Women Researchers in a 'Man's World' : advancing a new theoretical tool through the gendered challenges of undertaking research in the masculine space of men's football

![CDATA[Much literature on football fandom has been written by men and focused upon a particular subculture of hyper-masculine football supporters. Being a white “working-class”, heterosexual, non-disabled man is often used, valiantly in some ways, as a means of gaining access to such spaces as an “insider”. In this paper, we discuss women researchers undertaking work in the male-dominated space of men’s football. Reflexive accounts from men do not tend to consider the complexities of gaining access to such spaces for “outsiders”, such as women. This, combined with the scarcity of women scholars in this field has meant that there is a lack of research considering how women must manage such gender-related research ‘problems’. We draw upon the experiences of two women academics who have undertaken extensive work in the field of men’s professional football. Our qualitative methods have included: 100 interviews with women fans of men’s football, a three-year ethnography of one men’s Premier League football club, and one focus group with men football fans. Our findings show how gendered obstacles were managed at all stages of the research process. As women, we continuously managed encounters where our sexuality and gender placed us in uncomfortable or unsafe situations. Gendered expectations around our behaviour were measured by the fan subcultures we were interacting with i.e., those who could ultimately hinder our ability to conduct the research. However, we argue that gender does not hinder women’s ability to gather and interpret rich data in this field. Based on these gendered challenges, we develop a new theoretical tool which shows how being a woman researcher can be advantageous when undertaking work in this space. By applying a ‘feminist gaze’, this can generate rich data which men researchers have typically overlooked through uncritically accepting access to such spaces. Most importantly, the ‘feminist gaze’ is also a call to action to ensure women’s safety in this male-dominated space.]]