Racism and Sport: Occupational Segregation in International Men’s and Women’s Soccer

The studies of racism in sport have largely focused on men’s sport (e.g., baseball, football, hockey, etc.). These studies reveal that the allocation of positions on the field of play has been governed by the underlying social construction of race. Known as the stacking hypothesis, it argues that those positions that are more believed to require intelligence and smarts (i.e., higher centrality) are awarded to Caucasians while those that require speed and quick reactions are awarded to non-Caucasians. I expand on this by applying the stacking hypothesis to a previously neglected sport, soccer, and to previously neglected population, women. The underlying research question is whether stacking is prevalent in national soccer teams and whether it is also a characteristic of women’s soccer. I will gather data at four-year intervals in each World Cup year from 1960 through 2012 for the rosters of national men’s and women’s soccer teams, the race of the players as well as their positions, and their win-loss records. After coding the positions in terms of centrality, I will test the proposition of whether occupational segregation by race has taken place in men’s and women’s international soccer teams