Main trends and patterns in Women’s Football Migration
Page  2 In the last twenty years, a phenomenon has emerged which is entirely new in the study of gender, migration, women and sport, namely the international migration of female football talent and labour. Just as boys all over the world, also a growing number of girls dream about becoming a professional footballer and pursue this dream at intensively investing into their skills over years. The number of registered players has in fact more than doubled since 2000, with now over 30 million female footballers; but until date, “making a living” as a female football player is only possible in 17 out of 168 FIFA-listed women’s football countries. This means for highly talented and skilled women in 90% of the countries that they actually have to leave their home in order to act as professionals. The percentage of top players who leave the “developing countries” of women’s football is at levels of up to 80%, while migrants constitute between 36 up to 50% of players in premier league clubs of the “core countries”. The paper will analyze main trends and patterns in women’s football migration at following these questions: a) Are the fluxes mainly from South to North and North to West? Do they expand beyond traditional geographical limits and assume globalized characteristics? b) What makes women leave (structural, super-structural, subjective reasons)? c) How far do motives, experiences and outcomes of migration projects differ between the developing and core countries of WF? The logics of this migratory process shall be approached by presenting quantitative data on fluxes and qualitative material on the women’s migration projects which derived from an ethnographic case study on Portuguese players and from interviews with Norwegian and Brazilian female football migrants. The paper concludes by approaching the open question, if and how migration is increasing substantially and which are the opportunities and challenges for players, key agents and -parties involved. Nina Clara Tiesler Main trends & patterns in women’s football migration Introduction: some numbers Page  3  40 countries, 800 national squad players: 190 abroad  Extreme case Ireland: 80% top level players abroad  2000-2010: hundreds of Scandinaviens in the USA  Among ca. 170 FIFA-countries only 17-20 can provide (semi-) professional contracts  Players from 90% of these countries have to leave home in order to become professionals  Clubs in the Swedish women’s premier league Damallsvenskan: up to 50% expatriates Nina Clara Tiesler International Migration of Women Footballers
Will the ‘Iron Roses’ bloom forever? women's football in China: Changes and challenges
Since the 1980s football has become one of the fastest-growing female sports in China. Female players have forced their way into this traditional bastion of male identity and prestige with confidence, and in doing so, have projected radical and successful images of femininity. The national team obtained second place at the Third World Cup and won the Asian Cup and the Asian Games ten times. (Note: They are different competitions.) The Chinese proudly call them ‘Iron Roses’. With these successes behind them they were used recently as models to inspire Chinese male footballers to qualify for the World Cup in 2002. Women football players strongly challenge traditional Chinese culture and symbolize the ideal gender relations of post-1949.
Achievements and contradictions of the Peruvian agrarian reform
Different paths of transition to capitalist agriculture, as well as different types of agrarian reform, can be distinguished. The Peruvian agrarian reform is analysed within this context and evaluated in terms of its contribution to rural development. The Peruvian case underlines the importance of understanding the rationality of the pre‐existent agrarian system for a successful restructuring of the agrarian economy and society. The contradictions which arose between the State's model and the peasants’ model of agrarian reform, as well as those between different types of peasants, are discussed. Peru's experience is also a reminder that a land reform is not a sufficient condition for rural development unless accompanied by proper price, marketing, credit and investment policies.