THE JEAN MONNET PROGRAM J.H.H. Weiler, Director Gráinne de Burca, Director Jean Monnet Working Paper 13/20 Symposium: Football Feminism – Global Governance Perspectives Jimoh Shehu Governmentality and Gender Equality Politics in African Women’s Football: A Discourse Analysis of Selected Media Texts NYU School of Law New York, NY 10011 The Jean Monnet Working Paper Series can be found at www.JeanMonnetProgram.org All rights reserved. No part of this paper may be reproduced in any form without permission of the author. ISSN 2161-0320 (online) Copy Editor: Danielle Leeds Kim © Jimoh Shehu 2020 New York University School of Law New York, NY 10011 USA Publications in the Series should be cited as: AUTHOR, TITLE, JEAN MONNET WORKING PAPER NO./YEAR [URL] Governmentality and Gender Equality Politics in African Women’s Football: A Discourse Analysis of Selected Media Texts Jimoh Shehu, PhD Department of Sport Science University of Botswana Email:
[email protected];
[email protected] African women are increasingly participating in football at top levels such as the European and North American women’s football leagues, the Summer Olympic Games, and the Women’s World Cup finals. As more and more African women enter the local and global football circuits, football authorities in the continent are faced with the challenge of promoting gender equality. This raises the questions: How are gender equality issues understood, experienced and politicized by African women footballers? What gendered notions, norms and rationality are invoked, evoked, normalized,