Elena Neira analyzes the representation of female footballers in television fiction at an international symposium in Dublin
The researcher from the IRE-UAB Sports-Politics group participates in TU Dublin's "Women in Sport" symposium to expose how audiovisual narratives perpetuate the male gaze and the objectification of female athletes.
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The study reveals that the perceived progress in the visibility of female athletes on television is often an "illusion of progress" that maintains traditional gender structures.
The international symposium Women in Sport: Participation, Representation and Futures, held last December at the TU Dublin School of Media, gathered global experts to debate the cultural and social dynamics surrounding women's sports. Within this framework, Dr. Elena Neira presented the paper titled "The Illusion of Progress", a data-driven analysis of gender representation in current television fiction, focusing her study on how narrative frameworks shape the visibility of female footballers on screen.
Dr. Neira's research highlights that, despite an apparent increase in the presence of female athletes in the media, forms of objectification and limited visibility under the male gaze persist. Her intervention was part of a session dedicated to media representations, where the role of fiction in the symbolic positioning of athletes was discussed—a key issue for understanding the biases that still prevail in the sports entertainment industry.
The event, organized in partnership with Shamrock Rovers FC, served as an interdisciplinary forum to address everything from governance and leadership to player welfare and activism. IRE’s participation in this forum reinforces the institute's international projection and its commitment to critical research on equality and diversity, connecting UAB's academic work with sporting institutions and leading research networks across Europe.