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2018 NASSS Annual Conference
Sport Soundtrack: Sport, Music, & Culture
RA

Rachel Allison

Mississippi State University
"A Rich White Kid Sport?" Hometown Socioeconomic, Racial, and Geographic Composition Among U.S. Women's Professional Soccer Players
"A Rich White Kid Sport?" Hometown Socioeconomic, Racial, and Geographic Composition Among U.S. Women's Professional Soccer Players
While research suggests that material, geographic, and cultural changes to U.S. youth soccer since the 1970's have made opportunities for elite participation disproportionately available to white, middle-class women from white and affluent suburbs, little empirical evidence has documented patterns of racial, socioeconomic, and geographic composition in women's professional soccer. This analysis merges data on women listed on National Women's Soccer League (NWSL) season rosters between 2013-2018 with 2000 U.S. Census data to examine socioeconomic, racial, and geographic indicators for players' hometowns, using birthplace and high school place as alternative measures of "hometown." We compare hometown indicators to national averages and test for a relationship between hometown composition and career longevity.