Football parents: ‘die-hards’ and the ‘back-stagers’ in girls’ and women’s - PowerPoint Presentation

Football parents: ‘die-hards’ and the ‘back-stagers’ in girls’ and women’s football Dr Hanya Pielichaty (Principal Lecturer) The Football Collective29th November 2018

Great Auntie Patricia (‘Pat’) – 1955 – Yorkshire Copperworks

What We Know Sporting success stems from a ‘certain type of family’ (Kay, 2000, 151)Links to social and cultural capital (Wheeler and Green, 2014) Managing parental guilt (Stirrup et al., 2015)Private and public parenting in sport (Trussell and Shaw, 2012) Literal ‘Pushy’ Dad (copyright: talksport)

Parenting in Sport Parental status and identity consolidation (Clarke and Harwood, 2014)Fathers having greater impact on child’s sports development; sporting achievement attributed to the father ( Coakley, 2009)Technical/coach/expert father role and caring/organiser/task-master mother roleParents in Sport(copyright: ativeforlife)

Parenting in Sport Balancing of ‘caring fatherhood’ and ‘performance-orientated’ fathering Gottzén et al., 2012, 641) Intensive mothering (Hayes, 1996) Emotional bond between daughter and father (Wedgewood, 2004; Harrington, 2009)Father-son relationship in football (Claringbould and Adriaanse, 2015; Jeanes and Magee, 2011)

Google ‘Parents in Sport’

What We Don’t Know Anything about parents within girls’ and women’s footballThe meaning of football to the families in the girls’ and women’s game Family relationships in and around girls’ and women’s footballA theoretical understanding of parental patterns and descriptors in football

The Research Findings from a broader study of 123 informants (players and family members)Year-long Critical ethnographyThree sites: academy, school and family homesInformal conversations/observations/focus groups

Findings Pielichaty (2018) Goffman (1959) and Finch (2007)

That’s probably why I got involved to the point that I did, because I got a bit fed-up waiting around training or waiting around at match days and we’d get involved with cleaning changing rooms at the end of the game and Colin would probably take the nets down and pick up the corner flags and you know, like parents do (Hazel) Graeme took Sian (U11) to her training sessions but only stood outside and watched if it was not too coldIt’s really nice to have her there and I remember my last game for college and she was sitting up there and even though I was having a bit of trouble with it, it was my last home game but I really wasn’t feeling it, I was really getting burnt out by this point. Really not enjoying my football but seeing her I thought it’s just one last time, just do it, just do it for her. And I played the best I have played all season just because I knew it meant that much to her (Suzie) My mum only watches it if it’s got something to do with David Beckham (Roxanna, U15)

The Parental Continuum Highly visibleRecognisable Take on additional responsibilities Passionate about football Supportive Not v isible Do not take on additional responsibilities Non-recognisable No initial passion for football Pielichaty (2018a) Backstage Parents Die-hard Parents

Father Bob welled up with tears whilst explaining the feeling he got when touching his daughter’s England blazer, ‘it brings a lump to my throat just getting it out of the wardrobe’ Peter joked that some parents on match days seemed to get out of their cars to watch the game just after he and other parents had completed all the jobs, e.g. the nets were put up It was always our mum that took us to games and training…even when he [dad] was back early enough he never would of taken us. I don’t know, I don’t know whether he thought it was as right as the rest of the family, my brothers didn’t mind, my grandparents loved it, my mum loved it but my dad, I think he always thought, maybe they shouldn’t be playing anymore: they’re girls (Ellie) She’s a mum though isn’t she, that’s what they do, they just like to get a bit over excited (School, U13)

Mum worked really hard, kind of had three jobs a day just to keep a roof over our heads and I think she’s seen that and gone I don’t want that for you, I want more for you, I want you to have the career, I want you to have the money to be able to go on holiday. We didn’t go on holidays and stuff because mum will probably tell you, we had to get our boots out of recycling bins and she put cardboard in our shoes when we had holes in them and she was like I don’t want that for you. And I think that’s what she was, which I understand, you know I understand that but at the same time now, for me I earn a decent living out of football ( Sarah, International Footballer)

Findings Parents can move fluidly across the continuum but ‘die-hards’ tended to stay connected to football even when their daughter stopped playing.Many implications for gendered parenting in girls’ and women’s football (see Pielichaty, 2018) Family sports identities heavily impacted upon by participationThe visibility of parental engagement was of importance to players and family members alike

Final Thoughts So much more to know about the role of football and family Parents get a bad rep in the press and much attention focuses on negative impacts but here it is the love and affection that is of importance Future research: In-depth analyses of individual relationshipsTransference to other sports

Thank you hpielichaty@lincoln.ac.uk @HanyaUoL

References Claringbould, I. and Adriaanse, J. (2015) ‘Silver cups versus ice creams’: parental involvement with the construction of gender in the field of their son’s soccer. Sociology of Sport Journal, 32(2) 201-219.Clarke , N.J. and Harwood, C.G. (2014) Parenting experiences in elite youth football: a phenomenological study. Psychology of Sport and Exercise. 15(5) 528-537.Coakley, J. (2009) The good father: parental expectations and youth sports. In: Kay, T. (ed.) Fathering through sport and leisure. Oxon: Routledge, 40-50.Finch, J. (2007) Displaying families. Sociology, 41(1) 65-81. Goffman, E. (1959) The presentation of the self in everyday life . London: Penguin Books . Gottzén , L. and Kremer- Sadlik , T. (2012) Fatherhood and youth sports: a balancing act between care and expectations. Gender and Society , 26(4) 639-664 . Harrington, M. (2009) Sport mad, good dads: Australian fathering through leisure and sport practices. In: Kay, T. (ed.) Fathering through sport and leisure . Oxon: Routledge, 51-72. Hayes , S. (1996) The cultural contradictions of motherhood . New Haven: Yale University Press .

References Jeanes, R. and Magee, J. (2014) Promoting gender empowerment through sport? Exploring the experiences of Zambian female footballers. In: Schulenkorf, N. and Adair, D. (eds.) Global sport-for-development: critical perspectives . Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 134-154,Kay, T. (2000) Sporting excellence: a family affair? European Physical Education Review, 6(2) 151-160.Pielichaty, H. (2018) Family matters: gendered parenting displays within girls’ and women’s football. Journal of Sport and Social Issues (under review). Pielichaty, H (2018a) The football self: an exploration of gender, football experiences and family relationships. PhD, University of Lincoln. Stirrup, J., Duncombe , R. and Sandford , R. (2015) ‘Intensive mothering’ in the early years: the cultivation and consolidation of (physical) capital. Sport, Education and Society , 20(1) 89-106 . Trussell , D.E. and Shaw, S.M. (2012) Organized youth sport and parenting in public and private spaces. Leisure Sciences , 34(5) 377-394 . Wedgewood , N. (2004) Kicking like a boy: schoolgirl Australian Rules Football and bi-gendered female embodiment. Sociology of Sport Journal , 21(2) 140-162 . Wheeler , S. and Green, K. (2014) Parenting in relation to children’s sports participation: generational changes and potential implications. Leisure Studies , 33(3) 267-284.