Why It Can Be Intimidating to Be a Female Football Fan

The World Cup is here and I, a female, am loving it. Despite almost all of my girl friends showing little to no interest in the proceedings, I have unashamedly watched several hours of match-play every day for the past fortnight. But having no one interested enough to discuss it apart from my dad has made me think about the position of women in football.

Last year I went to a World Cup qualifying match at Wembley stadium, and found myself sat in front of four men in their mid-to-late fifties who went on to spend the entire ninety minutes thoroughly abusing the play of every member of the English team (who won 2-0). Enlightening as it was to hear the no doubt well-informed opinions of these dour, beer-drinking men, it couldn't help but make me think that this is the stereotype of football fans; somewhat embittered, vaguely misogynistic men with their pints, perfectly entitled in the view that they would make a vastly better manager than any employed by England. This is not a very encouraging stereotype for women wanting to just go and watch an innocent match of football.

I will freely admit that I cannot name one single female footballer, and did not even know there was a women's World Cup next year until a pundit mentioned it in a half-time discussion; however, while my knowledge could undoubtedly be improved, I don't think that women should be restricted to only supporting their own sex at football and be made to feel like the men's game is an exclusive world of which we can have no part.

A man in my life, when I commented once on my support of Manchester United, responded with, "so you just like looking at their legs, then?" While not entirely unpredictable, this highlighted to me the need for change.

So what can be done? Predominantly, improving the accessibility of football for women and girls, both by upping the profile of women's football and encouraging girls to get excited about footballing competitions, without (as I certainly found at school) boys aggressively discussing a myriad of players I'd never heard of. I would certainly be in favour of certain seating areas being either exclusively female, or at least with a stipulation against beer-throwing and shirt-removing. While this development is unlikely to happen any time soon (as far as I know), it would, I believe, open up attending matches to a wider, perhaps more nervous audience.

Overall, female fans, I salute you. We need ordinary women to feel passionately about male-dominated sports, outside of the scantily-clad women crowd-cameramen often seem to focus on. Keep cheering, keep wearing the memorabilia, and just enjoy the sport as much as anyone else can.