2025/08/03 by Craig A. Depken, Tomislav Globan · 1 voice
Social Sciences · #Sport and Mega-Event Impacts #Sports, Gender, and Society #Gender Diversity and Inequality
paper · doi:10.1111/coep.70006
openalex publication_date 2025/08/03 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/05/21
Abstract We investigate the impact of women's political and economic freedom on success in women's international football. We hypothesize that as women achieve political and economic freedom, the country's women's national team experiences reduced on‐pitch performance in the short run but over time greater economic and political freedom opens voluntary opportunities for women to pursue football at earlier ages which generates improved on‐pitch performance in the longer run. The empirical evidence supports these two hypotheses suggesting that the overall benefits of increased political and economic freedom for women in international football are not immediate but are, nonetheless, concrete.