Female Fans, Gender Relations and Football Fandom
This book assesses the transformation of football fan culture from a gender perspective. Referring to the notions of homosociality, hegemonic masculinity and performative perspectives on gender and fandom, it investigates the processes of women entering the world of football fandom.
Drawing on multidimensional qualitative and quantitative research, the book analyses different aspects of female fandom, such as womens socialisation to be a fan, building their sense of fan identity, ways of performing fandom, and gender. Also, it explores the response of male fans by shedding light on the sense-making process of a growing number of female fans in the stands and its consequences for prevailingly male football culture. This study stands out for its richness and diversity of empirical material used in order to make a significant contribution to our understanding of social dynamics related to the changing nature of female football fandom.
The book is fascinating reading for researchers and students in a broad range of areas, including gender studies, sociology of sport, football, womens studies and Central Eastern European studies. It is also a valuable resource for scholars, and football and club authorities who have an interest in understanding the development of female football fandom and its impact on the male fandom community.
Honorata Jakubowska is Professor of Sociology and Chair of the Department of Sociology of the Individual and Social Relations at Adam Mickiewicz University in Pozna, Poland.
Dominik Antonowicz is Professor of Sociology and Chair of the Department of Science and Higher Education Research at Nicolas Copernicus University in Toru, Poland.
Radosaw Kossakowski is Professor of Sociology and Chair of the Scientific Council of Sociology at the University of Gdask, Poland, where he is also Director of the Institute of Sociology.
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Female Fans, Gender Relations and Football Fandom
Challenging the Brotherhood Culture
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Female Fans, Gender Relations and Football Fandom
Challenging the Brotherhood Culture
Honorata Jakubowska,
Dominik Antonowicz and
Radosaw Kossakowski
First published 2021
by Routledge
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2021 Honorata Jakubowska, Dominik Antonowicz and Radosaw Kossakowski
The right of Honorata Jakubowska, Dominik Antonowicz and Radosaw Kossakowski to be identified as authors of this work has been asserted by them in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
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ISBN: 978-0-367-36552-3 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-0-429-34700-9 (ebk)
Typeset in Times New Roman
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Contents
This book results from a research project funded by the National Science Centre in Poland (project number: 2016/21/B/HS6/00846).
The research project would not have been successful without the respondents that agreed to share their fandom experiences and the help of people working in Lech Pozna, Legia Warszawa and Lechia Gdask.
We would like to thank Simon Whitmore and Rebecca Connor from Routledge for their professional support in the publishing process, as well as the reviewers of the book proposal for their helpful comments on how to improve the publication.
Additionally, Dominik and Radosaw would like to thank their families for their unconditional support.
The main aim of this book is to investigate the role and position of female supporters in the football fandom culture. Football fandom is male-dominated and found by many studies to be one of the main sources of reproducing hegemonic masculinity (Redhead 1993; King 1997; Hughson 2000). Thus, the conducted research project on which this book is based has addressed three fundamental research questions: (1) How are female supporters as a new type of fan becoming integrated into the football fandom culture? (2) How have a growing number of female supporters been changing the male-dominated communities of football fans? (3) To what extent is the growing number of female supporters an intentional development caused by both football clubs and football authorities or does it stem from a wider cultural transformation in which women are beginning to perform social roles traditionally assigned to males?
By addressing these research questions, the analysis presented in the book contributes to the discussion about changing football fandom culture under the influence of a growing number of women attending football matches (Dunn 2014; Pfister, Lenneis and Mintert 2013; Pope 2017). Contrary to previous investigations, the process of women entering the world of football fans and their status in this world are analysed from three different, albeit connected, perspectives, namely: (1) female supporters themselves; (2) male supporters; (3) football clubs and football authorities.
In Poland, similar to other countries, one can see an increasing number of female fans in the stands. Unfortunately, systematic data on these changes has not been published; however, all research participants, both fans and the clubs authorities, have confirmed the presence of this phenomenon. The commercial research report from 2019, based on the data collected passively from all stadiums of teams in the Ekstraklasa
