The sports world is predominantly a man’s world, and it’s been so for years, but to quote Cher -  “it would be nothing, nothing without a woman”. Women in sport, whether they’re athletes, fans, journalists, coaches or analysts, often face gender inequality and lack of opportunities compared to the men in sport. Female sports fans DO exist. We just don’t get much attention from the sports clubs and brands.

Research shows that when it comes to popular sports, 47% of passionate and highly engaged fans are female. Women are a growing sports audience all around the globe, yet we are rarely involved and respected in the community. For example, did you know Iranian women were only allowed to watch football live in 2019 after decades of being banned from football stadiums?

Traditionally sport hasn’t been a “girly” thing, and women didn’t always have the opportunity to watch and play sports. This has resulted in numerous stereotypes that we are met with daily as sports fans. We are only interested in sports to impress the boys or if our significant male others are into it. I also spend 90 minutes of my free time watching men’s football because the players are attractive despite them being just tiny points on the screen half of the time.

I guess the idea of women liking sport for the sport itself is just ridiculous. But okay, let’s accept the fact the girls can also watch sports. They are capable of watching sports, but they aren’t capable of knowing the rules, statistics, history and facts. We are always questioned and quizzed about our knowledge by male fans. Male fans can comment on a match saying it’s “a mad one”, but a girl is required to write a 2000-word essay filled with proper statistics and relevant references. 

Watching sport can often be an unsafe and hostile environment for women. The insults are various, but most popular ones would be related to being in the kitchen and cleaning. Female fans get sexualised a lot of times and often it’s without their consent. Every major sports competition is always followed by media and men picking out the “hottest” female fans in the crowd, sharing their photos online and oversexualising them.

In my personal experience - I have been watching football for more than 15 years now, I have two degrees in sports industries and, yet I’m often questioned whether I know what offside is. When I was 11 years old, I wrote for my school’s magazine, and I interviewed a local football expert. He told me not to bother with the writing about something I love, as the only successful thing I can do in my life is to marry a football player.

That’s the type of comments all women in sport face, but mostly female fans. The toxic culture of masculinity in sport needs to stop. It’s getting better for us girls, but there is so much more that needs to be done until we are treated equally. However, nothing can ever stop me from loving sports, as the whole point of sports is the message of unity, equality and love.

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Written by Silvija Zabcic

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