Last week, women around the country spoke up about their love of football and why despite the age we live in, sexism is still a heavy part of the sport.
From our fantastic England team who have reached the Cyprus Cup final, to the lineswomen and assistant referees, to the CEOs, directors and other members of staff, women are an integral part of football in the 21st century.
Last week, alongside International Women’s Day, the group “women in football,” which represents more than 1200 women in the sport, contacted all 92 Football League clubs about the issue of sexism after footage emerged of Chelsea’s medic Dr Eva Carneiro and assistant referee Helen Byrne suffering sexist chants and taunts at matches.
Do people really think this is still acceptable? Many fans see it as banter, but it’s demeaning and unfair.
It’s not just those on the pitch that have to deal with sexism on a regular basis, Karen Brady has well documented the sexist remarks that have been made against her – she famously sold a player after he said something sexist to her on a club coach.
People in all walks of life suffer with sexist remarks and as, a football writer and woman, I am one of them.
I have been a football fan and football player since I was a little girl and since then I have been used to people looking at me differently when I started joining in with football chat – that is until they realised I actually knew what I was talking about.
As a football journalist I come across sexist comments occasionally and most of the time they just go straight over my head and I laugh at them. But sometimes you cannot help but feel insulted.
I have only been a sports journalist for about two years and while most of the time I will encounter nothing when writing or investigating stories, but there has been the occasional time I have been shocked at comments made against me.
I was writing a story late one night whilst talking with my editor via email – it had been one of those stupidly busy nights where basically every team in England had played and we were in a rush to get everything out. Despite being the only one working that night, the editor was not happy with the speed at which I was working.
I listened to said editor bang on about why women should not be in football – “Women should not be on a sports desk, they belong in the kitchen.” I was gobsmacked. Why I didn’t report it?
I had just started my career and quite simply he could ruin it in one foul swoop. I was not prepared to risk that for one stupid comment.
I think that’s one of the problems why sexism exists. There is a large part of us that know what we are getting ourselves into by getting into the football industry.
We know there will be days where things are said that hurt us, days where we can shrug them off but most of the time things are great because we are doing what we love best.
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