A breakthrough: Women's football in Sweden

Abstract

This essay focuses on the development of women's football in Sweden between 1965 and 1980. The growth of modern women's football in Sweden was dependent on factors that were essentially extended to the football movement. However, the formation of teams, the establishment of leagues and so forth, were the results of formidable efforts by ‘pioneers’ within women's football. Leaders within men's football initially assumed a passive ‘wait-and-see’ attitude. Women's football challenged the masculine traditions of football in a manner that took the Swedish Football Association by surprise. When for various reasons the ‘waitand- see’ attitude became impossible to sustain, the Football Association decided to integrate women's football into the football movement. The purpose of this integration was to control the development of women's football and ensure that women's football would not have a detrimental effect on men's football with regard to material and nonmaterial resources.

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