Fotboll för alla? En diskursanalys av det engelska och det svenska fotbollsförbundets offentliga publikationer.

Abstract

Women’s football has, throughout history, been subject to the resistance of man’s world. The English football association forbid women’s teams to play on the association’s grounds. This ban lasted for 50 years and wasn’t dissolved until 1971. In Sweden it wasn’t until 1972 that the Swedish football association decided to integrate women’s football in to the organisation. Today football is the sport which has the most female participants in England and in Sweden the game is the second most popular amongst women. Both associations have a clear strategy for women in football and for the further development of women’s football. Sweden and United Kingdom are two countries that have different views on equality between the genders and how it is to be achieved. This essay attempts to study the discourse of football and how gender and equality are portrayed in the public publications of the two nations’ football associations. The analysis finds that women’s football is still viewed as inferior to men’s football. What makes this comparative study interesting is that Sweden and England as a part of the United Kingdom have two different takes on equality. Whilst Sweden attempts to reconstruct the gender roles England has a gender-neutral policy that tends to the focus on eliminating discrimination.