Women have been playing football (soccer) in Australia since the late
nineteenth century. Over the past forty years the game has grown significantly
with the national team achieving global recognition and the game becoming
more widely accepted within the male-dominated football culture. According to
FIFA there are an estimated 30 million women playing the game worldwide
(FIFA Women's Football Survey 2014), with around 378, 000 playing in
Australia (Roy Morgan Research 2015). Despite this long and compelling
history, researchers have largely ignored the history of women's football in
Australia, and the voices of women players remain unheard. The women's
game is yet to be written into the history of the code.
My research project aims to address this shortage of knowledge by asking the
question - 'What can the oral history of women who played and play the
game of football contribute to the understandings of gender and football
history in Australia?' The research uses oral history as a method of qualitative
interview and is based on interviews with eighteen women and three men,
some of whom have represented Australia, other players, administrators and
referees. My methodological approach provides the participants with an
opportunity to express, in their own words, their role in the history of the
game.
