Patrick, Rebecca (2024) “Get Back in the Kitchen”: The Lived Experiences of Women Football Referees. Research Master thesis, Victoria University.

Abstract

Women in sport have historically experienced exclusion, abuse, and under-representation. In the Australian context, barriers to participation in sport for women and girls have slowly been removed, however many women face persistent difficulties in accessing roles that are usually dominated by men such as coaching and officiating. The last decade has purportedly been a ‘boom’ period for women in sport, including sporting organisations actively trying to increase the numbers of women in coaching and officiating. It is in the context of the ‘boom’ in women’s sport that this thesis employs a qualitative methodology, including autoethnography, fieldnotes, observations, and interviews, to explore the experiences and journeys of women refereeing football in Victoria, Australia. This thesis explores the experiences of referees who have achieved ‘success’ as a professional referee and has tackled the hardships faced by junior referees navigating their first years as an officiator. Using the voice of experienced referees, data collected by a novice referee is juxtaposed to explore ‘what it takes’ to make it as a woman in refereeing.

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