Football has long time been considered as a genuine masculine domain. However, in the current football culture, the dualism of masculinity and femaleness is in progress. More and more women consume football which is in many countries considered the most popular sport, not only in Scandinavia
where the number of female fans in football has grown over the past years. A national sense of community, emotion and passion for the game is in particular reached during the international tournaments at live football spectacles and many female fans cheer and sing for ‘their’ team with the utmost conviction. Yet, the combination ‘women and football’ is still adhered to certain scepticism.

Objective
The overall objective of this Ph.D. thesis is to contribute to the body of knowledge associated with the distinct aspects of women’s football, female fandom and gender identities in European football drawing upon various sociological theories. The objective is, first, to develop new knowledge and understanding about the impact of football on gendered identity construction and negotiation – in both the performance and the consumption of football – and how these female fans contribute to a European dialogue, the gender-specific experience and acting out of fandom, and the intersection between gender and national/European identity.
The second objective is to study the role of gender in football and fan cultures with regard to gender-specific patterns of cross-cultural communication and identification.
The third objective is to investigate how the recent increase in women’s presence in football across Europe has caused discourses to emerge and evolve, to assess the place of women’s football in European football discourses, and to explore to what extent the ‘feminisation’ of European football has modified audience perception and interpretation of the sport.

Research question
The overarching research question centres upon how and to what extent the role of gender in football and fan cultures is manifested with a particular focus on gender-specific patterns of crosscultural communication and identification.

Methods and Approach
The researcher reviewed relevant primary and secondary literature relating to women’s football, female football consumption and identity dynamics in a European perspective. Between March and August 2013, 31 semi-structured interviews with Danish women aged between 24 and 60 years
were conducted following an interpretivist approach. Additionally, observations at different stages of the research project supported the rationale of the study.