Sexism in football – a problem that isn’t going awayMedia caption, ‘It shook me to the core’ – experiences of sexism in men’s footballBySally Freedman, BBC Sport senior journalist and Simon Casson, BBC Sport senior journalistPublished2 hours ago”Shut up. What do you know about football? You should be in the kitchen getting your husband’s tea.”Angela is a 72-year-old Liverpool fan. She’s been going to matches for decades.Yet still her presence is questioned. For one reason: she is a woman.Anti-discrimination charity Kick It Out received 131 reports of sexist incidents at football matches between the start of the season and the end of February. That’s more than double than for the same period last season.One female fan – who asked not to be named – told BBC Sport that misogyny in the game has stopped her from taking her daughter to men’s matches.”I’ll take her to the women’s game if that doesn’t get ruined, but I won’t be taking her to the men’s game until she’s a lot older,” she mentioned.”I wouldn’t feel safe and I certainly wouldn’t want to expose my daughter to sexism.”BBC Sport spoke to fans, the police and others to examine how common sexism is in football, why it happens, and what can be done to tackle it.What are women experiencing at matches?Zoe Hitchen began photographing men’s football while studying at university, and worked as a media-accredited English Football League photographer from 2008 to 2010. She is a passionate supporter of the men’s and women’s games.While working as a photographer, Zoe says she would regularly be targeted with sexist chants, and would be asked: “Do you even know what football is?””It felt like if you want to go to the men’s game, you have to grin and bear it,” she says.And it wasn’t only coming from fans.”Mascots were there to grab the crowd’s attention, but often the mascot would be creeping up behind me as I was sat photographing the game,” she says.”The mascot would come and grope me.”Zoe says she would report the incidents to clubs but nothing was done. “I was quite outspoken for a woman working in football and I would complain and nothing would get done,” she says. “I remember saying to security: ‘That’s assault, you literally cannot touch me.'”Another female football fan – who asked not to be named – told us: “How dare they think they can turn around and belittle you or try to demean you and push you out of something that you love and you’re passionate about.”It’s not OK.”Another fan shared the experience of using toilets at a stadium – and men being present as “the norm”.”I walked into an open cubicle in the women’s toilets to be welcomed by a man about to urinate,” she mentioned. “I immediately backtracked and went to the next one to be greeted by the same situation.”How about online?Simran Atwal is a Derby County fan and volunteer at Her Game Too, external – a campaign group that aims to tackle sexism and champion women in sport.
Most of her experience has been of online abuse.
Simran says images she posts online can sometimes end up on other people’s social media accounts – and once there, anyone can comment. It happened with a picture showing her and her friends before a Derby game.
“Some of the comments were very sexualised and I had no control over the posts,” she says.
“In the online space, this is definitely the norm. I don’t know if it’s because of who I’m friends with, but I don’t know anyone who hasn’t experienced it.”
It doesn’t always end there.
One female fan told BBC Sport that images she featured in had been manipulated using artificial intelligence.
“Someone made it look like my friends and I were wearing bikinis,” she mentioned.
This ‘nudification’ or ‘de-clothing’ of images – without consent – is illegal in the UK, but the fan says she knows she is not alone in being targeted.
“Some of my friends have seen doctored images of themselves which look really convincing,” she mentioned. “They then worry that these images are out there forever.”
