Gender, Identity and Football

Abstract

This chapter focuses on the responses of female fans of women’s football who highlighted a more political and implicit reason for their active support of the sport in general and at the Women’s World Cup 2015 more specifically. These respondents discussed their desire to support other women’s sporting achievement, and a smaller sub-section explained their interest in women’s football as an important part of their LGBTQ identity. This is, obviously, not to suggest that men do not support women’s football; previous and later chapters in this book show very clearly that men too are fans of the women’s game. However, the data gained in Canada does show some interesting and significant facets of women’s support of women’s sport, which are discussed here.