In North American social, cultural and political discourse, soccer mom broadly refers to a middle-class suburban woman who spends a significant amount of her time transporting her school-age children to activities such as soccer practice and music lessons.^[1] The phrase became popular during the 1996 United States presidential election campaign.

The male equivalent, soccer dad, is less-used because of the prevailing American cultural tradition that emphasizes engaged motherhood over engaged fatherhood.^[2]

Usage and early history

The phrase soccer mom generally refers to a white, married middle class woman who lives in the suburbs and has school age children.^[3] She is sometimes portrayed in the media as busy or overburdened and driving a minivan.^[3][4] She is also portrayed as putting the interests of her family, and most importantly her children, ahead of her own.^[3]

The phrase soccer mom derives from the literal, specific description of a mother who transports and watches her children play soccer.^[4] It was also used in names of organizations of mothers who raised money to support their children's soccer teams.^[4] The first reference to the phrase soccer mom in the national media has been traced to 1982. In that year, Joseph Decosta, the husband of the treasurer of the "Soccer Moms booster club" of Ludlow, Massachusetts, stole $3,150 raised for the benefit of a local soccer league.^[4][5]

Popularization

The term began to take on its demographic meaning in 1995 during an election for Denver city council, when Susan B. Casey ran with the slogan "A Soccer Mom for City Council".^[2] Casey, who had a PhD and managed presidential election campaigns, used the slogan as way of assuring voters they could trust her to be "just like them",^[4] denoting herself as "everyneighbor".^[2] The phrase addressed anxiety about women's achievements, and the stereotype that smart, accomplished women were not able to manage professional careers and still show love for their family.^[4] Casey won the election with 51% of the vote.^[6]

The term came into widespread use near the time of the 1996 Republican National Convention.^[2] The first use of the term in a news article about that election appeared in the July 21, 1996 edition of The Washington Post.^[7] E. J. Dionne, the article's author, quoted Alex Castellanos (at the time a senior media advisor to Bob Dole) suggesting that Bill Clinton was targeting a voting demographic whom Castellanos called the "soccer mom". The soccer mom was described in the article as "the overburdened middle income working mother who ferries her kids from soccer practice to scouts to school."^[8] The article suggested that the term soccer mom was a creation of political consultants. Castellanos was later quoted in The Wall Street Journal as saying "She's the key swing consumer in the marketplace, and the key swing voter who will decide the election."^[9]

Media interest in soccer moms picked up as the election approached. The number of articles on soccer moms in major newspapers increased from a combined total of 12 for the months of August and September, to a total of 198 for October and November.^[7] In large part, the intense media interest stemmed from the media's belief that soccer moms had become the most sought-after group of swing voters in the 1996 elections. In the end, suburban women favored Clinton by 53 to 39, while suburban men voted for Dole.^[10]

During the election, the soccer mom's most frequently mentioned attribute cited in major newspaper articles was that she was a mother or a woman who had children.^[7] The soccer mom's next most frequently mentioned characteristics were that "she lives in the suburbs (41.2% of the articles); is a swing voter (30.8%); is busy, harried, stressed out, or overburdened (28.4%); works outside the home (24.6%); drives a minivan, (usually Volvo) station wagon, or sports-utility vehicle (20.9%); is middle-class (17.1%); is married (13.7%); and is white (13.3%)."^[7]

Soccer moms received so much attention during the election that the American Dialect Society voted "soccer mom" Word of the Year for 1996.^[11] The columnist Ellen Goodman of The Boston Globe called 1996 "the Year of the Soccer Mom."^[12] An Associated Press article named soccer moms – along with the Macarena, Bob Dole, and Rules Girls – as the four phenomena that will be forever associated with the year 1996.^[13]

Evolution

To some extent, the phrase has taken on a negative aspect. In 2003, the car manufacturer Nissan, who had for several years courted the "soccer-mom" image, repositioned its Quest minivan as "stylish, sexy and desirable".^[14]

Hockey mom

Hockey mom is a term widely used in Canada, where mothers (and fathers) often take their children to ice hockey rinks.^[15]

Sarah Palin, the U.S. Republican vice-presidential candidate in 2008, described herself as a hockey mom as far back as her 2006 gubernatorial race.^[16] In her speech at the 2008 Republican National Convention and in stump speeches following the convention, she joked that the only difference between a hockey mom and a pit bull was lipstick,^[17] suggesting that hockey moms are "tough".^[18] "Hockey partisans" claim that hockey moms are "a bit more intense than their soccer counterparts, both in terms of the commitments they make to the sport and the intensity with which they cheer their kids."^[19]

The first article in The New York Times that used hockey mom as a demographic term was a 1999 review of the Chevrolet Silverado, a full-size pickup truck. In the article, the truck is described as a "smooth and gutsy" vehicle that "ought to please everyone from hockey mom to cattle hauler."^[20]

In Australia

The phrase soccer mum has been used in Australia in the context of Australian national politics. In May 2007, the conservative Liberal Party government announced that families will receive up to $8,000 per child in a one-off election-year bonus to reduce the cost of childcare. It was reported that the payments were aimed at the group known politically as "the soccer mums".^[21]

See also

• Angry white male
• NASCAR dad
• Security mom
• Stage mother
• Worcester woman

References

External links

• "Soccer Mom," Photographs by Dona Schwartz