Gendered socialization among girls and boys in children’s football teams in Sweden

Abstract

This article examines the process of gender socialization in girls’ and boys’ football teams in Swedish children’s football. The article draws on data gathered from ethnographic fieldwork over two years which involved observations of the daily life of children’s football, and interviews with 11–12-year-old girls and boys, their coaches and parents in two sex-segregated football teams. The study is inspired by Connell’s gender theory (Connell, Gender, 2002), which provides support for the view that gender is a process of social construction in which children actively participate. An analysis of the ways the girls and boys talk about football and gender demonstrates how girls and boys produce a certain gender performance in the social interaction and how they relate to a male standard that exists in children’s football. Overall, this article contributes to a deeper understanding of the relationships between girls and boys and how children contribute to gendered socialization in sport. This article also discusses the relevance of gender equality work in child sport.