Panel 152: African Women’s Football in the Global Sports Arena

In July 2010, the Nigerian U-20 Women’s team, the “Falconets”, reached the final of the FIFA U-20 Women’s World Cup. A week after the ECAS 2011 conference, the FIFA Women’s World Cup 2011 will start with two African teams that will qualify during the African Women’s Championships 2010 in South Africa. Women’s football in Africa has become increasingly important in the last ten years, and it starts having a real impact on sport throughout the world. However, research on women’s football and sports in Africa is still scarce and little is known about their past and present. This panel focuses on women’s football in the context of global sports. It understands sports as an arena where social, cultural and political hierarchies and hegemony are negotiated between different institutions and individual actors. Papers may consider women’s sport – and in particular, football – on a local, national and/or international level. They may analyze women’s football on grassroot level, league teams and/or national women’s football teams. They may examine the role of international development agencies and FIFA programs for the development of women’s football, the interrelations between women’s football teams and national federations and/or the impact of individual expectations and agency in women’s football national and international careers – including women’s football migration in Africa and the world. The panel thus highlights the issue of “African Engagements: On Whose Terms?” through different angles by raising questions on gender, power relations and agency in local, national and global sporting arenas.