When Did The Princess Start Wearing Cleats?!

Abstract: My research was on women’s soccer. Women’s soccer history is not actually known to most people. It has just recently started a few years ago. I tried figuring out women’s soccer in the past and compare it to how it is today. Tucker talked about how “women are just now discovering it is not exclusively a men’s game”. In the books it says there was a movement of women from “the terraces” to “the stands” which emphasized their growing change of wanting to be free and more themselves instead of waiting passively in a terrace like princesses do. So then when the princess wanted to play the sport and wear cleats, “authorities saw the rise of women’s football as a threat to the male game”. There were many questions as to the beginning of women’s soccer like how and when did soccer start for women and wanted to know why weren’t they able to play sooner? Then again did women’s soccer begin intentionally or accidentally? An important law or regulation that led to girls and women to become “entitled” athletes was Title IX. Not only was Title IX important to society and to women but this struggle to be able to play greatly influenced women to strive for what they deserve. The women’s movement into the sport shows the quest by women for equality, control of their own decisions and what to do with their bodies, self-identifying themselves and represents the challenge to males and the larger society.

Advice:

1.      You guys might hear this a lot but let me tell you one more time… DO NOT PROCASTINATE! Do you know why it’s called a research paper? Because you need to do research. And research takes a lot of time. I only discovered that until I took this class. Another thing I think would be important is that she is giving you the option about what to write about. This made it easier to write this paper. Choose something you are really interested in, even if it isn’t something normal. It’s even better and more interesting if it isn’t normal!

2.      My topic was women’s soccer. My research question was: Did women’s soccer start intentionally or accidentally? Why did it take them so much longer for an official start? Why was it considered a “man sport”? I was surprised to find so many books on my topic in the library. I would say that the library is the place to go.

Some sources: Giulianotti, Richard. Football : A Sociology of the Global Game. Cambridge, UK : Oxford ; Malden, MA: Polity Press ; Blackwell Publishers, 1999.

Kane, Basil. Soccer for American Spectators: A Fundamental Guide to Modern Soccer. South Brunswick: A. S. Barnes, 1970.

Fishwick, Nicholas. English Football and Society, 1910-1950. Manchester ; New York : New York, NY, USA: Manchester University Press ; Distributed exclusively in the USA and Canada by St. Martin's Press, 1989.