Are there still social barriers to women's rugby ?

Abstract

International audience ; For a long time, rugby union was reserved for men in France. The French rugby unionfederation only opened its doors to women in 1989. Twenty years later, we askedourselves how and when women start playing rugby and if there are still social barriersto their practice. In order to answer this, we interviewed 15 persons who belong to theworld of French rugby and almost 200 female players. The results show that peoplearound the players are reserved, mainly for fear of the physical risk, the injuries theyassociate with rugby and, to a lesser extent, because they are afraid of a social risk thatthey may become more masculine. Our results also underline the fact that actors of theFrench rugby sphere do not seem to be afraid of the physical risk but that they have theperception of a social risk.