It’s 2019 and Scotland’s women team will be playing in the Fifa Women’s World Cup in France this coming June. Yet despite their success women football players can’t seem to catch a break.
Last year saw a 400% rise in the number of reports of discrimination and harassment incidents directed at women in football.
Eva Lockhart (18), who plays for St Mirren W.F.C, says she has faced discrimination in her pursuit of a career in football, “I constantly get told that football is a boys sport and I shouldn’t be playing it. I’ve been called a lesbian and all sorts of homophobic slurs even though I have a boyfriend.”
“When I was younger, I played for St Mirren boys’ team and we would receive a lot of judgement. People would say stuff because there was a girl playing for the team, even though we were unbeaten for 3 seasons.”
“I never let any of this stop me from pursuing football, and as I have gotten older I have noticed more people respect me so it is a surprise that this sort of stuff is still happening. Women should be able to play football without any sort of stigma being attached.”
This isn’t just a singular incident either. Just recently JD had to come out and apologise for the marketing of the new Scotland kit. The men’s version saw Kieran Tierney sporting the new t-shirt to advertise for men. Yet the women’s t-shirt was advertised using a model in ripped jeans, posing provocatively – why wasn’t a player for the Scotland women’s team used to start with?
Something has to change in women’s football. For starters the players should be considered professionals, even now with Scotland in the world cup and Glasgow City absolutely dominating the competition and winning titles left, right and centre, this is still considered as nothing more than a hobby to them.
In 2018 Norwegian footballer Ada Hegerberg became the first woman to ever win a Ballon d’Or and it was well deserved, she scored 31 goals in just 20 appearances and 15 goals in only 9 Champions League appearances. Yet when she stepped up on stage and was asked to twerk for everyone by host DJ Martin Solveig. Proving even when women are almost taking seriously by this profession it is ruined by sexist comments.
The current state of women’s football is an atrocity and if it is to ever be taken seriously by the public then it should at least be taken seriously by those actually involved in the sport.
