Loving the World Cup? What about the women? #worldcup2010
Recently in the UK we elected a coalition government. So far it has been interesting. The outcry surrounding the fact there were not many women in the cabinet was significant. Not significant enough to be noticed by those in Government, but everyone else noticed, spoke and aired their grievances.
It’s now the World Cup and stone the crows, there is not a woman on any of the teams! Yes, that was written with some irony. You may have missed it if you don’t know me.
Did you know Germany have won the world cup twice this century already? No, that’s because I am writing about women’s football. In researching this blog I came across all sorts of interesting data. Like… there is not interest from the public for womens sport. Yes, mid last century before the rise of television (can you imagine listening to sport on the radio? in the 1930′s and 1940′s?) there was no interest in womens sport, so women only teams of which there were few, were just left to flounder in amateur sports. They would be eating their words if they realised they had missed a billion viewers for the womens world cup (which is next year, 2011 if you are interested.)
Women’s sport may not have been in the public interest in the past, but they didn’t mean Communist and former Communists stopped training the women on their teams. Far from it. They regularly trained and won medals for their female athletes, proving it was just westernised capitalist countries that are not interested in womenfolk in sport.
One of the reasons there are no pro teams of female footballers, on TV is because no one is interested in sponsoring them. So I am told by my terribly well educated football and gold fanatic ex husband. Gosh he will be pleased to have made it into one of my blogs. Yes, sport is all about money and sponsorship.
So let’s talk about it then.
Meet Brandi Chastrain, in the womens world cup final in 1999 (US against China) she scored the all important penalty, and the US won the game.
Brandi, whipped off her shirt – just like all the male footballers do and was thrilled with her goal.
She’s wearing a sports bra, and I bet that company that made it would have loved to have been sponsoring her. That image was all over the US, in all of the papers and just about everywhere. It was featured on Time magazine, Sports Illustrated and Newsweek. How much would that have cost a company if they were paying for that, in advertising. Missed opportunity?
A woman in sport with a significant achievement, she’d just helped her team win the world cup, should have no trouble will extracting money for that. This is the difference I suppose between pro sports here in the Uk and the rest of the world. Here we wouldn’t have heard a peep about her achievement.
Just like mainstream media barely mentioned that England had won the world cup in Cricket. Yes, the women’s team. They fended off Australia who have won the womens cricket world cup 5 times and won it for England. I recall their victory parade around London to this day – ah, it never happened, I was envisioning the day when our sportwomen were treated as equals. Yes, our women never got the recognition they deserved and let’s face it England winning anything is cause for celebration.
Being a nation that celebrates the underdog rather than the outright winners, we should have heard more about the Women’s rugby team and how they have made the finals on several occasions, in the Rugby world cup. Sadly they lost but even if they had won they wouldn’t have got the open topped buses that Jonny Wilkinson and his mob got when they won the world cup, after all our female sportswomen are virtually ignored.
What a role model for teenage girls, who at the best of time don’t want to do any kind of sport. Rooney and Beckham may inspire all our sons to be footballers, but what about our girls? They need to do sport too. They have to dig deep to find a role model, not because there aren’t any but because the sponsorship and support is not there for them. Once again they have to achieve 50% more than the menfolk to barely make a blip in history – is that what we want to teach our daughters?
What can we do to change this? Will there be one day, a field of men and women professional footballers working together to bring the cup home? You see, the women could teach the men a lot when it comes to winning.
About Sarah ArrowSarah Arrow is the managing editor of Birds on the Blog, in real life she is the communications director of a same day courier service. She is an enthusiastic UK based pro-blogger and co- author of the soon to be published Zero to Blogger
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3 Responses to Loving the World Cup? What about the women? #worldcup2010
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A couple of things here that are my 'knee jerk' reaction, Boss:
The Butler twins in my senior school were (non identical) sisters who were as sporting as they were academical achievers.
I, meanwhile thought hockey was dangerously masochistic, rounders a diversion (as long as you didn't have an intimate argument with the ball) and was happy with representing the 2nd team doubles in tennis, if it meant I didn't have to run allover that court…
That doesn't mean I don't (okay, okay: double negative already) enjoy watching women's sport, and how dare somebody assume that to be the case: When did anybody ASK me?
Look at the Bend it like Beckham film released 2002 in UK (2003 USA) – essentially a story about 2 girls good at football: £6m budget; £50m gross revenue.
That will be a classis example of no interest in female sports or females in sports then…
Twitter: Linda_Mattacks
Top post Sarah – and absolutely right about the lack of support for the the development of women's sport.
The FA appointed a Head of Women's Football a few year's ago – and there was some immediate improvement in media attention for the women's game coupled with a campaign to increase the level of participation at grass roots level where it's really necessary. Unfortunately, the FA then had a budget cut – and one of the first positions to go? You guessed it, Head of Women's Football.
As you say, sponsorship is lacking – and the sponsors won't come in until there's media coverage – and the media won't come in until there is an audience – and the sad fact is (not withstanding Linda's comments) as a generalisation, men don't want to watch women playing sport (um, unless it's beach volleyball of course) and women don't particularly either. The latter may be because it isn't given enough support and therefore popularity in shools.
So maybe that's where we have to start… ?
I have to say I'm totally oblivious to most sporting activity, although I am vaguely aware there's something football oriented going on at the moment… I wouldn't know if men or women were playing, it just doesn't register. Add to that the fact that my children's sports of choice are yoga (both) and karate (my son) neither of which are exactly spectator sports!
However, one thing I have noticed is that at my children's junior school the after school football club is open to boys and girls, as is the tag rugby club. There was a football tournament held as part of the Summer Fayre and an equal number of boys and girls matches were played. Additionally, one girl in my son's year (aged 10) plays in a local rugby team, the only girl on the side, and by all accounts she's one of the best players.
Whether this ethos is followed through at senior school remains to be seen, but certainly for the moment and in one school at least, it is there.