Incorporating Feminist Ethics of Care into the American Women’s Soccer Market

This paper offers a critical commentary on the professionalization of women’s soccer in the United States, exploring the intersection of feminism and capitalism. Drawing on feminist economic theory, we reflect on how feminist values and an ethics of care have been mobilized within women's professional soccer. To accomplish this, we focus specifically on two Southern Californian women’s soccer teams from two iterations of the women's professional soccer league in the US—the San Diego Spirit of the Women’s United Soccer Association and Angel City Football Club of the National Women’s Soccer League. Through historical and contemporary examples, we illustrate how feminist ideas were often co-opted as marketing strategies in earlier iterations of the league, rather than embedded within organizational practices. In contrast, Angel City FC from the current league represents a more explicit attempt to develop a women-led model that positions mission and capital as mutually reinforcing. Rather than offering definitive conclusions, this commentary teases out the nuances, complexities, and tensions that characterize women’s soccer as it enters a new era of investment and professionalization.