On the cathartic, collective healing of women’s sports and equalising the gender gap
Illustration by Kat J. Weiss, August 2023
Let me tell you something embarrassing: I’m a bit of a hooligan. But I’m a soft one at least, I don‘t harass people or throw stuff around, no, instead I jump up with excitement at every re-conquered ball, and fidget nervously with my hands at any tense moment. Most sentimentally of all, I find myself shedding a tear or two for every underdog that gets to progress this year at the Women‘s Football World Cup.
There is history here, in more ways than one.
Football was once a regular, joyous part of my life. I played it from around ages 11 to 16 or 17; first, it started in an all-girls group, until over the years our numbers dwindled down so drastically that we got merged with our coaches boys’ group. We were only ever two or three girls amongst all of the boys. Apparently they roughed us up quite a bit, because when I’d play with other girls in PE, they’d say I was too aggressive.
Me as a baby footballer! Circa 2003/2005. Those glasses lol
If we were to talk honestly about women’s place in football back then, we’d have to note the ubiquitous invisibility of it all. Yes, my friends and I could recite all the quips from the 2002 hit, Bend It Like Beckham, and no doubt we saw Jess and Juliette as role models, who brought into question everything from stereotypes about athletic women, homophobia and racism. But professional women’s football leagues? Unheard of.
Keira Knightley as Juliette, Parminder Nagra as Jess in Bend It Like Beckham (2002), via GIPHY.
And though my coach once light-heartedly labelled me as the “next Mia Hamm”, the possibility of a women’s World Cup captivating hearts and minds all over the world in the same way men’s football did never crossed my mind. The only person in my life who’d ever mention women’s football with any hint of excitement was my dad, though to be fair, this was the early 2000s, when Birgit Prinz had helped Germany win two world titles — gone are the days, I guess, boohoo 😂
In spite of everything women had achieved since their first World Cup in 1991, they were, for the most part, still seen as wannabes with no technical finesse. There was never a real chance for us girls, and so we were not encouraged in the same way to play like the boys. Nothing made this more clear than when a pen pal explained that she wasn’t allowed to play football due to her parents not wanting her to get hurt, much to my non-computing brain’s dismay.
But none of this was evident to me, not back then. The general underestimation of women in sports took the shape of a permeating, unnoticeable nothing, as if the world, in its chorus of silence, canonised that women can’t and women don’t.
Thanks to increasing support, funding, and, no doubt, women athletes working their asses off for recognition and better pay, this spell of ignorance seems gradually to be lifting, and the mountain of limitations set before women, which we didn’t even know was there, is simultaneously eroding as it is crystallising.
And now that the floodgates have opened — literally in my eyes and collectively in our minds – the motion to shatter rigid gender roles will be continual and unstoppable, at least in my humble opinion.
USWNT player Mia Hamm, 1995. Via Wikimedia Commons.
For instance: Being “good” at football does not necessarily make you inherently “masculine.” Though it’s true that many women in this sport are queer and stereotypically tomboyish, many others are as girly as they come, and perhaps have husbands or boyfriends off the pitch – which doesn’t mean that they can’t still be LGBTQ+, but that’s another topic for another time!
Others do not subscribe to a gender at all, which I think is just as well for a sport that is revolutionary in its nature, considering the decades-long bans that were placed on women’s football across the world, up until the 70s. And why not – why do we insist on boxing ourselves in irrelevant categories, especially when they do nothing but hurt and suppress us?
50 years of women’s football in Germany by Stefan Nestler, Chuck Penfold, DW, Oct 30, 2020
How the FA banned women’s football in 1921 and tried to justify it by Suzanne Wrack, The Guardian, June 13, 2022
‘Against their nature’: When Brazil banned women from football, France 24, July 14, 2023
When I think of breaking outside of constrictive narratives, I can’t help but think of Marta’s red (or purple) lip, daring the world remove their silly gender stereotypes from the pitch, or Nouhaila Benzina, the first football player to wear a hijab in a World Cup. We need to stop ascribing certain abilities to certain people based on physical appearances alone; doing so would in turn greatly benefit how we view ourselves.
So yes, I am moved to tears by the strides women and athletes-who-aren’t-men have been able to make despite all of the odds. I am moved to tears by a new generation of boys and girls who show up for their teams with face paint and glee on their faces, and get to see that their heroes can also be women – especially when it’s their country’s debut in a World Cup.
I am caught in the euphoric landslide of it all, even with some of my favourites not going through, because it’s hard not to smile when we’re collectively winning. It’s a hopeful optimism almost too buoyant to sink, but in truth there is still a long way ahead of us when it comes to equality, some of the obstacles being:
1) Prejudice. It’s hard to ignore the wide-spread notion that women’s football will always be subpar to men’s. It becomes extremely palpable when reading through the comments on social media – jokes on me for doing that – with many users determined to degrade the style of women’s play.
Contrary to this, a 2020 study using machine data analysis at the Sport University Cologne, led by Prof. Dr. Daniel Memmert, found that men and women – across six international games – were tactically similar in dribbling, passing, crossing, controlling the space, and pushing towards the goal.
Another study by a research team from the University of Zürich and the University of Stavanger, published in 2023, seems further to uncover gender biases in football viewers: 613 participants were tasked to review highlights from both men’s and women’s football games, half of which got blurred versions of the clips. The results show that participants rate the men higher – but only when they know the gender.
Though these studies alone are not enough for a definite statement on women’s football as a whole, they’re at least a good start in busting some commonly held myths that we still hear even in relation to the professional teams.
No one should be forced to like, let alone watch a sport they don’t want to, but I think we need to question where these preconceived notions about women’s football come from, and keep in mind the social and historical disadvantages that have held back development for so long. And while it’s only logical to link the difference in physiological factors to the differing levels in game intensity – men on average being bigger, stronger and faster – it doesn’t make sense to disregard tactical ability when judging overall skill, or to evaluate the progression of a game without any consideration for diving and time-wasting, whether you love or hate to see it. Men on average are much more prone to taking the plunge – at least according to a 2011 study – though women won’t shy away from professional cheating, either.
Illustration by Kat J. Weiss, June 2021
2) Viewership. It’s hard not to notice the lack of commotion in the thoroughfares of my city, even when there’s a Germany game on – during the Women’s World Cup this year, it was as if nothing was happening down in Australia and New Zealand.
Maybe that’s just my sleepy little city, at least I hope so, because according to the latest figures, the viewership for women’s football is rapidly on the rise – 1.12 billion in 2019, and expected to reach 2 billion this year. To compare, the 2018 Men’s World Cup attracted a total of 3.57 billion viewers. Note: I could not find a reliable source for the total viewership of the men’s 2022 World Cup.
I mention these numbers because we need to understand them in context of my final point regarding inequality in football:
3) Equal pay. A common argument used against equal pay for men and women in football is that the men’s sport attracts far more interest, therefore generating a greater revenue from broadcast rights and sponsorship.
To once again illustrate with some numbers, sponsorship for the 2023 Women’s World Cup came to an estimated $300 million, while the 2022 Men’s World Cup by far eclipsed that figure at $1.7 billion in sponsorship.
To top it all off, there was the issue of broadcasters low-balling their bids for TV rights in the run-up to this year’s event, for reasons mostly pinned to the poor planning and promotion on FIFA’s side – though let’s be real, they are not exactly renowned for their investment in equity or social welfare.
The simple economics of the numbers means that, this year’s Women’s World Cup prize pot came to $110 million, only a quarter of the men’s $440 million prize pot in 2022.
Complicating the matter is the fact that, up until this year, broadcasting rights were always sold as a bundle, packaging the men’s and women’s Football World Cups together, therefore making it confusing to gauge the true commercial value of the women’s tournament.
Less sponsorship, broadcasting, merch, ticket sales, etc. also results in lower salaries for women footballers overall, with the average salary in the Women’s Bundesliga at 3500 Euro per month – though many earn far below that, taking on side jobs and studies (doesn’t hurt to have brains I guess 😂). To give another, slightly more promising example, the average salary in the Women’s Super League is estimated at £47,000 annually.
By comparison, up to €100,000 per week salaries are not uncommon in the men’s Bundesliga nowadays, and the average Premiere League salary in 2020, according to the Professional Football Scouts Association, is at “just over £60,000 a week,” i.e. just over £3 million per year.
This ‘simple economics’ is what makes the concept of equal pay for women footballers ‘not really fair’ at all – so the reasoning goes. But is it really that simple?
The thing that frustrates me about this line of argument is that it’s non-negotiable at best, and rests on an essentialist argument about women at worst, namely, that they are de facto suckier than men, meanwhile disregarding all the above mentioned historical, environmental and social factors.
In fact, many professional women footballers are not even asking to be paid exactly like the men, but for a level playing field starting from the ground up, ergo: equal access to football in schools and academies, and improved facilities and services for the lower leagues.
It is not about replicating the disproportionately inflated sums male footballers are paid, but securing an appropriate average wage whereby women can focus full-time on being athletes, have security when they eventually retire, and the sport in turn can continue to develop professionally.
It means no team waiting to be paid for two whole years, such as Nigeria’s Super Falcons, or having to rely on private sponsorship and crowd-funding to even get to the World Cup, as was the case with Jamaica’s Reggae Girlz. Though having Bob Marley’s daughter as a sponsor is pretty cool, I suppose!
It means that Nadeshiko Japan, one of my absolute favourites this year, who were also 2011 world champions – a title which the men’s team has yet to win – are acknowledged primarily for their game, not their ‘cuteness’.
It means forging a path forward for women who are still (or newly) banned from playing football, such as the Afghanistan women’s national team – and for goddamn FIFA to recognise them officially.
At the end of the day, this is about fair treatment, and respect for arguably the same effort and world-stage professional presence on par with the men’s. The bare minimums must be brought up to standard, and equal pay is just one way to go about it.
Where we go from here:
The good news is that several national teams – e.g. the U.S.A, Spain, Netherlands, Norway, Ireland, England – have reached equal pay agreements with their federations in recent years. Hopefully this will encourage more teams to ask for better terms.
Beyond that, I think that in order for us to be able to pull any more economic levers, we need the force of society behind us. We sponsors, broadcasters, and federations to recognise the increased interest in this sport, and have the guts to invest. We need more women commenting and providing expert sports analysis on both men’s and women’s games, and people to value the worth of women and marginalised people across all sectors.
Bend It Like Beckham (2002), via GIPHY.
It is why, though I’m not (yet) a frequent spectator, I value this sport so much – I believe that something as simple as seeing a person that looks like you achieve something outside of the ordinary can motivate and affirm you in previously unimagined ways. I believe that girls supporting girls, both on and off the pitch, is an untapped, electrifying resource.
The last time I played football was around 2009 – I’d just been put in the girls’ squad at my school. Given most of us were near graduation, we didn’t get very far, but it was nice to be a real team with other girls for a change.
Teenage footballing me circa 2009/2010 and that poor girl hahahaha
And I don’t regret becoming an artist; I just hope that girls in the future will grow up in a much more supportive environment, with no invisible constraints holding them back, in sports or anywhere. And I hope that when it comes to watching football, it will not matter whether you cry as an old man, or cry like a girl.