{"id":205036,"date":"2014-01-28T09:28:57","date_gmt":"2014-01-28T14:28:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/?p=205036"},"modified":"2023-09-25T09:31:04","modified_gmt":"2023-09-25T13:31:04","slug":"guerreiras-project-founder-caitlin-fisher-speaks-to-neag-school-sport-management-students","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/2014\/01\/guerreiras-project-founder-caitlin-fisher-speaks-to-neag-school-sport-management-students\/","title":{"rendered":"Guerreiras Project Founder Caitlin Fisher Speaks to Neag School Sport Management Students"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ethnographer and former professional women\u2019s soccer player Caitlin Davis Fisher recently spoke to UConn\u2019s Neag School of Education Sport Management students about the ability of athletics to promote gender equality.<\/p>\n

The former Harvard University soccer captain is the founder and director of the non-profit Guerreiras Project dedicated to educating and empowering women. Named after the Portuguese word for \u201cwarriors,\u201d the initiative consists of female soccer players, women\u2019s rights activists, academics and artists who believe soccer can be used to help start the conversations needed to reduce gender discrimination. Currently, its focus is on Brazil, a nation enthralled with soccer though, as Fisher noted, not necessarily with women\u2019s soccer.<\/p>\n

Guerreiras Project team members\u2014who currently hail from Brazil, the United States and England\u2014 travel throughout Brazil, sharing stories, showcasing game photographs and playing soccer in local communities. Their visits open dialogues on gender stereotypes, as well as provide kids and adults the opportunity to meet strong women confident in their abilities.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur project empowers female players to become community ambassadors of the sport and visible role models for kids,\u201d said Fisher. A Massachusetts native, she became a professional soccer player for Brazil\u2019s famous Santos F.C.\u2019s women\u2019s team after graduating from Harvard in 2004.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was shocked to learn female players were fed food different from what the men\u2019s team ate, wore men\u2019s jerseys as much as seven years old, had to walk almost an hour to practice, and were forced to wash their uniforms by hand in outdoor sinks,\u201d said Fisher.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a>
A Guerrieras Project volunteer and soccer athlete works with students in Brazil.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Fisher said she was appalled by the treatment, as well as that the Brazilian women on the team thought it was OK. Banned from professional soccer until 1979, the women were just happy to play. Fisher, however, couldn\u2019t ignore their continued struggles, of which not being fully accepted into a \u201cman\u2019s sport\u201d was really just a small part. Lack of financial resources, cultural stereotypes perpetuated by Brazilian media, lack of family support and other challenges continued the view that women were the weaker and less important gender\u2014 and inspired Fisher to seek solutions for change.<\/p>\n

Through the Guerreiras Project, all involved benefit: \u201cThe female players [on the team] build confidence, voice and self-esteem,\u201d Fischer said, \u201cand the youths and adults we visit are encouraged to challenge their own gender biases and to ask questions about what women are capable of doing and becoming.\u201d<\/p>\n

The idea for the initiative came shortly after Fisher earned a master\u2019s degree in Gender, Development and Globalization from the London School of Economics and then traveled \u00a0back to Brazil to reconnect with former Santos teammates. Coupled with ethnographic work she performed on the relationship between body, gender, soccer and economic development, the visit became the cradle for the Guerreiras Project.<\/p>\n

Fisher\u2019s visit to UConn came at the invitation of Sports Management Associate Professor Laura Burton. The two met via Skype over the summer, when Burton interviewed Fisher for a textbook chapter that UConn Sports Management faculty were writing.<\/p>\n

While on the Storrs campus, Fisher spent time with Sport Management students, staff from UConn\u2019s Husky Sport youth development program, and students in the Women\u2019s Center Violence against Women Prevention Program.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are always interested in having our students think critically about the many issues that are part of sports, including homophobia and age, gender and racial discrimination,\u201d Burton said. \u201cThe Guerreiras Project shows how much gender discrimination can be infused within just one sport, and the effort required for girls and women to push against constraints if they want to force needed change.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hoping that greater awareness about the Guerreiras Project will lead to greater change, Fisher plans to bring the initiative to the United States and study, among other things, \u201chow it might impact girls and women in the U.S. differently than those in Brazil.\u201d<\/p>\n

Toward that end, Burton has an idea: \u201cWe would love for Caitlin to meet with the UConn women\u2019s soccer team.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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