Women’s football studies: An integrative review

Maurizio Valenti*, Nicolas Scelles, Stephen Morrow

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalReview articlepeer-review

47 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Purpose
Women’s football has received increasing attention in the academic literature, partly due to its growing popularity worldwide. However, women’s football research remains scattered across numerous academic domains. Focusing on the social sciences, humanities and management disciplines, the purpose of this paper is to map and organise contributions, and to identify research directions for future studies within these disciplines.

Design/methodology/approach
Using the keywords “women”, “girls”, “female” and “football” or “soccer” to initially identify articles, an integrative approach was followed to evaluate and analyse relevant literature. In all, 117 academic journals were classified and subsequently divided into 26 themes according to the subject area, topic and level examined.

Findings
Results of this integrative review show an increasing trend of journal publications since 1998, with a large representation of studies related to historical and sociological research, where qualitative methods are dominant. Articles investigating economic, managerial and marketing areas appeared in more recent times. Women’s football has been researched from different perspectives (players, fans, sport organisations) and across various countries.

Research limitations/implications
The restricted scope of this review (i.e. its focus on social sciences) and the manual classification of articles represent two limitations of this study. However, the synthesis of academic literature provided may assist scholars who are interested in women’s football and women’s sports research to fill identified research gaps and contribute to further advance academic investigations in this area.

Originality/value
This paper provides an overview of salient research avenues and represents the first attempt to critically appraise the direction of academic contributions in women’s football for the purpose of advancing scholarly inquiry in this sport.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)511-528
Number of pages18
JournalSport, Business and Management
Volume8
Issue number5
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 24 Oct 2018

Keywords

  • Integrative review
  • Sport management
  • Women’s football
  • Women’s soccer

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Business and International Management
  • Tourism, Leisure and Hospitality Management
  • Strategy and Management
  • Marketing

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