Towards Equal Rights in the Global Game? FIFA’s Strategy for Women’s Football as a Tightly Bounded Institutional Innovation
A summary of the article:
The article "Towards Equal Rights in the Global Game? FIFA's Strategy for Women’s Football as a Tightly Bounded Institutional Innovation" critically examines FIFA's efforts to promote gender equality through its first-ever global strategy for women's football. The strategy aims to grow women's participation, enhance the commercial value of the women's game, and build stronger regulatory foundations for women's football. However, the article argues that FIFA's approach is incremental and limited by its existing institutional priorities, such as profit, power, and prestige. The strategy is seen as a "bounded innovation," meaning it reflects FIFA's longstanding interests rather than a transformative commitment to gender equality. Despite promises to address gender discrimination, FIFA's focus on maintaining control and financial success limits the true reformist potential of the strategy.
The article points out the tension between FIFA’s mainline goals and its gender equality agenda. For instance, while the strategy seeks to increase women's participation, it simultaneously serves FIFA's broader goal of expanding regulatory power. Similarly, the commercial enhancement of women's football is framed as necessary for growing the game, but it largely benefits FIFA’s financial interests rather than advancing gender equality. The article concludes that FIFA's strategy, while a step in the right direction, falls short of fulfilling its human rights commitments and remains constrained by the organization's traditional structures and objectives.
Key Takeaways:
Incremental change over transformation: FIFA’s strategy for women’s football reflects an incremental, rather than revolutionary, approach to promoting gender equality, constrained by its existing institutional priorities.
Tension between growth and control: While the strategy aims to grow women's participation in football, it also serves FIFA’s goal of expanding its regulatory power, creating a conflict between inclusion and control.
Commercial interests dominate: The strategy focuses heavily on enhancing the commercial value of women's football, prioritizing FIFA's financial interests over substantial progress in gender equality.
Author: Michelle Krech
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