Abstract

In previous research on girls’ and women’s football the focus has been on gender identity, sexuality, fandom, leadership and media portrayal. To date there is a lack of literature connecting girls’ and women’s football playing experiences to their family relationships. Fathering through football is viewed as a familiar concept for boy’s football but there has yet to be parallel research surrounding football playing daughters. Taken from one element of the author’s current PhD study, this paper aims to explore the way girls and women footballers develop their gender identity [ies] and relationships with parents and siblings through their sport. A season long ethnographic study, which utilised observations, conversations and ‘snack-time’ to further understand the labyrinthine connectivity of gender, football and family was deployed. Initial findings demonstrate that parents take on multiple roles to accommodate their daughters’ football playing and identity development. Whereas, daughters seek to normalise their football playing in their daily lives by striving to achieve high levels of performance. This paper encourages the future progression of unorthodox methods as a way to organically adapt to the context of the changing research landscape.