Shocking discrimination against women in football

Shocking levels of discrimination against women in the football industry have been revealed in a recent survey by the professional football network, Women in Football (WIF). And those levels continue to rise.

Out of a total of 995 female respondents, 89% reported that they had experienced discrimination while working in football, up from 82% in 2023 and 66% four years ago.

Worryingly, of those who reported an incident of discrimination at work, over 60% say no action was taken. And 16% of those women felt they were not even listened to when they made their complaint.This rose to almost a quarter (23%) for women of underrepresented ethnic origins.

Online hate was perceived to be on the rise, with almost half (44%) saying they had witnessed an increase in discriminatory social media posts, and 18% being directly subjected to more such abuse.

Almost nine in 10 female respondents (88%) believed women have to work harder than men to achieve the same recognition and benefits.

And of the 112 male respondents to the survey, three-quarters (74%) of those agreed with this.

WIF’s chief executive, Yvonne Harrison said: “Everyone knows that gender discrimination happens in football, but the problem isn’t just that it happens, there’s an even bigger problem around how football deals with it.”