The Incompatibility of Motherhood and Professional Women's Football in England

Alex Culvin · Ali Bowes

51 citations0/0 files storedFrontiers in Sports and Active Living

No readable copy stored yet — this record is metadata only.

No open-access location is known for this record yet.

Literature note Cite in a project Citation map

Sports, Gender, and Society Physical Education and Sports Studies Work-Family Balance Challenges

Abstract

There has been an advancement of professionalisation of women's football globally. Professional women's football in England has grown exponentially since the inception of the Football Association (FA) Women's Super League in 2011. This article offers an examination of the gender-specific needs of women as professional footballers, focusing specifically on the distinctive aspect of maternity policy. Sportswomen often feel compelled to make the difficult decision between motherhood and an athletic career. Contracts have become an essential component of the work-life of professional women footballers. However, these contracts pose questions regarding organisational intentions and motivations. This study draws on 30 semi-structured interviews with professional women footballers in England. Our key considerations include contracts, employment, motherhood, and athletes' bodies. This examination will develop our understanding of the complexities associated with professional football as a career choice for women.

Paper brief

Loading…

Cite this work

Citation unavailable for this work.

BibTeX RIS CSL-JSON

No public copy is stored for this record, so only the metadata is cited.

Citations in this library

Citation map →

Stored only when both papers are in the corpus — 51 citations exist upstream.

References

1990Qualitative evaluation and research methods 2000Organizational Silence: A Barrier to Change and Development in a Pluralistic World 2006The culture of the new capitalism 1972Insiders and Outsiders: A Chapter in the Sociology of Knowledge 2015Qualitative Research Methods in Sport, Exercise and Health: From process to product 1980Paradigms, Metaphors, and Puzzle Solving in Organization Theory 2000Evaluating Interpretive Inquiry: Reviewing the Validity Debate and Opening the Dialogue 1995Pugs at Work: Bodily Capital and Bodily Labour among Professional Boxers

Cited by

2023A scoping review of the experiences of elite female athletes concerning pregnancy and motherhood 2022Menstrual cycle, hormonal contraception and pregnancy in women’s football: perceptions of players, coaches and managers 2022Manufacturing Dreams and Investing in Future Generations: Women Athletes’ Inspirational Labor in the Marketing and Promotion of Their Sport 2023Expanding understanding of elite athlete parenthood in socio-cultural context: a meta-synthesis of qualitative media research findings on motherhood and sport

Explore the map →

Papers that cite the same references — the relational fallback while embeddings are still backfilling.

Imported from OpenAlex (CC0) — nothing here is generated.