It's been just over two weeks since the Women's World Cup ended and it is safe to say that women's football has been well and truly catapulted into the spotlight - but perhaps not for all the right reasons. In this week's Herstory, we will explore the highs and lows of the world's biggest sporting event, and discuss the global impact of the 2023 Women's World Cup.
To kick off, let's take a look at some of the many triumphs of the tournament. Held across Australia and New Zealand, this year's event attracted over 1.9 million attendees across the 64 total games, beating Canada's 2015 World Cup that had 1.3 million in attendance. In fact, this WWC has been so popular that the semi-final between the Lionesses and the Matildas amassed over 11 million viewers, making it the country's most viewed sporting event ever. South Africa, Nigeria and Morocco were the first African teams to make it past the group stages and into the last sixteen. Despite Jamaica's Reggae Girlz having consistently been underfunded and relying largely on donations, they too reached the last sixteen for the first time in their history. Smaller countries undeniably rocked the boat this year, with the bigger challengers, such as France and Germany failing to make it out of the group stages. Narrowly missing out on bringing football home, the Lionesses had a fantastic tournament, with Mary Earps winning the Golden Glove, Chloe Kelly scoring a record breaking penalty, at 69mph (faster than any Premier League goal last season might I add), and reaching the final, something England hasn't done since 1966. All in all, this tournament has been a resounding success for women's sports, so why is this not being recognised?
Of course, we cannot talk about the 2023 World Cup without celebrating the achievement of Spain, this year's winners. Spain's journey to the World Cup has been tumultuous to say the least. Fifteen former players orchestrated a coup of sorts in protest against head coach Jorge Vilda, calling for his resignation after years of incompetent coaching techniques and conditions. Until they saw any change, they rejected their call-ups for the national team. Naturally, they were ignored. Of the original squad, only three proceeded to play, so winning with an almost entirely new team was definitely an incredible feat. One of those three original players was Jennifer Hermoso, whose name you have probably heard many times by now. While receiving medals and celebrating, RFEF president Luis Rubiales kissed Hermoso without her consent. This is categorically sexual assault and it was broadcast live to millions of viewers. The reason as to why I'm writing this two weeks after the incident is because it has taken two weeks for a man who was recorded blatantly violating a woman to be reprimanded. What precedent does this set? Why did it take so long for action to be taken? The saddest part of all is that the most important accomplishment in women's football has been tarnished by the actions of a man.
This is just one of the long list of examples of why football is still not a safe, inclusive space for women. Take Mason Greenwood for example. He is undeniably guilty of domestic abuse, regardless of whether his charges were dropped, yet he has been welcomed with open arms to a new club. Getafe FC are fawning over their new signing which, given the aforementioned Hermoso-Rubiales situation, is unsurprising and hints at the insidious culture surrounding football and women in Spain. Further, Fifa president Infantino Gianni made his thoughts on women in sport known, explaining that women should prove their worth to men, to 'open the doors' to the opportunities in front of them. It's funny he should say that as the Fifa allocated prize pool for the women's World Cup was US$110 million, while the men had nearly quadruple that amount at US$440 million in 2022. So much for equal opportunities. This flagrant disparity in the involvement and interest in the women's sport was only amplified as neither the Prime Minister Rishi Sunak nor any of the Royal Family bothered to show up in support of the Lionesses in the final. Prince William, President of the FA, royally snubbed the Lionesses by revealing he would not be in attendance with a lukewarm apology video in which he reminds us of the feminist hero he is by stating he is the 'father of a daughter'. Although he couldn't be bothered to attend the biggest event for the England Women's team, he will be attending England v Argentina in the men's Rugby World Cup this weekend.
Being a football fan, I've spoken about misogyny in football before on She's Progressive, and we've explored the history of women in the sport. For 50 years between 1921 and 1971, women were banned from playing league football, and since then they've been left to pick up the pieces. Here lies another massive issue in football. Men are the default, women are just a subsidiary. We can see this when we look at the way we talk about men and women in football. If you Google who is Australia's top scorer, you will be told it is Tim Cahill, when actually Sam Kerr has scored the most goals for the country, but her achievement is not acknowledged. Or how it isn't known as the 'Men's Premier League' or the 'Men's World Cup', its just the Premier League or World Cup, because men are the default, we have to distinguish that we're talking about women as we are subordinate. Never the main event, always the afterthought.
However, I don't want women's achievements to be perpetually tethered to the existence of men. These accomplishments should be celebrated respectively. The 2023 World Cup was a seismic shift for women in sport. Some of the worlds best athletes have been given their rightful recognition and it is the culmination of years of relentless dedication to women's sports. The world is finally opening its eyes to the talent and skill of extraordinary players. We should be celebrating the likes of Salma Paralleulo (Young Player of the Tournament), Hinata Miyazawa (Golden Boot Winner), Mary Earps (Golden Glove Winner) and Aitana Bonmati (Golden Ball Winner). Women's achievements are important. This event has made monumental leaps towards progress and now with more momentum than ever before, women's sports can only grow.
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