The Matilda Effect is the exciting, inspiring, sometimes infuriating and always colourful story of the Australian women's football (soccer) team, the Matildas, and their ultimately successful struggle, alongside other women from around the world, to compete in World Cup football. From the 1980s, when women had to pay to participate in the pilot Women's World Cup, to 2019, when the principle of equal pay for women players was finally accepted amid surging interest in their game, the voices of key figures emerge. A book at once about and not about sport, and with a throughline of human rights and gender equality history, The Matilda Effect takes the reader out of the stands and onto the pitch, into the team's hotels, buses, boardrooms and social media universe, where positive change has been wrestled into being.

The Matilda Effect

Sports & Outdoors

Crawford, Fiona

Soccer

Melbourne University Publishing

<div>The inspirational story of the past, present, and future of Australian women's football--its players, fans, and the game they love.Australian women's football rides high on the sporting landscape now, but this book shows that success has been one-hundred years in the making. It shares stories of triumph in the face of overwhelming odds, and tales of heartbreak and obstacles that seem insurmountable. But it is also about community, endurance, and collective success. Eye-opening and celebratory, it tells the story of amateur women kicking a ball around a century ago, to Australia's national team being one of the best in the world. The Matildas are forty years old and no longer have to wear hand-me-down men's kits, pay for their own medical insurance, and do it all for love not money. But there have been no free kicks along the way, as they have faced prejudice and even outright hostility. Never Say Die takes in dusty archives, rainy pitch-side evenings, and heart-breaking and heart-warming interviews--including with FIFA and FFA board members, Matildas past and present, W-League coaches and players, and state and club administrators. But at its heart are fans from every level of the game who could not love it more. </div>

Never Say Die: The Hundred-Year Overnight Success of Australian Women’s Football

History

McGowan, Lee

World

NewSouth

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Books by Crawford, Fiona