Resumen de Women’s Soccer in the United States and the Netherlands: Differences and Similarities in Regimes of Inequalities

Annelies Knoppers, Anton Anthonissen

• Gender, class, and sexuality are intersecting categories of inequality and also social forces that shape meanings given to organizations, social institutions, identities, and images. The authors use Acker’s (2000) concept “regimes of inequality” to explore how gender, specifically masculinities, intersects with social class and sexuality in women’s soccer. The extent to which social relations are also situational and culturally specific can be revealed in part with the use of comparative studies. The story of women’s soccer in the Netherlands is one of struggle for resources, acceptance, visibility, and legitimization with little result, while in the United States that same struggle has resulted in visibility and the establishment of a professional women’s soccer league. In this article the authors explore several regimes of inequality that shape women’s soccer using cross-cultural comparisons