| Summary: | On April 9, 2008 the Canadian women’s soccer national team secured its first
berth into the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing. Despite this great accomplishment, since
its formation in July 1986 Team Canada has struggled to develop and maintain
consistency at the international level. Furthermore, although soccer is currently the
“game of choice” for young girls and women at the recreational level in Canada, there
has been little support for women’s professional development in Canada (Hall, 2004).
Despite this limited support, however, a number of changes have taken place in recent
years in an attempt to elevate the landscape of elite women’s soccer in Canada.
More specifically, in 1999, the Canadian Soccer Association hired a full-time
international head coach for the women’s national program. In February 2006, the
Vancouver Whitecaps FC also hired a full-time head coach for its amateur senior
women’s team. These fully-funded positions provided critical human and financial
resources for the development of elite women’s soccer.
My research objectives are two-fold; first, I construct a chronological account of
the development of elite women’s soccer in Canada focusing primarily on some major
changes that occurred in 2006. Second, I examine how these changes have impacted the
experiences and attitudes of female players and staff members involved in elite women’s
soccer in Canada.
In-depth interviews were conducted with two sample groups (players and staff)
drawn from the 2006 Whitecaps FC women’s team and the Canadian women’s national
team.
In general, participants from both groups expressed overwhelming support for the
changes that took place, however deeper readings of the data revealed more complex
themes and troubling issues such as the level of sacrifices players were forced to make in
their personal lives and their sense of losing levels of control over their playing careers.
This research will complement an increasing focus on the socio-historical
development of women’s soccer globally and its effects upon players and coaches (Hall,
2004; Williams, 2003). More importantly, the findings will add to existing literature by
offering a critical examination of how the professionalization of women’s sport impacts
the lives and experiences of elite female athletes.
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