Mission Statements and Cake Stalls: The Women’s Supporter Group in Australian Football League Clubs

The Australian Football League (AFL) has made extensive efforts in the past decade to ensure that Australian Rules football is seen as an inclusive culture that respects, acknowledges, and desires the presence of female supporters in its membership base. Given that women have constituted a significant proportion of the football audience since the inception of the game in the mid-1800s, this show of support for women would appear to be belated and leads one to question what other motivations lie behind it. This article questions whether these recent attempts to acknowledge women as an important constituent group in AFL football culture, through the formation and/or maintenance of dedicated female supporter groups and networks in AFL football clubs, are genuinely aimed at making AFL club culture more inclusive of women.