Sport and Social Mobility by Spaaij Ramón;

Author:Spaaij, Ramón;
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Taylor & Francis Group
Published: 2011-08-15T00:00:00+00:00

Patrick and other research participants explain these changes in terms of evolving cultural norms, the shortage of volunteers (resulting in increased opportunities for women to take up leadership roles in sports clubs) and the fact that more women in small towns work nowadays. Jules, who is the secretary of a hockey club and a local teacher, asks: “Why would we have to do all the work at the club when we also work during the week?”

Australian football may still be a man’s game in most respects, but women are now more centrally involved. A number of women occupy leadership positions in Australian football clubs in the NCFL as trainers or administrators. It should be noted here that in mixed sports such as hockey and netball, women are far more prominent in management positions, both historically and at present. Claire argues that although in most football clubs women have long been relegated to traditional roles as cooks, caterers and cleaners, the incorporation of hockey and netball clubs in the NCFL enables women “to be involved in a different sense,” including at the management level. She believes that women are now “actually more in the forefront in the way things are run,” and she gives the example of a female president of a junior football club. Although Claire is skeptical of women’s access to management positions in senior football (“I would say that [a female president] would never happen in the senior football club”), she experiences that, overall, “they are important and it’s recognized now.” Tennis player Sally, who regularly attends local football matches, is also somewhat ambivalent about the improvements made: “In terms of women’s involvement in, say, in the footy club, yeah, like, a lot of the trainers and people involved in sort of the fundraising activities are certainly women. But, yeah, we could probably improve in that area and be a little more inclusive.”

The issue of gender inequalities in access to social capital is highly relevant also to the MG case. The club does not provide game-playing activities for girls and young women, even though there is a demand for sports activities among young Somali women in Melbourne. Many of their brothers, cousins and other male relatives play football at MG or other clubs, and several young women indicate that they would like a similar opportunity to take part in team sports or other physical activities (cf. Palmer 2009).

The narratives of research participants reveal the great diversity in the ways Somali Muslims interpret Islam and how these interpretations influence cultural norms and expectations as they relate to gender. Overall, they express both approval and constraint. The vast majority of respondents refer to the fact that sport participation conforms to Islam (i.e. to take care of the body through exercise; Amara 2008) and support participation for this reason. However, those who express support for participation in sport also stress that this is only acceptable if it is done in religiously and culturally prescribed ways. Hence, constraints arise from the circumstances in which women can participate (Kay 2006; Walseth and Fasting 2004).

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