Rebecca Jackson

Thesis Title: Changing the game: A youth-driven co-design approach to exploring gendered environments in girls’ football

In partnership with The FA, this project aims to understand the realities of girl footballers’ experiences of gendered environments and deliver recommendations for change based on these experiences. With ongoing inequalities surrounding girls’ opportunities and experiences within football, a gendered environmental approach (Parsons et al., 2021) is taken to highlight how gendered norms and practices can become embedded in sporting settings and ultimately disadvantage girls’ participation, performance and health. In line with the study’s ethic of social justice, this study’s aim will be achieved through the use of creative participatory methods which will centre the voices of girls who play grassroots football. In the first stage of this research, ‘go-along’ interviews and arts-based discussions will be used to identify the gendered environmental features within these settings and how girl youth footballers experience and navigate them. The second phase will aim to understand the structural drivers and facilitators of change within girls’ football environments by conducting field observations and stakeholder interviews with coaches and staff. These perspectives will be culminated in the final stage of this research, in which a resource will be co-produced with the youth for the FA about gendered environments in youth football.

This research will contribute towards the FA’s current ‘Reaching Higher’ strategy, which seeks to deliver equal opportunities for women and girls to play, by offering feasible policy recommendations in how to understand and address gendered environmental inequalities.

Biography:

Rebecca Jackson (she/ her) is a PhD candidate within the School of Geography’s ‘Health, Environment and Society’ theme at the University of Nottingham. Her current work contributes to EDGE Lab’s research on gender equity in sport which seeks to bridge the gap between social sciences and applied clinical and health disciplines. Prior to joining the University of Nottingham, Rebecca received her BSc (Hons) in Sociology and MSc in Social Science Research (Media and Communication) from Loughborough University. Her interdisciplinary research experience extends beyond her studies, having worked as a research assistant for the SATNAV Compass programme, situated in the field of Criminology, and a study on the diversity of psychological journals. While Rebecca has explored a diverse range of topics, her work has been united by a passion for understanding the lived experiences of people within society through qualitative and creative methods.

School of Geography

University of Nottingham

2025 Cohort

Email:

Supervisory Team:

Dr Stephanie Coen

Dr Ali Bowes

Prof Sarah Jewitt

Collaborative Partner:

The Football Association