônia was one of a number of purpose-built stadiums for the 2014 Brazil World Cup. 2  Nacional FC are the oldest club in the state of Amazonas. In the 1970s and early 1980s they participated in Serie A with a highest finish of 16th. 3  Stripped of its cultural context the flechada/arrow motion also appears to mimic the gesture popularised by Usain Bolt. 1

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of significant media or institutional support. The players engage in what Pooley (2010, p. 78) calls ‘calculated authenticity’. In other words, consciously or otherwise the players are ‘constructing themselves as empowered, in-control and can-do subjects at the nexus of post-feminist discourses that celebrate women’s self-production and the broadcasting of authentic female identities’ (Toffoletti & Thorpe, 2018, p. 18). One quiet morning at training, I broached the topic, sensing it to be of significance in terms of the players’ integration and acceptation here in Manaus. Various players were keen to talk about the flechada (arrow-­ motion) as they felt it represented the way in which they, as outsiders to the region, had both embraced and been adopted as being representatives of Amazonas. The consensus among players was that it began at an away match in Araraquara city, São Paulo state, when a small but vocal group of Ferroviária supporters put their hands in front of their mouths and began making ‘Indian noises’ and shouting ‘índias’ at the Iranduba players. Upon scoring, the Iranduba players spontaneously celebrated in front of the home fans with the flechada motion. The gesture has been repeated ever since, especially at home games where the Manaus public, acutely aware of how Amazonas is portrayed and imagined in the country’s south, has instinctively embraced this burlesque performance of ethnic identity. The players were clearly aware the topic is delicate territory, and whilst they laughed about it when interviewed, they were also savvy in realising its symbolic significance. A number of players from the south admitted that the Brazilian social imaginary tends to depict Manaus and the Amazon in backward terms. ‘Ainda em 2018 os brasileiros acham que Manaus é um lugar culturalmente atrasado [even now in 2018 Brazilian people see Manaus as a culturally backward place]’, one of the players added at training. Moreover, many of the players realised that the racism that started this gesture was aimed at many of the mixed-race women in the Iranduba team. Much of what the discrimination players face justifies the need for an intersectional approach (Crenshaw, 1990), in particular one that takes into account the characteristics and partial visibility of racism against indigenous peoples in the Brazilian context (Rocha, 2021). Moreover there is a specific need for a nuanced approach in the case of football,

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where recent research has discovered women players are often black and tend to come from poorer backgrounds (Martins et al., 2021). Another player, Giselinha, remembered a moment that was important in the consolidation of the flechada as part of the club. She dated it back to the club’s run to the final of the 2016 Women’s Under-20 competition. There was an impressive attendance for a youth game—8413 for the visit of Vasco da Gama (one of the prestigious Rio de Janeiro clubes de camisa) at the Arena da Amazônia (Amazonas Governo, 2016). Giselinha recalled that the crowd was fairly divided with approximately two-thirds supporting Iranduba, but with the remaining third cheering for Vasco da Gama. After an extremely close penalty shoot-out Iranduba prevailed and went to celebrate with the local fans who had helped them to victory. At this point, out of frustration or mischief, one of the Vasco fans hurled a trainer from the second tier of the stand at the Iranduba players. Luckily it did not hit anyone. Spontaneously, the players celebrated with the shoe as a ‘trophy’ of victory and began making the flechada motion at the Vasco supporters to show that the prestigious clube de camisa had been picked off by the Amazonian team. In recounting the story, Giselinha recognised that it could be seen as a ‘brincadeira de mau gosto’ (a joke in bad taste) but again felt players were parodying racist attitudes, stigmatising the Amazon region. At this point the flechada motion was further consolidated. The players, by performing both football, an activity inextricably linked with tropes of modernity, and also simultaneously mocking the Amazon of the Eurocentric imagination, had immediately gained the respect of a public who had previously regarded them as outsiders. Indeed, according to the players I spoke to during fieldwork, even the Manauarans who had come to support Vasco acknowledged that the expression of how their region is portrayed elsewhere was realistic and thus worthy of being parodied.

Home-Match Culture At all the Iranduba games I attended, it was quite clear that fans identify strongly with and recognise individual players in a way that is not at all common in women’s football. Sadly, this was not matched by indifferent

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stadium announcers who consistently got names, goal scorers and substitutes wrong to the point of it seeming intentional and to the great irritation of more knowledgeable members of the Manaus public. The fans naturally went out of their way to get to know the players’ names and to become familiar with their playing style. This stability is often a given for men’s teams. However, in many cases women’s teams play at more than one venue, sometimes behind closed doors and beyond, and these games can be moved at short notice. Attending games, it is clear that Iranduba has a ‘home-match’ culture and familiarity that is an example to aspire to for women’s club football to really establish itself in Brazil, and indeed globally. Speaking with Iranduba players there was little doubt that they too felt something unique about playing football in the city of Manaus. Indeed, such is the strength of this feeling, whilst carrying out another part of my fieldwork in Santos, São Paulo state, Tayla, a Brazilian international who has played football in a variety of settings, recalled fondly a short three-­ month spell with Iranduba. Moreover ex-captain of the Brazilian women’s national team Juliana Cabral echoed the sentiment highlighting the importance of the club having its own home stadium (Pereira & Pinheiro, 2017). This seems a simple point but so many of the traditional big-name clubs move their women’s team from one venue to another. Santos Women (the ‘Sereias’) play games at numerous venues, including its own training centre and the home stadium of another local club, Portuguesa Santista. Similarly, rather than using the Arena Corinthians, Corinthians women have played numerous games in the industrial area of Osasco, a peripheral city in the São Paulo state. The stability enjoyed by Iranduba players imbues them with a sense of importance that is denied to women players who are shifted from stadium to stadium, and allows a routine to develop among fans who know where games will be played and when games will be afforded importance (visits of clubes de camisa). Similarly, whilst the CBF has the habit of scheduling games for 11 in the morning while most people are at work, Iranduba has repeatedly requested to play its games in the evening, making it possible for the fans to attend. The identification of the fans with the stadium has begun a process that must continue if women’s club football is to become an established part of everyday life in the country and beyond. Various

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players reported being stopped in the street for autographs or approached at games for autographs, and of all the teams I visited during fieldwork, Iranduba was the only one at which (even male) supporters regularly wore shirts with players’ names from the women’s team printed on the back.

Continuities of a Gendered Social Order The previous section explained how the Iranduba experience has brought about significant ruptures of the norms for women’s football—for example, a women’s football specific crowd at the stadium, a women’s team that occupies a large portion of the budget and a clearer agency for the players than is normal in women’s football in Brazil. Nonetheless, my ethnographic period with Iranduba also revealed some continuities. These areas tend to be in particular authority roles that, barring a few exceptions, remain the last bastion of male hegemony.

Male Coaches and Mansplaining One of the most notable aspects of Iranduba was the dominance of male figures, or conversely the lack of women in technical roles. The deficit of women coaches has been covered amply but usually in other countries and in other sports (Norman, 2008; Lavoi & Dutove, 2012; Norman, 2010; Norman & Rankin-Wright, 2018). The club employed women to carry out media work on behalf of the team, and obviously women players. Beyond this there was no other female representation—this is an important factor as it surely affects self-perception and maybe even causes the players to devalue themselves. For that reason, pioneering women coaches like Emily Lima and Tatiele Silveira from Brazil and Vanessa Arauz from Ecuador are so important in breaking the cycle. While I was with Iranduba the team manager was Igor Cearense, a player who gained experience at the top level, most notably with Flamengo, Coritiba and

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Fortaleza, before winding down his career with Peñarol and Nacional.4 After gaining some managerial experience with fourth-division amateur male teams in Manaus, he was placed in charge of Iranduba. To date Iranduba Women have never appointed a female manager. This is clearly problematic for the aspirations of a senior player like Renata Costa (Koki) who covets coaching roles. Here again the problem is intersectional—as argued in other contexts, the nature of this gender discrimination can only be broken down with due acknowledgement of the class and racial prejudice that accompany it (Crenshaw, 1990). The career of Andressinha, one of the current stars of the national team, is located within a new generation. By the player’s own assessment, conditions are improving. She admitted she has had things easier than some of the more senior players. She was similarly quick, however, to cut short the notion that prejudice has somehow disappeared. Referring diplomatically to male gatekeepers, Andressinha explains that: ‘talvez alguns possam ter esse receio de que a mulher não vá entender sobre o que está falando, mas na parte tatica aí eu me garanto’ (perhaps some of them have this fear that women are not going to understand what they are talking about, but talking about tactics I feel more than confident). This chimed with my experiences of watching training each day. A tendency of the coaching staff towards simply playing full-scale matches rather than focusing on micro-level tactical areas could be seen as merely a primitive or underdeveloped tactical understanding of the game. Nonetheless, there is a convincing case, backed up by a number of other players’ remarks, that machismo or a sense of male sporting superiority is at the root of this. At times, there was an overly jovial mood from male coaching staff on the training ground, detracting from the seriousness of the task at hand. Male coaching staff would participate in practice games and showboat playing kicky-uppy or trying nutmegs when it was unnecessary, or they would feign injuries or fouls followed by melodramatic rolling around on the floor. When tactical matters were touched upon, it was generally in a superficial way, with a tone that, subconsciously or  Two of Manaus’ major clubs, Peñarol and Nacional, are named after Uruguay’s two largest clubs. Coritiba of Curitiba was named so by the German immigrants who formed the club, as per the old name of the state capital. 4

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otherwise, condescends and patronises women players. Andressinha clearly recognised a certain tendency towards mansplaining in the current coaching team–player relations, which at Iranduba are always male– female and in many cases hierarchical in tone and language. This appeared to constitute one of the principal barriers the new generation faces. Male coaching staff and managers appear as a final bastion of male hegemony in football (Moreira & Alvarez Litke, 2020). Until a critical mass of ex-women professionals are involved on the coaching side, there is a fair chance that, consciously or otherwise, there will not be sufficient technical development for players, or that the players will feel talked down to.

Foregrounding Whiteness During my stay another persistent factor was the objectification of certain players. This is a long-standing problem in Brazil—to the point where a tournament took place where only players considered beautiful were encouraged to join teams (Knijnik & Horton, 2013). Little appears to have changed in this regard. There was a strong sense on the training ground of an idealised type of player. The two players who receive by far the greatest attention were Djeni Becker and Andressinha Machry—both now part of the senior international squad. It may be coincidence as the pair are without doubt two of the best midfielders in Brazilian women’s football, but there seemed to be a strong media and club bias towards players of European appearance. The players who have played abroad also garner greater prestige, though they do not always happen to be those of European appearance. The training ground today made me think of Brazil’s bid to host the 2023 Women’s World Cup. From the early stages, the bid made nominal mention of Manaus as the capital of women’s football, without giving any sense of how or why. Moreover, without making explicit mention, and again with no particular explanation, the bid chose an Iranduba player for its front cover (FIFA, 2020). Rather than using the image of any of the best-known experienced senior players who had taken Brazil Women to World Cup and Olympic finals, such as Marta, Formiga, Cristiane,

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Maurine, Formiga or Érika, the cover page foregrounded Iranduba star midfielder Djeni Becker, playing at the Women’s World Cup Under 20 tournament in 2014. The foregrounding of Djeni appears symptomatic of the heteronormative male gaze that systematically objectifies women footballers reducing them to appearance and thus detracting from their athletic performance—as has been observed across numerous different settings across the world (Knijnik & Horton, 2013; Cashman & Raymond, 2014; Ho, 2014; Ravel & Gareau, 2016). A similar tendency occurs in US women’s football where Alex Morgan (also an extremely accomplished player) receives similarly sustained media attention as an idealised type of American femininity (Bordo, 2004). A regional documentary about Iranduba consistently foregrounds Djeni Becker (Majestic Produções Multimídia, 2016) and, in addition, the club hierarchy consistently choose her to give media interviews and to advertise the club, to the point where the player often spends prolonged periods of training tending to media work rather than being allowed to play. Even bearing in mind that Djeni Becker is the captain of the team, the frequency with which she is foregrounded in interviews, documentaries and promotional material provides a telling counterpoint to the appropriations of indigeneity mentioned earlier in the chapter. The club carefully cultivates and invokes an oppositional ethnic identity, contrasting with the perceived centre and Europeanness of the south, in order to galvanise local support. However, within the club and the local and national media and football institutions, there are clear manifestations of the very Eurocentric imaginary Iranduba uses as an oppositional force to garner support. As international teammate Andressinha explains, ‘o que mais me incomoda, é quando focam mais na beleza do que no que está fazendo, como está jogando, o que está desenvolvendo dentro de campo. Falam mais da beleza do que sua própria vida, que é o esporte’ (what makes me most uncomfortable is when they focus more on beauty than on what we are doing, how we are playing, what is happening on the pitch. They talk more about beauty than about your life, which is the sport). Andressinha emphasises the extent to which players are reduced to appearance to the point where the very activity to which they have dedicated their entire life is placed as secondary. As Andressinha told me, the problem at its root is the heteronormative gaze of the media and

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institutions and the foregrounding of physical appearance at the expense of sporting ability. This chimes with the findings of previous research across a range of sporting activities (Messner, 1988; Toffoletti, 2016; Toffoletti & Thorpe, 2018). In a similar vein, the players recalled another moment when Iranduba found themselves in the media spotlight. This happened when they had a surprise run to the semi-finals of the women’s Brasileirão in 2017, and one of the most relevant sports programmes in Brazilian free-to-air TV, Globo Esporte Espetacular, carried out a long feature on the secrets to the team’s success (Globo Esporte Espetacular, 2017). The players recalled the frivolous fun nature of the feature. My personal interpretation was that the frivolous tone would never have been used in a feature on men’s football and ultimately was a textbook media strategy to diminish and underplay the growth of women’s football. The feature begins with Djeni telling the now mythologised story of how the Iranduba flechada came into being, followed by an explanation of the club’s popularity in Manaus. With the help of figures from the club hierarchy, the film then narrates the match-day atmosphere: ‘O vestiário com som, ambiente é o salão de beleza do Iranduba. A capitã Djenifer só joga cheirosa—passa perfume, desodorante, creme. Ela e todas’ (The boisterous Iranduba dressing room is like a beauty salon: The captain Djenifer always smells good when she plays—she puts perfume, deodorant and cream on. Her and all the team). The final line betrays the way Djeni is made to personify the team as a sexualised figure. The treatment of Djeni owes as much to media coverage and is even mirrored by institutional representations—as the CBF World Cup bid showed. However, on numerous occasions the club and media reduce the player to body and appearance (Langton, 2009), instrumentalising her to generate the image they consider necessary to increase the club’s popularity.

Conclusion This chapter has argued that the Iranduba project is of the utmost symbolic importance for women’s football, insofar as it challenges many of the prevailing assumptions about the country of football. It could

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certainly be argued that this perfect storm of circumstances would not be possible anywhere along the country’s football heartlands on the planalto central. First, the success of a team from Manaus allows a reimagining of the centre and periphery of the footballing imaginary. Second, it shows that it is perfectly plausible to build up a large fan base for women’s football as the main attraction, and that using creativity, players themselves can be part of constructing this success. Perhaps the most important symbolic contribution, however, is the fact that the club inverts the hierarchy between men’s and women’s football. The women’s team are recognised on sight around the city whereas the men’s players are not. It is no coincidence that this has received little fanfare outside of alternative media like the excellent Dibradoras podcast/website, a feminist outlet that struggles to promote women’s football in the country. None of this, however, is meant to idealise the Iranduba experience. The club is still rooted in male hegemony from director level downwards. The only prominent woman is press attaché Cintia Valadares, meaning no involvement at director level nor on the coaching staff. For this reason, players continue to experience mansplaining and are still subjected to experiences of banal patriarchy like the foregrounding of white blonde players. At this point gender intersects with racial discrimination as the club pushes indigenous appropriations when convenient but then reverts back to Europeanised notions of beauty when choosing players to carry out media duties or front advertising campaigns for them. The experience of Iranduba underlines the need for greater ethnographic engagement with the shifting realities of women’s club football in Brazil and elsewhere on the continent. The potential to augment, problematise and challenge what is known from studying the traditional football heartlands is manifest and constitutes an area requiring urgent attention. Acknowledgments  I would like to thank all the players at Iranduba and also the Bristol–Brazil fund for their kind economic support in undertaking this research.

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16 Beyond Women: The Coming Challenges for Gender Equity in Brazilian Football Jorge Knijnik and Ana Costa

The 2019 FIFA Women’s World Cup was a record-breaking competition. Television and streaming service views had seen a constant rise during the tournament, with more than two billion spectators having watched the matches around the world (FIFA, 2019). Fans also packed the French stadiums where they saw high-quality competition on the pitches. Moreover, the tournament also promoted widespread feminist demonstrations, unveiling football as a strong site for the contestation of the patriarchal gender order within football. Off the field, the US star Megan Rapinoe strongly called out FIFA and the world of football for the gendered barriers that still prevent girls and women from achieving equity in football. On the field, the Brazilian global star Marta, six-time winner of the FIFA World’s best player award, instigated feminist protests when, J. Knijnik (*) School of Education, Western Sydney University, Penrith, NSW, Australia e-mail: [email protected] A. Costa German Sport University Cologne, Cologne, Germany © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2022 J. Knijnik, A. Costa (eds.), Women’s Football in Latin America, New Femininities in Digital, Physical and Sporting Cultures, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-07976-4_16

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instead of celebrating her goals, she pointed to the gender-equity logo on her (unbranded) boots, as a powerful sign to demand equal pay with men’s players. Marta’s gesture carried an immense and weighty authority to call the world’s attention to the unbalanced forces that traverse the worlds of the most popular sport on Earth. Her gesture pointed to the ongoing barriers that permeate Brazilian women’s football (Votre & Mourão, 2003; Kessler, 2021), which are pervaded by the social intersectionality of race and class, which, combined with gender, reinforce those footballing inequalities (Martins et al., 2021). These feminist demonstrations during the mega-sport event show that sexism and misogyny are still very sharp reminders that gendered social relations remain significant forces in society, as well as in football contexts (Williams, 2007; Jeanes, 2011). This is what makes Rapinoe’s call particularly relevant for Brazilian women’s football. During the last century, the ‘football-land’ (Knijnik, 2018) was plagued by a history of gendered sporting laws that prohibited women from participating in football (Votre & Mourão, 2003; Pisani, 2014). According to Knijnik (2014), this discriminatory history still provokes a psychosocial impact in current female players, leading to stressful self-identity issues that inhibit their full professional development as athletes. Furthermore, Knijnik (2014) argues that these bigoted laws are the ‘gendered twentieth-century legacy’ of football that still hinders Brazilian women from freely enjoying the sport, which they desire and deserve to participate in. And when we say ‘freedom’ we literally mean physical freedom, as Marta’s actions and Rapinoe’s words are evidence of how much women’s football, around the world and in Brazil, is marked by what Foucault (1984) called biopolitics. The striker’s feet, and in fact her entire body, as well as the bodies of all the athletes, not only from a world tournament but at a global and local level, are politically crossed by historically constructed oppressions that aim to restrict the athletic movements of women’s bodies on the field and beyond (Thorpe et al., 2020). As we examine these series of biopolitical restrictions (Fassin, 2006) on the bodies of girls and women who wish to play football, we also must look at the multitude of narratives constructed inside the game, which helped women not only to resist, but to try and have a run on the fields. Moreover, we need to establish how the longings for emancipation were

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and are developed in the football context (Pisani, 2014; Williams, 2007). Thus, more than the relevant acts of resistance, we must also analyse and understand the many political battles for women’s football liberation from those who not only imagined, but also actively acted to build greater equity within one of the greatest cultural and social phenomena of our time: the football game (Pisani, 2014; Nicolino, 2020). It is frequently the case that researchers who work at the intersections between gender studies and sports, and football in particular, are faced with some discredit. After all, the stakes seem too high, and the game looks too futile to assume that it can generate some sort of feminist change (Burke, 2019). In fact, the big question that arises is whether we could say that through the struggles for gender equity in football, there is a new feminist upheaval taking place in the country. Would it be an exaggeration to say that football is capable of mobilizing so much energy to the point of being revolutionary? After all, many say ‘it’s just football’! What is the relevance of a mere game for female emancipation in the face of so much inequality and gender brutality that takes place in Brazil (Garcia, 2016)? Is the pursuit of gender equity in the world of football actually an important cause that should be embraced by the country’s multiple feminist agendas? In this second decade of the twenty-first century, these questions that frequently appear in certain circles of allegedly feminist thinkers seem to ignore the different realities of the country. It is precisely in everyday life—in the streets, workplaces, parks and leisure spots, grassroots football fields, schools and universities, and in the day-to-day of our digital lives—that oppression, social and gender resistances, and struggles for emancipation become concrete. The feminist struggle would not be possible without our understanding of the gender barriers that dehumanize and transform certain bodies into abject ones (Butler, 2011). Even if the emancipatory awareness of the broader society (Martins et  al., 2021; Dornelles, 2020) is key to any feminist achievement, the struggles for gender equity become tangible when their outcomes start to change the lives of people, ‘real’ girls and women. Hence, our theoretical understandings of gender equity must help us to change existing oppressive realities, otherwise they just become empty speeches that show a

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resentful, individualistic identity, dislocated from the communities it intends to represent. Therefore, it is essential to look at daily life, where sweaty bodies of flesh and blood meet and bump into each other, reaffirming or transforming social gender relations. It is in these actual social lives where football reigns. Football in Brazil is present in the everyday tensions, in the daily lives of people whose gender performances, conformist or transgressive, or sometimes both, are embodied and actually ‘take place’ (Butler, 2011). Thus, it is relevant to examine and investigate with in-­ depth lenses the daily lives in which gender issues emerge: whether as oppression or, more recently, as resistance and emancipation. As stated earlier, the 2019 FIFA Women’s World Cup has crushed all television viewing records. It has not only fascinated millions of new spectators to the sport and extended their familiarity with the women who play it at highest level; it has also endorsed the significance of football for the feminist fight across all continents and cultures. Nevertheless, to achieve this pinnacle, for decades much behind-the-scenes work has been undertaken. Some of this work has been presented in the chapters of this book. Whilst these are great achievements, we must now try to set a research agenda for the following decades to open a consistent trajectory for more social and historical understandings of the remarkable world of women’s football in Brazil.

 he Grounds Where the Struggle Begins: T Streets and Schools Let’s start with that social space that is almost universal, where every child goes, or should go: the school. The school is perhaps one of the first stages in which tensions in social gender relations will inevitably flourish beyond the family nuclei—we use the term ‘stage’ on purpose, as here we discuss the multiple gender performances that gain visibility when they go public in our communities (Foucault, 1984). Of course, we understand that the starting point of the gendering of flagship policy bodies often takes place even before a child is born (that old story about the blue and pink clothes,

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the ball and the doll). It is also known that this gendering continues to strengthen in the first years of life (Dornelles, 2020), with playful bodies surrounded by gendered barriers that at all times try to control the movements of these bodies, framing them in ‘boy’s or girl’s things’; or worse, male and female separated worlds. Furthermore, no one can deny the relevance of street games within Brazilian football culture and its gendering processes (Camargo, 2021). However, it is on the school ground that these battles take on a greater social dimension (Hills, 2007; Dornelles, 2020). It is there that the conceptions of gender, which arise from the different moments of the first socialization of children and which are literally incorporated into these children’s bodies, will appear with great potency in the public space. This stage is no longer controlled by each family. It is at the school that the various gender perspectives in which children were initially socialized will come into conflict. Furthermore, it is within the classroom boundaries where teachers, in an explicit form but also using implicit ways to control students’ bodies, thus spread their gendered educational perspectives (Carvalho, 2001). Periods of recess, free outdoor activities and in particular physical education (PE) classes are key spaces for the mobilization of gender practices within schools. Due to both the schools’ dynamics and architecture, these are the moments where students’ bodies are granted more scope for movement. Thus, a large part of gender clashes are not only witnessed in these spaces, but also constructed and pedagogically experienced during PE or free time. These constructions can have paradoxical meanings: on the one hand, they may bring a sense of freedom, which expands the performances (and the understandings) of gender as a social and fluid construct (Uchoga & Altmann, 2016): on the other hand, they can also be part of a series of school mechanisms that favour the reproduction of binary and traditional gender patterns (Nicolino, 2020). This is where football comes in, with a similar force that it already possesses in the broad Brazilian society. Undoubtedly, football has a hegemonic presence within Brazilian schools, regardless of their demography or geography (Nicolino, 2020; Malvar & de Souza Jr, 2021). Whether in formal PE classes, in free time or in official recess, children find a way to play the sport. Many adults have knowledge about schools: this may be

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as a visitor or to pick a child up. Those who make an effort to recall their time as students will certainly produce memories in which a group of children played some sort of football game somewhere in the school grounds. In any corner of the playground, just kicking a bottle cap or a paper ball, in some improvised field with goals marked with the backpacks of a friend, whether exchanging stickers from the next World Cup album or participating in a game on the school’s official futsal court. The memories demonstrate the place football holds as one of the activities most experienced by students at school. As soon as they manage to get out of their chairs and classrooms and begin moving their bodies more freely—or not so much—through other school spaces, many types of football appear around the school (Nicolino, 2020; Malvar and Souza Jr, 2021). This is where the gender battles become more visible. If in past decades, football was mostly restricted to boys’ games, while girls were excluded from its practice, a lot has changed in recent years regarding the football context in schools (Uchoga & Altmann, 2016; Dornelles, 2020): from the increase of girls participating in representative teams of schools, playing ball in the playgrounds, to the creation of specific pedagogies for the involvement and development of girls in the sport. The certainty is that the space for football in schools has diversified, expanding the corporal possibilities for girls. This is creating a real revolution in schools that were often confronted by resistance organized by girls who wanted to play the game, and by boys and adults who supported, criticized and even repressed them (Malvar and Souza Jr, 2021). Ethnographic research shows that girls of all ages are no longer satisfied with being passive observers of school football, while boys enjoy themselves (Souza Jr, 2020). To participate in the game, young girls and teenagers organize themselves, challenge the traditional gender values that place them in a submissive position in the sporting and football order, raise their voices and fight for their right to play the sport (Dornelles, 2020). They argue with teachers, claim their right to use the same spaces, during the same amount of time and given the same resources as boys’ teams. That means they want to use the main sport court that was previously forbidden to them and receive the support of the same football coach who is preparing the boys’ teams (Uchoga & Altmann, 2016). By using several means, girls resist and want equality to use their bodies in

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the ways they want. If this is not a feminist exercise, perhaps we need to review the concepts of what feminism is. It is increasingly clear that football in Brazilian schools is still experiencing a context of oppression, exclusion and discrimination for many girls and women (Dornelles, 2020). On the other hand, the sport has forged spaces for the construction of feminist histories of resistance and emancipation within the school walls (Hills, 2007; Williams, 2007). Thus, schools remain a key social space for the ongoing study of football and gender interconnections within Brazil’s expanding football culture. Beyond school walls, women organize themselves in academic spaces such as museums and universities, and also on the streets and in stadiums. They work to earn their right to participate in football culture, which not only integrates, but often leads national culture. This process has become much clearer in the past decade, where women have not only taken part in, but also gained power and influence over the country’s football structures.

My Body, My Rules: My Football In recent news, Mendonça (2022) reports how much progress has been achieved within women’s football main structures in the country in the past few years. She shows that, as recent as 2015, women’s football was totally commanded by men. Coaches, referees and TV commentators for women’s football were all men. She noticed that all relevant related roles to women’s football, within the Brazilian Football Federation (CBF), were occupied by men. Whilst this was not problematic ‘per se’—after all, one do not have to be a woman to understand women’s football—this men’s preponderance within women’s football became an issue as most of these men were ill-informed about the sport. They were in these positions due to their networks and past participation within men’s football: roles that in most cases did not give them any insight about the history or specific issues of women’s football. What women’s football needed was for people involved in any position in the game to be aware of that sport: to be a well-informed part of the sport’s culture and long history in the country’s diverse communities.

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Fast-forward just a few years and what we see nowadays is an actual ‘revolution’ within Brazil’s women’s football. Just a recent example will evidence this revolution: the 2022 final of the women’s ‘Supercopa do Brasil’—a major decisive match between Gremio FPA and Corinthians SC, two of the most traditional football clubs in the country—saw 20,000 fans filling the Corinthians stadium (Mendonça, 2022). This is the same stadium that hosted the opening game of the FIFA 2014 Men’s World Cup and is currently one of the most significant football arenas in the country. Leading the match’s all-women refereeing team was Edina Alves da Silva, a FIFA referee. The officers representing the leading sporting bodies hosting the match (CBF and Paulista Football Federation— FPF) were also all women: Aline Pellegrino (CBF’s women’s national teams and competitions chief ), with Ana Lorena Marche (CBF’s women’s national teams supervisor) and Thais Picarte, FPF’s coordinator of women’s football. The event was broadcast on free-to-air TV as well as on pay TV. Both streams were commented on by women journalists. More important than the detail that these positions were filled by women is the fact that all of them have a history within the sport. Their roles have been as former players, coaches and women who have been involved with the game in several capacities, including as researchers, for many years. Thus, what is relevant is that the sport is being respected and led by professionals who understand it, and not only by people who just happen to be given a job within the game. Nevertheless, this revolution would never have happened without the support of people who for decades have claimed and struggled for gender equity within the football field, as a way of achieving gender equity in the broader society. Research on women’s football has played a pivotal role in supporting the claims for a more equitable football in Brazil (Barreto Januario and Knijnik, 2022). Among the many people who battled for a fairer game, we find several researchers (including many who have contributed to this book) who during the past four decades, played key roles in denouncing the gender inequities as well as pointing to solutions. Even though the game has reached a new status in the country, researchers must consider new topics that will certainly impact the games’ agenda in the years to come. In the following paragraphs we consider a few of these areas where we believe our focus should be, as we move forward to the next stage of the game.

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The Next Battle Grounds  EB 3.0: The Upcoming Generation of Internet W and Web Protocol Visibility can be massive, not only in mainstream media channels but on an athlete’s social media profile. Currently players can deliver the message they want to their fans without barriers (Costa, 2020). But what do athletes want to communicate? What are their goals and concerns? Are they aware of the risks and benefits of releasing information and interacting with fans about their personal and professional lives? Does their personal brand fit to brands keen to sponsor them? After a long-term battle against sexism, prohibition to practise their sport, gender inequity  and prejudiced stereotypes, digital media seems to be the solution to end an era of injustice for female athletes. Indeed, expectations around social media range from the ‘feminist’ potential to challenge dominant representational schemes (Toffoletti & Thorpe, 2018b) to self-commodification experienced by women (Banet-Weiser, 2012; Dobson, 2014). Research was undertaken regarding personal brand construction in digital interactive media, to find out if issues such as those listed earlier are tackled in content posted by players in their networks (Toffoletti & Thorpe, 2018a). Latent threats such as the appropriation of social causes—such as feminism—for neoliberal purposes must also be investigated. This investigation is crucial in the transition of WEB 2.0—with extremely interactive social media and a sharing economy environment (Sivens, 2021)—to WEB 3.0, “combining people, spaces and assets in what is often a fully synthetic virtual environment” (Sivens, 2021). Now, people can be owners and not only users of a platform, and they will be keen to be treated as such. More than ever, a huge diversity of content and product owners can deliver digital goods such as non-fungible tokens (NFTs). Opportunities and threats within metaverses are endless: from extra income based on collectible items for fans, to being active in diverse virtual worlds. More than that, in WEB 3.0, the semantic web provides a framework for information reuse with faster ways of being shared among programmes,

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communities and companies (Berners-Lee, 1999). Artificial intelligence is another dimension of the next internet protocol, with computers utilizing human logic to provide more accurate and quick solutions and responses: interestingly this is a quite new scenario that is already affecting the sports world, including women’s football. It points to the urgent need of research in a vast variety of fields since almost every company and public persona will need to be guided by an efficient metaverse strategy. In addition, and going beyond business, people need to be aware of social transformations resulting from this intense virtual immersion. To this end, it is crucial that subjects such as sociology and philosophy have more room and importance in the school curriculum, as these knowledge areas can provide football players with the critical thinking tools needed to navigate and deal with the forthcoming digital challenges for their careers and footballing aspirations.

 idden Sexualities and Transgender Women H in Football During all these decades of women’s football research, whilst we have seen a great deal of research published in Brazilian Portuguese that has dealt with gender topics, sexuality has been quite a ‘hidden’ matter (D’Ávila & de Souza Júnior, 2009). Plenty of assumptions of homosexuality within the game were made, but without clear studies that could reveal a critical perspective or give insights into the sexual life of women footballers (Votre & Mourão, 2003; Camargo, 2021). These assumptions did not stand alone. They were combined with stereotyping, discrimination and attempts to suppress players’ human rights (Laurindo & Martins, 2021). Whilst in this book a few chapters have started to bring the issues of their sexual lives to the conversation, much is yet to be done to fully understand how women’s sexualities impact on their football participation (Cassidy, 2019). Yet, why should the sexuality of the players and women who play and love football be so important? Why do people insist on paying attention to their bodies and sex lives, instead of just enjoying their athletic skills? While we acknowledge that much stereotyping and discrimination

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towards women footballers has been perpetrated due to homophobia (Knijnik, 2014), we need also to reflect on the fact that women’s football has been historically a welcoming space for lesbian sociability (Laurindo & Martins, 2021; Harman, 2021; Drury, 2011). Research has consistently shown that the openness of football spaces for transgressive women has allowed them to feel welcome and to somehow flourish within a quite heteronormative and hostile environment (Williams, 2007; Anderson and Bullingham, 2015). However, in Brazil we are yet to understand the dimension of the homosexual practices within women’s football, and whether they have always been positive for the players’ development, or if there were cases where sexual harassment has hindered the positive aspects of football participation. Furthermore, in recent years transgender women have invaded the space of women’s sports (Pisani & Pinto, 2021; Barreto Januario & Knijnik, 2022). Amidst more visible cases, such as the volleyball player Tifanny Abreu, who generated enormous controversy that still occupies media and even parliamentary debates in the country (Garcia & Pereira, 2019), transgender bodies have also penetrated the football fields (Love, 2017). Whilst the ‘my body, my rules, my football’ motto has been a powerful tool for girls and women to establish their symbolic and political space within the game, the arrival of transgender women in the football leagues has quite destabilized the status quo of cisgender women. As they prepared to be accepted in the mainstream game, transgender bodies represented a new challenge for gender inclusion in the game (Love, 2017). Will transgender women face the perspective of suffering from the same discriminatory practices that once left women bodies outside the ‘Brazilian way of life’ (Bellos, 2014)?

 eyond Women: The Future of Footballing B Gender Equity The issues discussed above are just a few of the potential topics that researchers and activists will need to tackle in future years to build a fairer and more equitable context for women’s football in the country. Whilst

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we acknowledge that this agenda is much larger, we believe that matters of digital media, web protocol and transgender participation have the potential to further, or hinder, the progress of gender equity within Brazilian football fields. What is crucial, and this book has demonstrated this, is that researchers and activists continue to show that football is an essential part of the country’s life. The essays of this book have continuously demonstrated the inextricability of gender equity within the sport and the broader society. In Brazil, footballing and societal gender equity walk hand in hand. Our hope is that future research amplifies this view, looking ‘beyond women’ to truly embrace diversity in football, so every ‘woman’ from any background can experience the benefits of the game and hence enhance their lives within their communities and the broader society.

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Costa, A. (2020). Determinants of the construction of personal brands of Brazilian and German women’s football players on Instagram. Master Thesis, German Sports University. D’Ávila, L. B., and de Souza Júnior, O. M. (2009). Futebol feminino e sexualidade. Revista das Faculdades Integradas Claretianas, 2, Janeiro/Dezembro, 31. Dobson, A. S. (2014). Performative shamelessness on young women’s social network sites: Shielding the self and resisting gender melancholia. Feminism & Psychology, 24(1), 97–114. Dornelles, P. G. (2020). Caminhos teóricos, metodologias e proposições políticas para “caminhar” com gênero e sexualidade na educação física: alinhavos com os estudos Queer. In I. Wenetz, P. Athayde, & L. Lara (Eds.), Gênero e sexualidade no esporte e na educação física (pp. 77–90). EDUFRN Drury, S. (2011). ‘It seems really inclusive in some ways, but… inclusive just for people who identify as lesbian’: Discourses of gender and sexuality in a lesbian-­identified football club. Soccer & Society, 12(3), 421–442. Fassin, D. (2006). La biopolitique n’est pas une politique de la vie. Sociologie et Societes, 38(2), 35–48. FIFA. (2019). FIFA Women’s World Cup France 2019: Global broadcast and audience report [Online]. Retrieved January 5, 2020, from https://img.fifa.com/ image/upload/rvgxekduqpeo1ptbgcng.pdf Foucault, M. (1984). Deux essais sur le sujet et le pouvoir. In H. Dreyfus & P.  Rabinow (Eds.), Michel Foucault: Parcours philosophique (pp.  296–321). Gallimard. Garcia, L.  P. (2016). A magnitude invisível da violência contra a mulher. Epidemiologia e Serviços de Saúde, 25, 451–454. Garcia, R. M., & Pereira, E. G. B. (2019). A trajetória pessoal de Tifanny Abreu no esporte de alto rendimento. Movimento (Porto Alegre), 25, 25032. Hills, L. (2007). Friendship, physicality, and physical education: An exploration of the social and embodied dynamics of girls’ physical education experiences. Sport, Education and Society, 12(3), 317–336. Jeanes, R. (2011). ‘I’m into high heels and make up but I still love football’: Exploring gender identity and football participation with preadolescent girls. Soccer & Society, 12(3), 402–420. Kessler, C. S. (2021). O predomínio de masculinidades: narrativas de jogadoras de futebol do interior do Rio Grande do Sul (Brasil) nos anos 1980. Esporte e Sociedade, 22.

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Knijnik, J. (2014). Gendered barriers to Brazilian female football: Twentieth century legacies. In Routledge handbook of sport, gender and sexuality (pp. 141–148). Routledge. Knijnik, J. (2018). The World Cup chronicles: 31 days that rocked Brazil. Fair Play Publishing. Laurindo, V., and Martins, M. Z. (2021). Coming out of the closet: A description of LGBT research on sports in Brazil. In Lesbian, gay, and transgender athletes in Latin America (pp. 41–55). Palgrave Macmillan. Love, A. (2017). The tenuous inclusion of transgender athletes in sport. In Transgender athletes in competitive sport (pp. 194–205). Routledge. Malvar, A. J. M., & de Souza Jr, O. M. (2021). “E a gente teve que aprender a conviver”: meninas e futsal escolar. MOTRICIDADES: Revista da Sociedade de Pesquisa Qualitativa em Motricidade Humana, 5(1), 106–122. Martins, M. Z., Silva, K. R. S., & Vasquez, V. (2021). As mulheres e o país do futebol: intersecções de gênero, classe e raça no Brasil. Movimento, 27. Mendonça, R. (2022). Revolução atual do futebol feminino é comandada por mulheres. Retrieved February 15, 2022, from https://www1.folha.uol.com.br/ colunas/renata-­mendonca/2022/02/revolucao-­atual-­do-­futebol-­feminino-­e-­ comandada-­por-­mulheres.shtml Nicolino, A. (2020). “Posso falar?” A profilaxia pedagógica e a desordem dos gêneros! Um estudo sobre os enfrentamentos produzidos no campo da educação física. In I. Wenetz, P. Athayde, & L. Lara (Eds.), Gênero e sexualidade no esporte e na educação física (pp. 13–30). Natal. Pisani, M.  D. S. (2014). Futebol feminino: espaço de empoderamento para mulheres das periferias de São Paulo. Ponto Urbe. Revista do núcleo de antropologia urbana da USP, 14. Pisani, M. D. S., & Pinto, M. R. (2021). Expressões e corporalidades de mulheres cis e homens trans no ambiente futebolístico. Revista Estudos Feministas, 29. Sivens, N. S. (2021). It’s time for brands to embrace the Web 3.0 and dive into the metaverse [Online]. Retrieved March 2, 2022, from https://www.adweek. com/brand-­m arketing/its-­t ime-­f or-­b rands-­t o-­e mbrace-­t he-­w eb-­3 –0-­ and-­dive-­into-­the-­metaverse/ Thorpe, H., Brice, J., & Clark, M. (2020). Feminist new materialisms, sport and fitness: A lively entanglement. Springer Nature. Toffoletti, K., & Thorpe, H. (2018a). The athletic labour of femininity: The branding and consumption of global celebrity sportswomen on Instagram. Journal of Consumer Culture, 18(2), 298–316.

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Index1

A

Activist, 202 Alagoas, 252 Amateur football, 177 Athletes, 106, 135 Authenticity, 118

Brazilian Football Confederation (CBF), viii, x, 124, 271 Brazilian Football Federation, x Butler, J., 222 C

B

Banet-Weiser’s Economy of Visibility, 106 Banned, 47–50 Body, 77, 126, 221 Bola Dourada, 186 Bolivian, 163–177 Bom Retiro, 172 Brand management, 109 Brands, 109

CBF, see Brazilian Football Confederation City outskirts, 53 Clubes de camisa, 258 Clubs, 149, 166 CONMEBOL, 124, 152, 257 Copa Libertadores, 257 Coubertin, P., 72 Criminalised, 68 Cultural, 126, 165 Culture, 26, 98, 126

 Note: Page numbers followed by ‘n’ refer to notes.

1

© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2022 J. Knijnik, A. Costa (eds.), Women’s Football in Latin America, New Femininities in Digital, Physical and Sporting Cultures, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-07976-4

293

294 Index D

Deutsch, 88 Development agenda, 182 Digital media, 117 Discrimination, 74 E

1800, 22 England, 205 English, 44 ESPN, 125, 131, 133, 135 Ethnic identity, 270 Ethnofootball, 242 Ethnographic, 164, 167 Ethnographic and journalistic, 242 Ethnographic research, 186 Ethnography, 168

Gender order, 92 Gender patterns, 89 Gender resistance, 90, 95 Gender roles, 89, 107 Gender segregation, 74 Gender studies, 38 Gilberto Freyre, 63 Globo Esportes, 125, 131 Goffman, E., 106 H

Heterosexual, 89 High-level, 145–160 Historicity, 26 History, 26, 41, 64, 66 Hollander, J. A., 88 Horse racing, 12 Human rights, 80

F

Fans, 37, 106, 114, 202 Femininity, 31, 36, 96, 100, 126 Feminism, 30, 31, 33, 36, 56 Feminist, 53, 88, 89, 203, 272 FIFA, viii Futebol feminino, 91 Futsal, ix G

Gender, 26, 27, 64, 126, 167 Gender construction, 90 Gender equality, 94 Gender equity, 90 Gender identities, 88, 89, 100 Gender inequality, 71 Gender inequities, 64 Gender norms, 99, 190–192

I

Indigenous Peoples’ Games, 242 Instagram, see Digital media Interdictions, 208, 222 Interview, 88, 149 J

Jornal do Brasil, 52 Jornal dos Sports, 29 Journalistic, 125, 127 K

Korean, 168, 229 L

Lesbian, 56

 Index 

295

M

R

Masculine, 97 Masculinity, 88, 100, 202 Masculinity and femininity, 90, 126 Masculinized, 95, 98 Mass media, 65 Media, 42 Migrants, 5, 46, 163–177 Motherhood, 229

Rede Globo, 129, 130 Representations, 27, 38 Rio de Janeiro, 26, 31, 33, 34, 42 Rio Grande do Sul, 51 Role model, ix Rowing, 16–19 S

N

National Association of Organised Supporters’ Groups (ANATORG), 201 Newspaper, 28, 29 News values, 127 1980s, 127 1900, 22 1990s, 171 1910s and 1920s, 43 19th century, 12, 20, 21, 32, 42 P

Paraguayans, 164 Paulistão Feminino, 106, 108, 111–113, 115 Pelotas, 51 Person, E. S., 88 Personal brand, 109 Peruvians, 164 Philosophy, 75 Physical Education, 147 Pierre de Coubertin, 73 Portugal, 226 Press, 28 Prohibition, 28, 35–38, 68, 127

São Paulo, x, 42, 108 Self-Representation Theory, 107 Sexism, 203, 205, 206, 208–213, 278, 285 Sexist, 38, 64, 74, 77, 125 Social networking, 164 Social networks, 106 Social Role theory by Eagly, 106 South American, 163 Spectacle, 32 Spectacular, 50 Sport for development, 2, 5, 182n1, 183–186 Sport management, 145 Sport managers, 146 Sport participation, 184, 188 Stereotypes, 107, 110, 117 Suburban, 34 Suburbs, 37 Surveys, 112 T

Teams, 166 Television, 63, 71 Thematic analysis, 150–151 Torcedores.com, 125, 132, 137 Torcidas organizadas, 202

296 Index

Transcultural, 164, 165 Turf, 13 20th century/twentieth century, ix, 12, 18, 21, 22, 25, 27, 28, 31, 43, 66 21st century, 25, 279 2015 Women’s World Cup, 131 2015 World Cup Final, vii 2019 Women’s Football World Cup, 71, 105, 125 U

UDOF, 156 United Kingdom, 226 Urban, 29 USA, 147

V

Visibility, 43, 58, 64, 125, 202 Visible, 185 W

Well-being, 190 Women’s football, 26, 98, 108–110, 117 Women’s Football World Cup, 87 Women’s managers, 146 Y

Young women, 195