Thesis (M.S.)-- Springfield College, 2005. / Includes bibliographical references. Also available online (PDF file) by a subscription to the set or by purchasing the individual file.

Thesis (M.S.)-- Springfield College, 2005. / Includes bibliographical references.

Orientador: Heloisa Helena Baldy dos Reis / Tese (doutorado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Faculdade de Educação Física / Made available in DSpace on 2018-08-22T00:51:49Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 SouzaJunior_OsmarMoreirade_D.pdf: 11870474 bytes, checksum: bc10f141994873e9e388cc8623fa29ab (MD5) Previous issue date: 2013 / Resumo: A prática do futebol por mulheres historicamente é matizada por episódios de concessões, infiltrações, transgressões e conquistas. Embora as mulheres tenham estado presentes em todas as etapas da sociogênese do futebol, protagonizando inserções tanto como espectadoras quanto na condição de praticantes, o espaço e a visibilidade destinados ao futebol feminino evidenciam a inocuidade dessa prática como campo de atuação profissional. À luz desse cenário, o objetivo desta pesquisa consistiu em analisar os projetos de jogadoras e de "clubes" para a efetivação do futebol como carreira profissional, bem como a normatização legal dos vínculos futebolísticos dessas atletas. Para esse fim, realizou-se um estudo de caso com três equipes que disputaram o Campeonato Paulista de Futebol Feminino de 2011, por meio de um diário de campo, entrevistas semiestruturadas com dirigentes e treinadores (as) e grupos focais com atletas. As equipes analisadas revelam disparidades estruturais permeadas pelas representações dos diferentes sujeitos, que sinalizam para distanciamentos e aproximações de uma atividade profissional. Os projetos das jogadoras pesquisadas evidenciam o reconhecimento do exercício profissional, porém circunscritos pelos impedimentos da falta de estrutura e da formalização dos vínculos empregatícios. Em contrapartida, pela análise da legislação podemos identificar que as jogadoras exercem atividade profissional de fato, explicitando a ilegalidade dos mecanismos de formalização dos vínculos firmados pelos seus clubes, quando estes não cumprem com as garantias às quais as atletas fariam jus por direito. Tendo em vista a legitimação da profissão de futebolista para as mulheres, indicamos a necessidade de a CBF, federações e clubes afiliados garantirem a sustentabilidade do futebol feminino, com a organização de competições e a manutenção de equipes de mulheres nos clubes que mantêm o futebol profissional atualmente / Abstract: Women's football practice is historically marked by concessions, infiltrations, and transgressions and conquers. Although women have been present in every stage of football's sociogenesis, taking part as spectators and also practicing it, the space and visibility given to women's football highlight the innocuousness towards the sport as a career plan. Bearing such scenario, this research aims to analyze the clubs and players projects towards football as a real career plan, as well as the legal regularization of the employment relationship of the athletes. For this purpose, it was done a case study with three teams disputing the women's football Paulista Championship in 2011, by means of field diary, semi-structured interviews with directors and coaches, and focus groups with athletes. The analyzed teams showed structural disparities permeated by different issues that lead to a detachment and closeness of a professional career. The players' project shows the recognition of the sport as a professional career, nevertheless surrounded by barriers, and lack of structure and employment legitimacy. On the other hand, by analyzing the legislation, it is possible to identify that the players act in fact professionals, highlighting the illegality of the clubs employment relationship, once they do not meet the standards and rights granted by the legislation to the players. Considering the legitimacy of women's football as a career, we point to the need of CBF, federations and affiliated clubs, to grant sustainability for women's football by organizing championships and helping towards women's teams in clubs that currently maintain professional teams / Doutorado / Educação Fisica e Sociedade / Doutor em Educação Física

D.Phil. (Sport Science) / Socialisation is an interactive reciprocal process that shapes the way individuals think, act and make decisions. Through the sport socialisation process, over time individuals acquire beliefs and behaviours that affect other areas of their life, including education, family relations and peer interactions. Socialisation affects the lives of the participant’s significant others and socialising agents, who demonstrate changes in the way they view women’s football, interact with the player and assist with domestic duties. These processes occur in the public and private spheres and are closely associated with cultural perspectives of masculine and feminine gender identity construction. Four theories underpin the research, namely figurational theory, critical feminism, interactionism and cognitive development theory. This thesis examines the effects of female football participation in family dynamics, school and community relations, as well as individual identity formation and the challenges and benefits related to participation. For this comprehensive case study approach mixed methods were used (i.e. interviews, focus groups and questionnaires). The study focused on 21 cases of female football players in two South African locations, Johannesburg and Cape Town. Interviews were conducted with 21 players that played in leagues organised by the South African Football Association. In each location there was a senior team that played in the provincial leagues and an under-15 team that played in the regional leagues. Interviews were conducted with 48 significant others (individuals who influence the self-esteem, emotions and behaviour of a person, including mothers, fathers, siblings, aunts, uncles, cousins and grandparents), four coaches, seven administrators, and eleven school representatives. Focus groups took place at four schools in each location in which 258 students participated. Questionnaires were conducted in the communities around each of the selected schools, incorporating the perspectives of 169 respondents. The data was analysed with the assistance of Atlas.ti 6.2 and SPSS 20. Football in South Africa occurs within a context of poverty with the legacy of apartheid remaining in terms of limited access to resources, poor provision of sports facilities, unemployment, fragmented families, and lack of educational opportunities. These factors continued to affect the prospects of sport participation. Understanding hegemonic masculinity as the dominant ideology in the townships provides a background to analyse how men control the limited physical resources and public sport spaces, requiring girls to gain access through a male proxy or gatekeeper. Once females acquire access they are able to gain acceptable and legitimacy through demonstrating their competencies and success in competitions. Socialisation through sport occurs as girls are occupied in safe, controlled spaces with adult supervision rather than become involved in deviant behaviours. In these settings female footballers acquired positive behaviours and improved attributes such as time management, discipline, respect and self-efficacy. Their participation resulted in a reduction of social distance between them and their teacher-coaches, which improved the learning climate fostering trusting relationships. As the girls were socialised into football, some adopted masculine behaviours and appearance. In some cases tomboy behaviour merged into homosexuality (lesbianism) with the rejection of feminine role identification of ‘mother’ and ‘wife’. The team in the Cape Town setting openly promoted heterosexuality compared to the team in Johannesburg, where coach and players were accepting and receptive towards players who expressed a variety of sexualities. This resulted in four individuals identifying as lesbian or bisexual within the research participants. The responses by their family members were complex and varied. Siblings encouraged the acceptability for other family members, whereas fathers were absent or oblivious and mothers were highly critical based on their religious and cultural traditions. Mothers experienced failure of not socialising their daughters into the social role that is perceived to encapsulate womanhood (as wife and mother). Perceptions regarding women’s football are changing in the public discourse to become more supportive. This is informed by a democratic South African consciousness and human justice framework that encourages greater acceptance of women’s roles in positions of power. Increased resource allocation through sponsorships and government programmes affords additional opportunities for female participation as well as encouragement for participants. Recommendations emerging from this thesis are useful to maintain the growth and support of women’s football. Structural adjustments are necessary within South African football in terms of increasing the amount of leagues and tournaments available for women and girls, leadership opportunities and long-term athlete development plans. Changes in practices that are vital to women’s football include equality of resource allocation, stakeholder engagement and media exposure. These changes require government and SAFA support to materialise, as well as continued alterations in individual, family and community attitudes, behaviours and practices. As women’s football in South African continues to grow and develop the opportunities for forthcoming research are plentiful. Utilising a mixed method comprehensive case study approach, becoming intimately involved in the research context, and providing opportunities for local voices to be heard can meaningfully inform future policies and practices.

This research examines the U.S. media during the 1999 Women's World Cup from a feminist postcolonial standpoint. This research adds to current feminist scholarship on women and sports by de-centering the global North in its discourse. It reveals the bias of the media through the representation of the United States National Team as a universal "woman" athlete and the standard for international women's soccer. It further argues that, as a result, the Nigerian National Team was cast in simplistic stereotypes of race, class, ethnicity, and nation, which were often also appropriated and commodified. I emphasize that the Nigerian National Team resisted this construction and fought to secure their position in the global soccer landscape. I conclude that these biased representations, which did not fairly depict or value the contributions of diverse competing teams, were primarily employed to promote and sell the event to a predominantly white middle-class American audience. / by Michele Canning. / Thesis (M.A.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2009. / Includes bibliography. / Electronic reproduction. Boca Raton, Fla., 2009. Mode of access: World Wide Web.

Thesis (MA)--Stellenbosch University, 2011. / No abstract provided.

M. Tech. (Department of Business Administration, Faculty of Management Sciences), Vaal University of Technology. / Sport has become the great unifier globally since governments, countries and organisations are using it as a resource to bring people together. The sport industry is one of the fastest rising business segments and its primary aim/objective is to generate the revenue from sport spectators. In the past decade, the behaviour of sport spectators has received increasing attention in academic literature. A better understanding of how and why sport spectators go to stadiums and travel great distances to support their sport clubs is of great interest to sport marketers. Soccer, in particular, is perhaps one of the greatest sport phenomena in terms of its attraction for hundreds of thousands of occasional spectators of every age and gender, who come together in soccer stadiums around the globe every week to watch games. In South Africa, soccer is the leading sport from both a participation and spectator viewpoint. Understanding sport consumers willingness to attend is arguably one of the most important concerns in sport marketing and consumer-relationship management. As found in sport consumption literature, a “good relationship with sport consumers by sport clubs is an essential factor for a successful sport business” because it is much cheaper to serve satisfied consumers and easier to sustain their support. The purpose of this study was to examine selected motivational variables that influence spectators’ attendance of professional women’s soccer matches to better understand the development of the sports consumption sector. There is an absence of research conducted concerning this direction and subsequently a lack of existing literature, especially among women’s sport. To contribute to filling this void, this study attempts to measure the relationships between these variables. Earlier research has demonstrated that consumers’ willingness to attend is highly determined by their satisfaction. This study is descriptive and correlational in nature and follows a quantitative research approach. The target population comprised spectators of professional women’s soccer in the Gauteng province of South Africa. A snowball sampling technique was used to identify the participants fitting the predetermined sample standards. A total number of 316 questionnaires were received and analysed. Relevant areas, research approaches and data acquiring procedures were described. Additionally, means and factor analysis were performed to determine the level of selected motivational variables, team satisfaction and willingness to attend of spectators and to establish the underlying factors of the constructs respectively. Moreover, a correlation analysis was conducted to establish the strength and direction of the relationship between the study variables. Lastly, a regression analysis was performed to check the predictive relationship between the study’s constructs. The study revealed that motivational variables (vicarious achievement, involvement, social interaction, perceived value) have a significant relationship with spectator satisfaction. In addition, spectator satisfaction was found to be the determinant of spectator willingness to attend professional women’s soccer matches. Based on the results of this study, this research adds to the scant literature on spectators of women’s sport and proposes perspectives on the level of motives and behaviours of spectators, which can be used by women’s sport organisations and government organisations in elevating women’s soccer in South Africa. In this way, sport organisations could develop spectator engagement campaigns and marketing materials in order to engender and enhance women’s spectator participation. Further, sport managers and sport marketers should make every effort to increase the perceived value of services such as fees which are fair, albeit under the global negative economic climate, in order to satisfy the needs of spectators and at the same time reap rewards from the presence of spectators in stadiums and ensure that this presence continues. Based on these findings, limitations as well as future research opportunities and contributions of this study are discussed.