Sexism in football

Women in Football supports female working in the industry 

Woman's Day at Wembley arena

Even after the incident in Paris where Chelsea fans brought the racism in football back to the media agenda, there has still not been much talk about sexism in football. 

This was changed by Woman in Football, an organisation which launched campaign to challenge discrimination inside the industry. 

The campaign group celebrates achievements of women working in the male dominated industry of football, lobbies and advises against sexism inside the sport and offers a network of support, contacts and mentoring for the next generation professionals.

To mark the International Women’s Day and to bring attention to the issue, the campaign group hosted a panel discussion in the home of English football, Wembley arena on 8th of March. 

Campaign hashtags #SheBelongs and #ShameOnTheGame were actively used by the audience which consisted of women working all around the industry. 

After a Google+ Hangout session, during which footballers from England and Scotland teams, currently playing in a tournament in Cyprus attended the conversation via video-link, football agent Dentaa Amoateng and the Head of Security and Operations at Wembley National Stadium, Julia Pendry, offered their opinions on the latest developments on the sexism in the game.

Women need to be competent

Pendry, who was awarded the Member of Victorian Order award for her leadership skills, made it clear that it was her competence that made her confident during her challenging career. 

She said: “If we start to bang the drums, we need to make sure that we are competent.

“What we don’t want is a situation where we are allowed in and we are actually not that good and can’t do the jobs.”

After a Q&A session, a sport law student Anna Storer said, that she almost became emotional while Pendry talked about women knowing their limitations and accepting they need to earn the opportunities equally to men.

“It should not be the way to take things forward that women should just get jobs and opportunities because they are woman,” she said. 

“We should only get the jobs if we are competent to do them. Not just because some organisation needs to ‘tick the female box’,” she said.

She added that there are very professional women out there who can compete with men and do just as well as them, but women who are not competent and get these jobs for wrong reasons, will not take the case forward in the right way, quite the contrary.

Fellow sports law student, Isabella Hislop, agreed, stating that “no-one can take skill away from you.” 

She said: “Sometimes I get these people who instantly think that I don’t know what I am talking about, but I can show them that I know. It just takes confidence to stand up for yourself in this business.”

A long time member of the organisation, Janie Frampton, who retired from refereeing to work on her own consultancy, says that female football has always been her passion, but male football has been her challenge.

She talked about the horrendous “banter” she got from the stands during her career and what she thinks needs to change.

“I asked the men if they would be offended when people shouted that they wish my family dies. They were and so was I when that was shouted at me. 

“They just think that because I am a women it would make me more emotional to hear that. It was over an offside and I struggle to understand what offside had to do with it.”

#SheBelongs is a month-long campaign, supported by Everyday Sexism, to raise awareness of discrimination and sexist abuse, especially on match days, and how to report it through #ShameOnTheGame. 

You can find out more about Women in Football by following them on Twitter: @womeninfootball and on their website: www.womeninfootball.co.uk

Tourists gathering around the iconic stadium

Wembley stadium is known as the home of football which made it the perfect place for the event.

Dolce Vita Editor Ida Aari celebrated Women's Day at Wembley

Missed the event?
Listen the whole Q&A session here:

Want to find out more about sexism in football? 
No worries, we made a simple prezi for you so start exploring:



Are you a football fan or working in the industry? Answer these two questions to help us understand if this is a problem we should take a closer look at.

Create your free online surveys with SurveyMonkey , the world's leading questionnaire tool.