Gender and Sexism in football

Gender and Sexism in Football 

Years ago, people used to say women could not play football but now anybody can play the beautiful game. 

At the beginning of 2004 Sepp Blatter came up with a theory on how the women's game could become more popular. 'Let the women play in more feminine clothes like they do in volleyball. Female players are pretty, if you excuse me for saying so, and they already have some different rules to men – such as playing with a lighter ball. That decision was taken to create a more female aesthetic, so why not do it in fashion?'

So why is women's soccer underrated? First of all, when football was first invented in the mid 1800s, the majority of women were working in factory's or at home while the men were either at work or in this case playing football.   

The last time England's men's team reached the semi-finals of a major tournament was the 1996 European Championships where the lost to the old enemy Germany on penalties. As far as the women's team are concerned, they reached the final of the 1984 where they lost to Sweden and the 2009 European championships where they received a thumping 6-2 defeat at the hands of the old enemy Germany.    

This clearly states that the women had most certainly had more success lately than the men. But this still doesn't change the fact that we still see a lot more men's football then women. Why that is, is a good question.

If you look all the big clubs in the Premier League, most of them have  a women's football team. Take Arsenal as an example, Arsenal have been the most successful women's team winning 12 titles with the latest being in 2010. When was the last time the men won the league? 2004. So you can clearly see that the women have had the more success over the years.

Over the past few years, football has witnessed some moments in which sexism has been an issue. Let's take commentator Andy Gray as an example. Gray was sacked for making a sexist comment on the assistant referee Sian Massey saying that female officials 'don't know the offside rule'. That to me is a load of trash because many male linesmen get off-side decisions wrong, take Luis Suarez's  second goal against England in the 2014 World Cup. 

Ever since the women's Euros this summer, I would say that women's football has got a lot more popular. Whether it's to do with England reaching the semis I don't know but it has certainly grabbed the interest of fans in England.