Jonny Hjelm

A breakthrough: women's football in Sweden.

This essay focuses on the development of womens football in Sweden between 1965 and 1980. The growth of modern womens football in Sweden was dependent on factors that were essentially extended to the football movement. However, the formation of teams, the establishment of leagues and so forth, were the results of formidable efforts by ‘pioneers’ within womens football. Leaders within mens football initially assumed a passive ‘wait-and-see’ attitude. Womens football challenged the masculine traditions of football in a manner that took the Swedish Football Association by surprise. When for various reasons the ‘waitand- see’ attitude became impossible to sustain, the Football Association decided to integrate womens football into the football movement. The purpose of this integration was to control the development of womens football and ensure that womens football would not have a detrimental effect on mens football with regard to material and nonmaterial resources.

The bad female football player: women's football in Sweden

According to many Swedish football experts, journalists and others, womens football players at an elite level are not even close to male football players as regards ball technique and game perception. To all appearances, there are similar views in many other countries where womens football has been established. This article aims to examine the accuracy of this opinion, that is, is it correct that Swedish womens football players at an elite level often fail to perform when ball technique and game perception are put to the test. The article analyses how often the Swedish national teams players failed in their ‘actions’ in the Womens World Cups of 2003 and 2007. ‘Actions’ refer to passes, ball receptions, dribbles, final shots and fixed situations. The mens national teams performance has correspondingly been analysed in the mens World Cups of 2002 and 2006. The matches were analysed by means of video. Analysis of almost 10,000 actions shows that there are differences, but that these are relatively small and do not explain the very heavy and categorical criticism that is usually levelled against womens football. The criticism is essentially due to the masculine coding of football and to female intrusion being perceived as a feminist provocation that hence has to be counteracted.

The chain saw in Swedish forestry

The kind of technology and the kind of machines and tools that are used in the labor process are always chosen by one or several individuals. The people who select the technology and those who use it are usually not identical, but, as we shall see, sometimes they are. The choices are never made in a social vacuum. The social structure imposes constraints on who can make the decisions as well as on how the decisions are made.