Two kicks forward, one kick back: A content analysis of media discourses on the 1999 Women's World Cup Soccer Championship

The 1999 Women's World Cup Soccer Championship serves as a particularly good site for examining both the social construction of gender and the structure of contradiction surrounding women's role in sport and society. We conducted a content analysis of 576 American newspaper articles reporting on the 1999 Women's World Cup Soccer Championship. Contradictory messages surrounding women and sports were present, as past research has suggested. An analysis of more qualitative aspects of our data reveals the structure of these contradictions and provides substantial depth to this analysis. We discuss how the media actively promoted or constructed certain gender ideologies and how these gender ideologies contributed to the popularity of the event.