Sexism in football : it makes sense given the history

Since the World Cup came to an end we’ve had a little bit of time to reflect on it. I have had lots of interesting conversations with women about their experiences of watching the football, being fans and what they think about the relationship between women and football.

I can’t help but feel disappointed, not just by the result for England, but by the way that football culture has treated women during this World Cup. That ‘hottest fans’ Getty Images post that got taken down from Twitter and the ‘babe cam’? What’s it all about?

Georgia Rannard wrote a fantastic article for the BBC questioning how much sexism in football has changed? Not as much as you would hope it seems.

I don’t for one second think that the majority of male football fans would turn around and tell me not to watch football because I’m female. I think it’s pretty well accepted that in 2018 that just wouldn’t be okay. What interests me is why do men who would otherwise be very welcoming of female fans, continue to endorse and join in with the subtle (or indeed, not so subtle) sexist practises of football culture. For example, joining in with sexist chants in the pub ‘for a laugh.’ It doesn’t really add up… 

I’m really interested in trying to understand the relationship between football and women so I hit the University library to try and find some answers. Women’s football gained massive popularity during the First World War. Women who were working in factories to help the war effort took to playing football during their breaks. By 1920 there were 150 women’s sides in England that were drawing large crowds, money made on the gates were donated to various charitable causes (BBC, 2018). In 1920, 53,000 people paid £3 each to watch Dick, Kerr & Co. women’s team play against St. Helens (Russell, 1997). However, in 1921 the FA decided to ban women’s professional football on the grounds that it was ‘quite unsustainable for females and ought not to be encouraged’ (BBC, 2018).  The reality of the situation was that the FA was worried about how the popularity of women’s football would affect the men’s games. Women were deprived of an opportunity because it threatened male supremacy and ‘natural’ hierarchy. The FA did not lift the ban until 1971 (Russell). 

Some research has suggested that the culture of modern day football places emphasis on ‘normative heterosexuality and masculinity’ (Cleland, 2016). This culture has grown from 1921 when women were banned and it all became about the men. The belief that a sport such as football was unsuitable for the female physique seems to linger today. I would even argue that this is why some football fans think that female commentators shouldn’t be allowed, ‘they don’t have the right tone of voice’ I’ve heard somebody say. Why’s that? Because the physicality of football is suitable for men, not women, as football culture has enforced for the past almost one hundred years. It would be too obviously sexist for somebody to tell a woman that she can’t play football. However, to attack them for their commentary is slightly more subtle and due to the nature of football culture, seems to be acceptable to many (and not acceptable at all to the rest of us).

Is it any surprise then, that women are less likely than men to comment on football on social media? Research has shown that men and women often feel the same way about football and they have the same motives for watching, yet women comment less than males. It makes perfect sense to me that many women are less vocal about their interest in football because to do so would be within a climate of constant subtle sexism that is slowly ticking away in the background. Can’t women just be fans because they’re interested in the game? Why do they have to deal with constant background sexism when all they want to do is enjoy the match?

Football culture has developed more positively in recent years but we’ve still got a long way to go. Next year will be the women’s Wold Cup and I am excited to see a strong group of girls show that women are very capable of being successful in football. They will form part of the continued effort to prove the 1921 FA wrong, whose decision to ban women’s football continues to have a lasting detrimental effect on modern British football culture.

I would love to know more of your thoughts and hear about your experiences of sexism in football, feel free to contact me on any of my social media platforms!

Em x

Facebook: Emily Ankers – Leeds Girls Can Ambassador

Twitter: @active_em_blog

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Reference List:

BBC History Extra, ‘1921: the year when football banned women’, BBC, < https://www.historyextra.com/period/first-world-war/1921-the-year-when-football-banned-women/ > [accessed Friday 20^th June 2018]

Cleland, Jamie, ‘Sexuality, masculinity and homophobia in association with football: An empirical overview of changing cultural context’ in International Review for the Sociology of Sport, 54 (2016), pp. 411 – 423.

Rannard, Georgia, ‘World Cup 2018: is football still sexist?’, BBC News, < https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/blogs-trending-44613542 > [accessed Friday 20^th July 2018]

Russell, Dave, Football and the English: A Social History of Association Football in England, 1863 – 1995, (Preston: Carnegie Publishing, 1997)