O Jogo das letras: práticas esportivas e futebol de mulheres nas páginas do Jornal dos Sports (1931-1941)

Abstract

It is known that women have long been part of the sports field. At the beginning of the twentieth century, soccer became popular in Brazil, and women initially occupied the bleachers, giving grace and beauty to men’s soccer matches. However, from the 1910s, in the press of Rio de Janeiro, the appearance of “women’s football” was evident, demonstrating that women had already entered the field in the first decades of the 20th century. Involved in the football universe, in which the elitist characteristics still marked its practice, the first women’s soccer matches took place in the great clubs of Rio de Janeiro and showed evident charitable character. At the end of the 1920s, one realizes the accomplishment of women’s soccer matches in the suburbs of Rio de Janeiro. In the 1930s and 1940s, it resulted in a series of discussions on the participation of women in sport, especially in football, and in the publication of Decree-Law 3199, from April 14, 1941. This research investigates the representations of sports practices and women’s football in the early twentieth century, specifically between 1931-1941, from the historiographical perspective by taking as source the sports newspaper Jornal dos Sports. It seeks, therefore, to collaborate with the discussions of the fields: Sports Studies, Women’s History and Gender Relations, and History through the press.