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Futbolera: A History of Women and Sports in Latin America
Latin American athletes have achieved iconic status in global popular culture, but what do we know about the communities of women in sport? Futbolera is the first monograph on women’s sports in Latin America. Because sports evoke such passion, they are fertile ground for understanding the formation of social classes, national and racial identities, sexuality, and gender roles. Futbolera tells the stories of women athletes and fans as they navigated the pressures and possibilities within organized sports.
Futbolera charts the rise of physical education programs for girls, often driven by ideas of eugenics and proper motherhood, that laid the groundwork for women’s sports clubs, which began to thrive beyond the confines of school systems. Futbolera examines how women challenged both their exclusion from national pastimes and their lack of access to leisure, bodily integrity, and public space. This vibrant history also examines women’s sports through comparative case studies of Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Costa Rica, Mexico, and others. Special attention is given to women’s sports during military dictatorships of the 1970s and 1980s as well as the feminist and democratic movements that followed. The book culminates by exploring recent shifts in mindset toward women’s football and dynamic social movements of players across Latin America.
Futbolera charts the rise of physical education programs for girls, often driven by ideas of eugenics and proper motherhood, that laid the groundwork for women’s sports clubs, which began to thrive beyond the confines of school systems. Futbolera examines how women challenged both their exclusion from national pastimes and their lack of access to leisure, bodily integrity, and public space. This vibrant history also examines women’s sports through comparative case studies of Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Costa Rica, Mexico, and others. Special attention is given to women’s sports during military dictatorships of the 1970s and 1980s as well as the feminist and democratic movements that followed. The book culminates by exploring recent shifts in mindset toward women’s football and dynamic social movements of players across Latin America.
358 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2019
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Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews
August 27, 2021
Fascinating academic look at the history of woman athletes—well, you see the subtitle. I got educated these past few weeks, though I knew of the recent struggles to have world-class women's football in Brazil, Argentina and Chile. Did you know women's football was illegal in Brazil as recently as the 1980s? Yeesh.
The book serves as a reminder (as if we needed more) of women's resilience and the fight to belong and succeed in the face of systemic misogyny. And this doesn't just apply to sports. It applies to every corner of the culture, and it applies at every level, from the pitch to the executive suite.
"Futbolera" would work wonderfully as a text in classes on Latin American history, women's studies and physical education (especially for teachers in ethnically diverse areas). Overall, excellent read for open-minded sports nuts.
The book serves as a reminder (as if we needed more) of women's resilience and the fight to belong and succeed in the face of systemic misogyny. And this doesn't just apply to sports. It applies to every corner of the culture, and it applies at every level, from the pitch to the executive suite.
"Futbolera" would work wonderfully as a text in classes on Latin American history, women's studies and physical education (especially for teachers in ethnically diverse areas). Overall, excellent read for open-minded sports nuts.
June 19, 2019
Every now and then you find a book that feels perfect for you at that moment in time and Futbolera was that book for me. Soccer and Latin American history are two of my great loves and reading this during the WWC was so valuable. This book provided the historical research background for all of the experiences I've had trying to play women's soccer in Peru and Colombia and being told to play volleyball or basketball instead. Here is all of the evidence of machismo and structural inequalities and the fighting force of women who love the game.
April 7, 2025
A deeply researched, impassioned book about the rise (and prohibition) of women’s football in Latin America.
The authors focus the first half of the book on children’s physical education in Argentina, Brazil, Mexico, Chile, and Costa Rica, and the vehicle it served for nationalism and social Darwinism. Girls could participate in sports as a way of being kept healthy for motherhood, but only in ways where “physical activity did not detract from their beauty.” Football did not often make the cut. The second half focused on the rise of professional women’s teams on a national stage (and the barriers they faced historically and still face today).
I seethed for every comment from league runners, politicians, media outlets, and educators who called football a sport unfit for women. For our fragile bodies and minds. It vastly contextualized my experiences trying to play soccer with girls in rural Perú, and repeatedly being told it was a boy’s sport. They can all fuck off. Where football exists, so do women.
The authors focus the first half of the book on children’s physical education in Argentina, Brazil, Mexico, Chile, and Costa Rica, and the vehicle it served for nationalism and social Darwinism. Girls could participate in sports as a way of being kept healthy for motherhood, but only in ways where “physical activity did not detract from their beauty.” Football did not often make the cut. The second half focused on the rise of professional women’s teams on a national stage (and the barriers they faced historically and still face today).
I seethed for every comment from league runners, politicians, media outlets, and educators who called football a sport unfit for women. For our fragile bodies and minds. It vastly contextualized my experiences trying to play soccer with girls in rural Perú, and repeatedly being told it was a boy’s sport. They can all fuck off. Where football exists, so do women.
May 24, 2020
One of the most widely accepted elements of the scholarly study of sport is that it is a masculine domain – not exclusively and very much unevenly, but certainly overwhelmingly. For nearly 40 years now we have seen a strong trend in sports scholarship that has highlighted women’s exclusion from and marginalisation in sport, even in the case of those few sports such as netball seen as women’s exclusive spaces. Tellingly, in the last few years even the widely-seen-as gender neutral areas such as biomechanics and physiology (of course they are not) have been exploring the ways that a focus on male athletes built errors into their work and in some respects (training regimes, for instance) put women athletes at risk. Of course, these inequalities are unevenly distributed, and culture areas where patriarchal power combines with cultures of machismo, such as they do in distinctive ways in the all-too-often homogenised ‘Latin America’ or the ways masculinity is constructed and maintained across much the Euro-American north Atlantic zone suggest that women have a long way to go before sport becomes anywhere like equal. Our understanding of just how far, or what those inequalities look like, is exacerbated when language forms a further barrier to understanding.
For all those reasons, and so many more, this is a really important book, despite its unevenesses and partiality (or rather its necessary incompleteness). Elsey & Nadel are clear about the book’s limited reach at the outset: “This is not an attempt … to put together an exhaustive account of women’s sporting history, but rather to record and situate the traces available, and hopefully to open up new areas of research”. (p2) There are certainly plenty of new areas indicated here. Although far from comprehensive then, the argument extends well beyond football, draws mainly on evidence from Chile, Argentina, Brazil and Mexico, but invokes cases and comparisons from Costa Rica and Guatemala (these are fairly detailed) or less comprehensively Peru, Bolivia and Uruguay highlighting comparative cases and drawing out commonalities. Even so there a sense where this is limited – so although there is extensive discussion of the medical arguments invoked to limit women’s sporting involvement, either away from sport or to specific kinds of sports, there is only limited comparison to the similar arguments made elsewhere in the world or to the global reach of those medical views.
That is, despite the continental reach of the case, there is a recurrence of the discipline’s tendency to methodological nationalism. This is, of course, a difficult constraint to break, given that it is a fundamental component not only of most sport history but of a wide range of disciplinary work across the humanities and social sciences. So this is not a transnational sport history, but as Elsey & Nadel note it draws on an array of traces of women’s sport practice. In some settings, the Mexican case for instance, they draw heavily on newspapers and oral testimony. In the Argentinian and Chilean discussions more of a focus on a wider range of print media (Argentina) and official documents (Chile). Throughout they are very good a weaving in personal stories, case and the insights of the particular, while also maintaining a balance in tension with the general. Through all of this they maintain a consistent case that despite repression, and in some case illegality, women found ways to work in, through, around, and despite the system to keep playing sport.
Early in the analysis Elsey & Nadel invoke Walter Mignolo’s caution against unifying or homogenising ‘Latin America’, and although they do not draw out the national distinctions as clearly as they might (if it were a much bigger book) there are clear indications of differences in engagements with the church, with the ways in which patriarchal dominance manifested itself and with social rules about gendered norms. As such, the analysis is firmly grounded in a feminist outlook but resists the constraints of specific branch of feminist analysis, perhaps because of the very incompleteness of the case and the traces with which they have to work.
Alongside this there is a narrowing of focus as the book and the chronology progress. The opening discussion, focused on Argentina & Chile draws on evidence relating to a wide range of forms of women’s physicality, also invoking the idea of the futbolera not as a footballer, but as a more generic sense of athlete, yet by the time the analysis gets to Central America and specifically Mexico the focus is almost exclusively football. While it may not be the authors’ intention (the opening discussion suggests very much that it is not) the overall effect is a tendency towards the homogenisation of women’s sport across the region. What is more, by the time we get to the final chapter, focused on Mexican women’s football there is a clear change in authorial voice, beginning in the previous chapter exploring evidence from Mexico, Costa Rica and El Salvador. Co-authorship is difficult, especially when it comes to consistency of voice, but I get the feeling that the difference here is lead authorship, not cases or differences resulting from the evidence (this is not a criticism; I know from my own co-authored work how difficult/impossible this distinction is to iron out).
These issues of inconsistency of voice and of shifting focus with a tendency to homogeneity are questions of the overall tone of aesthetic quality (and therefore readability and editorial decisions) of the text. They do not undermine the extent to which Elsey & Nadel achieve their intended outcome to “record and situate the traces” of women’s sport or to suggest important “new areas of research”. On both fronts they have succeeded admirably much as I am inspired by the cases they draw out I am more inspired by the silences – the absence of explicit treatment of Indigenous women, the difficulties of exploring class as a factor (despite the authors’ efforts), the sports that seem to disappear in a setting (as is the case for much research into histories of women’s sport) where all we have are traces of might have been.
All in all, this is a highly recommended, well presented, carefully crafted case. This is an essential text for the field, but don’t go into expecting definitive answers, look instead for indications of what might have also been going on – while reading the text, don’t forget to read the necessary silences!
For all those reasons, and so many more, this is a really important book, despite its unevenesses and partiality (or rather its necessary incompleteness). Elsey & Nadel are clear about the book’s limited reach at the outset: “This is not an attempt … to put together an exhaustive account of women’s sporting history, but rather to record and situate the traces available, and hopefully to open up new areas of research”. (p2) There are certainly plenty of new areas indicated here. Although far from comprehensive then, the argument extends well beyond football, draws mainly on evidence from Chile, Argentina, Brazil and Mexico, but invokes cases and comparisons from Costa Rica and Guatemala (these are fairly detailed) or less comprehensively Peru, Bolivia and Uruguay highlighting comparative cases and drawing out commonalities. Even so there a sense where this is limited – so although there is extensive discussion of the medical arguments invoked to limit women’s sporting involvement, either away from sport or to specific kinds of sports, there is only limited comparison to the similar arguments made elsewhere in the world or to the global reach of those medical views.
That is, despite the continental reach of the case, there is a recurrence of the discipline’s tendency to methodological nationalism. This is, of course, a difficult constraint to break, given that it is a fundamental component not only of most sport history but of a wide range of disciplinary work across the humanities and social sciences. So this is not a transnational sport history, but as Elsey & Nadel note it draws on an array of traces of women’s sport practice. In some settings, the Mexican case for instance, they draw heavily on newspapers and oral testimony. In the Argentinian and Chilean discussions more of a focus on a wider range of print media (Argentina) and official documents (Chile). Throughout they are very good a weaving in personal stories, case and the insights of the particular, while also maintaining a balance in tension with the general. Through all of this they maintain a consistent case that despite repression, and in some case illegality, women found ways to work in, through, around, and despite the system to keep playing sport.
Early in the analysis Elsey & Nadel invoke Walter Mignolo’s caution against unifying or homogenising ‘Latin America’, and although they do not draw out the national distinctions as clearly as they might (if it were a much bigger book) there are clear indications of differences in engagements with the church, with the ways in which patriarchal dominance manifested itself and with social rules about gendered norms. As such, the analysis is firmly grounded in a feminist outlook but resists the constraints of specific branch of feminist analysis, perhaps because of the very incompleteness of the case and the traces with which they have to work.
Alongside this there is a narrowing of focus as the book and the chronology progress. The opening discussion, focused on Argentina & Chile draws on evidence relating to a wide range of forms of women’s physicality, also invoking the idea of the futbolera not as a footballer, but as a more generic sense of athlete, yet by the time the analysis gets to Central America and specifically Mexico the focus is almost exclusively football. While it may not be the authors’ intention (the opening discussion suggests very much that it is not) the overall effect is a tendency towards the homogenisation of women’s sport across the region. What is more, by the time we get to the final chapter, focused on Mexican women’s football there is a clear change in authorial voice, beginning in the previous chapter exploring evidence from Mexico, Costa Rica and El Salvador. Co-authorship is difficult, especially when it comes to consistency of voice, but I get the feeling that the difference here is lead authorship, not cases or differences resulting from the evidence (this is not a criticism; I know from my own co-authored work how difficult/impossible this distinction is to iron out).
These issues of inconsistency of voice and of shifting focus with a tendency to homogeneity are questions of the overall tone of aesthetic quality (and therefore readability and editorial decisions) of the text. They do not undermine the extent to which Elsey & Nadel achieve their intended outcome to “record and situate the traces” of women’s sport or to suggest important “new areas of research”. On both fronts they have succeeded admirably much as I am inspired by the cases they draw out I am more inspired by the silences – the absence of explicit treatment of Indigenous women, the difficulties of exploring class as a factor (despite the authors’ efforts), the sports that seem to disappear in a setting (as is the case for much research into histories of women’s sport) where all we have are traces of might have been.
All in all, this is a highly recommended, well presented, carefully crafted case. This is an essential text for the field, but don’t go into expecting definitive answers, look instead for indications of what might have also been going on – while reading the text, don’t forget to read the necessary silences!
May 26, 2019
Superb book about the history of women’s futbol in Latin America. It explains so many things!
February 14, 2020
Marvelous transnational history of the subterranean struggles of women to organize and play sports, despite opposition, and outright illegality, from the press, governments, the Church, governing bodies, and the medical establishment, across Latin America from the nineteenth century to the present. Covers Chile, Argentina, Brazil, Mexico, El Salvador, and Costa Rica.
Here’s an interview I conducted with the authors in 2019 for the New Books in Latin America studies podcast: https://newbooksnetwork.com/brenda-el...
Here’s an interview I conducted with the authors in 2019 for the New Books in Latin America studies podcast: https://newbooksnetwork.com/brenda-el...
November 28, 2023
I wish I could rate this higher, but this book sorely needed an editor in every way. It's a shame because the subject material desperately needs to be accessible. It also focuses on the history of physical education nearly as much as football (while relevant I believe it detracted from the more interesting theme) and focused on the 1920's-80's despite being written in 2019. That said, here is my personal connection to it.
Futbolera brings together several passions of mine- feminism, Latin America, and, although less so, football, in particular the World Cup. Being a passionate Mexico fan, I never thought I'd see the day where I'd watch an Argentina game, let alone be loudly rooting for them. My friend recommended the podcast La Ultima Copa/The Last Cup from NPR and my feelings changed overnight. Jasmine Garsd, an Argentine immigrant to the US, tells the story of Messi's rise to greatness as well as her own journey out of Argentina. The podcast was released just as we were watching Argentina's run to be World Cup champions in 2022.
In the midst of being the most passionate bandwagon fan anyone has ever seen, I suddenly wondered- if the men's team from Argentina stirs up this much fervor, national pride, money, etc...what is the women's team up to? In fact, what about Mexico's women's team? With the 2023 Women's world Cup on the horizon, I decided to investigate. The answer? In Argentina, the women's team has been inactive on and off for many years and is poorly ranked. I found similar patterns in other Latin American countries. Not being satisfied with the limited information I found on this extremely concerning phenomenon, and also wanting to know why on earth this would be the case (yes, the usual suspects, but I wanted specifics), I hunted down literature on the matter. This book was the one and only resource I found. I was hoping to find something in Spanish even, but nope, this was it.
So in that sense, I'm very grateful to the authors for the clearly insane amount of work they did to research this poorly documented topic. I hope this book can be a jumping off point for further and louder research- especially done by women in Latin America (I can dream). Latin American women should be absolutely crushing it on the world stage and I'm furious they've been continually robbed of that opportunity. Oh and also- fuck FIFA as usual.
Futbolera brings together several passions of mine- feminism, Latin America, and, although less so, football, in particular the World Cup. Being a passionate Mexico fan, I never thought I'd see the day where I'd watch an Argentina game, let alone be loudly rooting for them. My friend recommended the podcast La Ultima Copa/The Last Cup from NPR and my feelings changed overnight. Jasmine Garsd, an Argentine immigrant to the US, tells the story of Messi's rise to greatness as well as her own journey out of Argentina. The podcast was released just as we were watching Argentina's run to be World Cup champions in 2022.
In the midst of being the most passionate bandwagon fan anyone has ever seen, I suddenly wondered- if the men's team from Argentina stirs up this much fervor, national pride, money, etc...what is the women's team up to? In fact, what about Mexico's women's team? With the 2023 Women's world Cup on the horizon, I decided to investigate. The answer? In Argentina, the women's team has been inactive on and off for many years and is poorly ranked. I found similar patterns in other Latin American countries. Not being satisfied with the limited information I found on this extremely concerning phenomenon, and also wanting to know why on earth this would be the case (yes, the usual suspects, but I wanted specifics), I hunted down literature on the matter. This book was the one and only resource I found. I was hoping to find something in Spanish even, but nope, this was it.
So in that sense, I'm very grateful to the authors for the clearly insane amount of work they did to research this poorly documented topic. I hope this book can be a jumping off point for further and louder research- especially done by women in Latin America (I can dream). Latin American women should be absolutely crushing it on the world stage and I'm furious they've been continually robbed of that opportunity. Oh and also- fuck FIFA as usual.
May 30, 2025
Despite its title, this is not a comprehensive "history of women and sports in Latin America" but rather a collection of essays examining specific aspects of the topic in specific times and places. Some of the themes will be very familiar to anyone that's spent any time studying women's history (i.e., male leaders of patriarchal societies using their power to limit women's spheres of activity), but I still learned a lot from this book. In particular, it made me think a lot about how the role of government in education impacts culture, for good and for ill. The writing style is pretty dry and academic; it could have been made more readable by developing certain characters and following their stories, but that may not have served the authors' purposes as well. If you are interested in exploring how women in this time and region have struggled to control their time, bodies, and activities, this book is a worthy read.
September 14, 2019
I’m grateful to the authors for the project of this book and it is packed with information, but it seems like it needed another couple draft revisions to really bring it together. When talking about the book with other people, I found myself teasing narratives and themes out of it that the authors hadn’t really brought fully forward and developed, and there were so many details that were left hanging without further clarification or explanation. As a reading experience, I was torn between loving what I was learning and being frustrated by the presentation. Hopefully this book will serve as an important jumping off point for further work in the field - it definitely leaves me wanting to know more about women’s sports in other regions, too.
April 8, 2025
This is what deep, meaningful research looks like. Most of all because it’s a book about a topic that has been intentionally buried by those who felt threatened by it. Their obvious efforts to make the history of women’s sports disappear was close to success, but thanks to authors like Brenda and Joshua, these archives, evidence, and knowledge have seen the light.
Just like the first futboleras paved the way for the current, booming state of women’s futbol today, this book and these authors set a stepping stone for the development of the sport. So, thank you.
Just like the first futboleras paved the way for the current, booming state of women’s futbol today, this book and these authors set a stepping stone for the development of the sport. So, thank you.
August 1, 2021
I loved learning the history in this book even though it was infuriating sometimes. Also would absolutely use this book in my classroom to teach about researching and incorporating primary sources because this was so well done.
June 19, 2019
Great book about history of latin america women futbol!
April 24, 2024
Feminism and Eugenics is the best cross over I never knew I needed.
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews