89% of women in football experience discrimination at work - What can be done?

At Culture Consultancy we’ve had the pleasure of speaking to Karen Dobres , former Director and now Special Projects Lead at Lewes FC in the past.

So when we saw this headline: '89% of women in football experience discrimination at work'[1], she was an obvious person to ask about it...

What we heard in response was an impassioned plea: that women in football, and women’s football, do not seek to survive by applying the standards and norms of men and men’s football. Imitation might be the sincerest form of flattery, but Karen is quite sure that men’s football doesn’t need the compliment.

Karen is looking for women’s football to take a different path: to develop in a sustainable way, to consciously avoid prioritising revenue above all else, to be a sport of and for women which recognises that their preferences, social conditioning, physiology, and societal privileges, are very different from that of their male counterparts.

Karen noted: “Football is default male and women in football are rarely allowed to be women in football. They are usually required to ‘ape’ men in football. Because sexism is still the wallpaper of football, we hardly notice the pay gaps, the unequal access to home pitches, the badly fitting kits and boots, the disparity in medical access at most clubs, the amount of boys as opposed to girls still, over 40 years since the outrageous and damning ban was lifted on the women’s game, playing football in the local parks and playgrounds.”

She’s right, of course. In the same month as the headline from Women In Football’s report, Thornaby FC closed down all its women and girls teams leaving over 100 females with nowhere to play and Reading Women were left high and dry, notifying the FA that they cannot take up their Championship license, when the club’s owner decided not to support the women’s side of the club.

So whilst women’s football around the world has come on in leaps and bounds in the last few years, there’s still a long way to go. And even Lewes FC (aka Equality FC), the one club in the world where the men and women are (and have been since 2017) equally resourced are severely feeling the pinch. Karen puts this down to the structures which allow teams supported by big men’s sides to flourish and women’s teams to drop down the leagues.

We need to cherish and preserve the cultural values of the women’s game – described by Karen as “inclusion, diversity, accessibility, party spirit, joy and a lack of toxic tribalism” and to amplify female voices in the sport. If (as the Women in Football report concluded), ‘sexism, bullying and harassment disproportionately affect women in football from underrepresented ethnic groups, both online and face to face’ then we need to increase representation and in turn, the power, support and confidence to agitate for change. Hitting “like” in? response to online memes that reflect on England Euros struggles by wryly observing “the men’s Lionesses team isn’t doing too well, is it?” isn’t enough.

You can read our interview with Karen and Lewes Women's team captain from earlier this year here. ?

[1] Women in Football survey: 89 per cent of women in football experience discrimination at work | Football News | Sky Sports