Football féminin et représentations sociales : le cas de l’équipe du lycée Ahmet FALL de Saint-Louis (Sénégal)

Abstract

To grasp the social representations of women’s football in a country where its practice is perceived as a transgression of the sociocultural norms in force, the survey done at Ahmet Fall High School in the municipality of Saint-Louis was based on the analysis of the data collected from semi-direct interviews carried out among the club’s administrators, coaches, families and players. This perspective is heuristic insofar as the relationship to the body, its social uses and the way in which it is shaped and brought into play in social manifestations are largely socially determined. It emerges from this study that the constructed social representations are differentiated and constitute a system of opposition between those of the players and their families and those of the social environment. Therefore, women’s football, considered as a Western cultural model, does not escape the prevailing social representations, including those of gender stereotypes.