ABSTRACT
The early chapters of this book looked at how football, along with other sports, expanded through all sectors of the male population in the middle and late 19th century. This concentration on the times, places and people who have contributed to the development of the game has been at the expense of considering the bigger picture, and the purpose of this chapter is to redress the balance somewhat. Sports develop from, and contribute to, change in the fabric of the wider society. They have played a vital part in the maintenance of repressive forms of social and sexual control (Brohm, 1978; Vertinsky, 1990) and the philosophies and perspectives that contributed to their development in the late 19th century perspectives still influence sports participation within the wider community. The sex-based distinctions that continue to pervade sport have proved notoriously difficult to shift, despite the best endeavours of many well meaning people, but it is doubtless the case that the football industry has done more than most to break down barriers. The challenge now is to provide the unprecedented numbers of women who play and watch the game with the opportunity to make careers in football.
