Soccer and gender – worlds apart

The 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa was great. And it wasn't. In the latest edition of the journal Agenda, its launch hosted by UCT's African Gender Institute and Dr Tanja Bosch of the Centre for Film & Media Studies, scholars and activists from around the country looked at the gender concerns that, while overlooked at the time, went hand in hand with the event.

Contributors to the edition, themed 2010 FIFA World Cup: Genders, politics and sport, covered everything from the country's sidelined footballing women and how the event deepened poverty among the poor, to the underwhelming education initiatives for sex workers during the soccer spectacle. "The edition explored the World Cup as a masculine event, and questioned whether the mega-event made a difference in the lives of marginalised sectors of South African society," commented Bosch.