Abstract des Autors

This article examines issues of gender justice within men’s netball and mixed-gender indoor netball in New Zealand, primarily from philosophical and social policy-based perspectives. While netball has historically reflected and reinforced appropriate ideas of female physicality, in the early 1980s, the new and more radical New Zealand Men’s Netball Association (NZMNA) welcomed openly transgender female players. Although the association subsequently took a heteronormative turn, independent for-profit mixed-gender indoor netball have also provided somewhat transgender-inclusive spaces. After discussing feminist debates about mixed-gender sport including netball specifically, this article argues that there are good reasons to support mixed-gender indoor netball. It also argues, however, that this should be done while also recognising both NNZ’s defensive ‘voluntary segregation’ of women’s netball and the unfortunate decline of the early (more radical) NZMNA. The article also discusses some important criticisms of such a policy.