Football feminism: women and girls are pitch perfect

Made for This Game: an era of change?

At the end of February, the FA launched a new campaign titled “Made for This Game” in line with its “Reaching Higher” strategy, with the aim of continuing the momentum for equality for women and girls in football and encouraging them to be “fearless and apologetic” in claiming their place on the pitch. The campaign commits to creating opportunity at all stages; from grassroots level, through the inclusion of girls in football from primary school upwards, to building on the success of national women’s leagues. The FA’s predecessor strategy “Inspiring Positive Change” coincided with record growth in women’s involvement in football, resulting in 77% of schools offering equal access to football - showing a direct correlation between encouraging girls to participate in football from a young age and engagement with the sport. Clubs are now prioritising player pathways for female footballers from a younger age, with a focus on providing access to specialised coaching to foster elite performance, as a result of growing demand for higher quality female players. More widely, a new compensation model is being implemented for girls’ academies in the WSL and Championship, mirroring the EPPP system used in the men’s game, to nurture a talent pipeline to the future England Lionesses. This model aims to protect young players, who have not signed professional contracts as they are under 18, from being poached without recompense. It also ensures clubs receive a “recognition fee” based on the player’s academy tenure and the league of the clubs involved. While the FA’s initiatives must be acknowledged for driving transformational growth, there is still work required to unlock full equality of opportunity.

 

Structural and Institutional Sexism in Football

The success of early women’s teams, such as the Dick, Kerr Ladies Team - WW1 female munitions workers, who achieved spectators of 53,000, and represented England in the first international women’s football game - was stifled by restrictions on women’s football, pushing female players to smaller fields, fewer resources and reduced spectator support. Some of the effects of these challenges are still felt today; 52% of female fans report experiencing sexism on matchdays, including instances of sexist chants, abuse of officials, and harassment, which in some cases has escalated to more serious concerns. Also, male-centric research and practices prevail across the sport – only recently were white shorts substituted due to recognition of menstrual cycle anxiety. There remains a knowledge gap regarding how physiological differences between men and women impacts their performance as athletes, for example, increased inflammation during the ovulation cycle makes ACL injuries up to six times more likely in women. While women’s football clubs have historically lacked staff with specialist knowledge related to female physiology and health needs, such as nutritionists and analysts, this is beginning to change with increased investment into the women’s game.

 

Stronger in the face of adversity

The success of women’s football continues to grow, with increasing spectator support, revenue and visibility on both the national and international stages. The 2023 Women’s World Cup had record attendance of almost 2 million, and by 2024, women’s football ranked as the fifth most-attended sport in the UK in 2024, beating rugby league and motorsport. The total revenue of the top 15 women’s football teams grew 35% during 2023-2024 to a total of GBP99 million; Arsenal women, rivalling Barcelona as the top-earning women’s football team worldwide, increased their matchday income by 64% - by playing the majority of home matches at the Emirates Stadium, Arsenal shows its commitment to supporting the women’s team as much as the men’s team. The club’s efforts towards equality have paid off, with Arsenal women recently winning the UEFA Women’s Champions League. This also raises the point that men’s and women’s football do not have to compete but can assist each other – the women’s teams can utilise existing infrastructure of the men’s teams, such as main club stadia and elite training facilities, to boost spectator attendance and standard of play. The success of women’s clubs pre-season tours in the United States, where the touring clubs play in prominent venues which hosted the top men’s international football teams, demonstrates the effectiveness of this approach.

 

The business case for women’s football – client opportunities

Women’s football fans are more likely than others to support their teams via digital channels, enabling new investment opportunities, and empowering female players to generate different sources of income. The WSL utilises YouTube as its main streaming service and attracted 1.5 million live views in the first three game-weeks of the 2024/25 season. Last year, the WSL agreed an unprecedented GBP65 million media rights deal, which demonstrates the growing commercial interest in women’s football, further emphasised by the significant increase of live broadcast of women’s matches resulting from the agreement. The deal also includes female players being granted the right to promote highlight reels of their performances on their social media channels – something not currently seen in the men’s game - which will allow individual players to enhance their personal brands and bolster the digital fanbase of women’s football.

The expansion of major competitions resulting from increased demand for professional women’s football - the UEFA Women’s Champions League growing from 16 to 18 teams, the introduction of the UEFA Women’s Europa Cup, and the FIFA Women’s World Cup becoming a 48-team competition - will continue to positively impact popularity and professionalism. This visibility will not only prompt greater allocation of resources to women’s football, but will also facilitate amplification of the voice of female athletes. Increased rights are already being recognised for both players and coaches, for example extended paid maternity leave and leave for adoptive parents, allowing women to advance professionally whilst being mothers.

Initiatives backed by commercial partners have been hugely successful. National initiatives have empowered 3.8 million girls to play football since 2019 via a network of over 300 specialist hubs, which deliver football programmes to school girls and training for primary school teachers to engage girls in the sport. Turkish team Beşiktaş JK partnered with Vodafone to deliver a double-header men’s and women’s match in the club’s main stadium, which attracted 40,000 spectators and live broadcast deals, and also demonstrated effective utilisation by a women’s team of their male counterpart’s existing infrastructure. Michele Kang, owner of three women’s football teams (including London City Lionesses), has set an example for other investors with a GBP39 million investment into her players’ health by founding an “innovation hub focused” on research on the specific performance needs of female athletes - the London City Lionesses have subsequently secured promotion to the WSL.

Women’s clubs are becoming increasingly financially stable with broadcast agreements secured, and both clubs and major competitions are attracting steady investment – UEFA has committed EUR1 billion to this year’s Women’s EUROs, with a focus on growth over the next six years. Also, the 2027 FIFA Women’s World Cup being hosted in South America for the first time will grow international fanbases. However, investors are needed at all levels to unlock a sustainable pipeline of both future talent and future audiences; there is currently a GBP85 million per annum funding gap between men and women’s academies, which could be a key factor in hindering continuation of the success of the current Lionesses.

 

Moving forward

The blueprint of women’s tennis, as one of the highest paid and watched female sports internationally, could be a path to follow. Growth and the overcoming of similar historical gender disparity has been attributed to increased media coverage, thereby attracting a wider audience, including children who see female role models and in turn take up the sport. The England and Wales Cricket Board have also increased investment into the women’s game with the Hundred cricket tournament, where men’s and women’s matches take place back-to-back at the same venue. This structure not only highlights the success of combining men’s and women’s fixtures but demonstrates a stronger financial commitment to women’s cricket by elevating its visibility and resources. Although good progress is being made in recognising this potential for women’s football, in order for the potential to be fully realised, teams and commercial partners should prioritise both levelling up the opportunities and investment available to the women’s game, whilst capitalising on the pre-existing infrastructure and platforms for exposure provided by the men’s game.  

Sponsorship deals and partnerships, investment and funding into school initiatives and grassroots programmes, media coverage of women’s games and successes, media deals, promoting social media channels, and the hard work undertaken by the FA to draw attention to these avenues could help to achieve growth of the women’s game to a point where it feels comparable to the men’s game. There is a great opportunity to support girls and women to feel confident on the pitch and to invest long-term into female sport and equality – it is now a matter of capitalising on the momentum.