News | Monday, 1st August 2022
Women’s Euros: Changing attitudes to women in football
Dr Chris Mackintosh explains how research and the legacy of England 2022 can increase participation in women's football
By Dr Christopher Mackintosh, Senior Lecturer at Manchester Metropolitan University Institute of Sport.
As the UEFA Women’s EUROs drew to a close this weekend, it’s safe to say it has been a success – particularly for women’s sport.
The final on Sunday was watched by a sell-out crowd of more than 87,000 at Wembley Stadium and the tournament has produced more viewers than any previous edition of the Women’s EUROs.
This is a great example of how much the women’s game is booming at the moment and how healthy it is – we are seeing some great stuff, which has been demonstrated by the reception and popularity of this tournament.
However, attitudes to women in football – and in some other sports – hasn’t always been this positive, and still isn’t even close to level of the men’s game.
This has a direct impact on how many women we see participating in football and we certainly need to see attitudes change even more if we are going to have more inclusivity and more success in the women’s game in the future.
A man’s game
The big insight that background literature tells us is that there are about two and a half million women participating in football each year – so a lot of people.
What this shows is that women’s football is huge and many women are playing football. But I think it is likely that a lot of these women are playing in spite of attitudes towards them.
In a recent study we spoke to a group of women, some who were still playing semi-professional football and some who were no longer playing, about their experiences as football players.
One of the things we found is football is very much considered ‘a man’s game’.
Gender stereotypes in sport are having profound impacts on what sports women in particular feel comfortable playing.
Contact sports like football and rugby are still generally considered to be for men, with the likes of netball being associated with females.
Now I hope that the EUROs and competitions like this in the future will challenge these gender stereotypes and encourage more women to play, but these stereotypes also need to be addressed when players are just starting out.
Coaches and PE teachers in schools need to address these issues – not just in football but other sports like wrestling and rugby – at a young age and encourage inclusivity from the outset.
When we looked at the data of participation in football from primary school children, we found that there was an overarching theme where emphasis was on boys and boys’ success.
So, although there are lots of experiences for girls that are positive, generally speaking, boys would be the ones that would play in competitions, play in after school clubs and who represented the school.
Now, at a very early age, football is mixed, so really this makes very little sense. There are no inherent gender skills in a young boy over a girl, so it clear to see why changes here need to be made.
Vulnerability of women in football
There is a lot of research that shows real vulnerability of professional women in football.
Research suggests that they don’t really think they deserve to be in the roles they are in. We are talking about Premier League footballers who don’t think they are justified in being in that position.
The women we spoke to talked about some of the comments they had heard throughout their times playing, and many of the quotes speak for themselves and explain why a women and girls might feel vulnerable and lesser when it comes to football.
For example:
“Why is there a girl a playing and why is a girl the captain.”
This is an example of direct sexism, and something this woman heard at a young age – a key socialisation phase when gender roles are learnt, and you’re told boys should be captain of the football team and not girls.
We also came across examples of women experiencing symbolic violence when it came to playing football.
This is not necessarily physical violence; it can be verbal and is about one group showing their dominance over another – for example sexualised and aggressive language. So, comments such as:
“Can they pull their shorts higher? Can they have their tops nice and tight?”
“You’re a girl, you don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“You’re a woman, do you even know the off-side rule.”
These are examples of overtly sexualised and sexually aggressive language being used to women involved in the sport and could be one explanation of why some women don’t continue to be engaged with football.
Future of women’s football
My research tells us that we must really focus on inclusivity starting at a young age.
We would recommend that football is something available to all genders in secondary schools.
We also hope that schools can work with local sports clubs and develop girls-only teams and leagues.
There should also be more emphasis on teacher training and how teachers and sports coaches can help us address some of these norms.
By banishing some of these gender stereotypes early on and preventing girls and women who want to participate from experiencing some of the symbolic violence we found takes place, we can hopefully create a much better environment for girls and women to thrive when playing football.
