Challenging the Hegemony: New Zealand Women's Opposition to Rugby and the Reproduction of a Capitalist Patriarchy

Abstract

In 1981, women were very prominent in the organised opposition to a South African rugby team touring New Zealand. While overtly opposing racial discrimination, it is argued their protest action was motivated by anger at the exclusively male sport of rugby. They challenged the values, gender relations and power which are symbolised and reproduced by the sport. Such power, with a base in patriarchy, agriculturally based capitalism and white supremacy has excluded and oppressed women. Events since 1981 suggest that such protests made a substantial contribution to an emerging hegemony in New Zealand whereby previous power concentrations shifted considerably.