İstanbul’daki Kadın Futbol Liglerinde Oynayan Futbolcuların Toplumsal Cinsiyet Algılarına İlişkin Niteliksel bir Analiz

Abstract

The topic of the thesis, in a general sense, is about how women footballers make sense of their roles of gender. Football, as a sport, has been in our lives for quite a long time. However, the history of women's football does not have a history as long as men's football both in the world and in Turkey. The effective factor here is that football is perceived as a male dominant sport and /or it is seen as part of the patriarchal world where only men dominate. However, nowadays this general scene is constantly attempted to be destroyed and women have started taking place in football although it is still represented as a male sport. When gender roles and role expectations are considered, examining the situation in terms of gender perceptions and exploring women footballers' gender perceptions will lead to an understanding of gender equality. In order to understand women footballers' gender perceptions, 27 female football players who play in the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd leagues in Turkey were asked to identify their gender perceptions in their own words and expressions. They were also asked to determine the factors that affect their football orientations. Plus, they were asked to give their comments about football on whether it is or should be played by men and women and they also tried to determine the location of football in their gender perceptions. The questions of the in-depth interview were prepared according to the sociology of Pierre Bourdieu. His notions of Habitus, cultural and social capital and fields are the theoretical frameworks of the research as the thesis is carried out within this structure. The research was conducted by using an in- depth interview technique, with each interview taking approximately 90-140 minutes. The obtained data were analyzed by content analysis and the findings were presented with the related literature.