Gender, feminism and football studies

In this article, I explore some of the ways gender has been interpreted over time within different feminisms and how this might be of use to a critical football studies. I move between different feminist emphases, which include consideration of the ‘category of woman’, the ‘category of gender’ and the ‘category of femininities’ and specifically in relation to football contexts. This simple model of feminist categories (‘woman’, ‘gender’ and ‘femininities’) intends to capture some of the histories of feminist theoretical development and available modes of feminist analyses. I use these categories to demonstrate the depth and breadth of feminism and the range of feminist theory available for future research and study of football and its many cultures.