Bobby Charlton’s mother, Cissie Charlton, once remarked that her love of football was so dear to her, that she “cursed a thousand times over that [she] was born a lass.”

As a working-class woman from Manchester – supporting my football team whilst facing misogyny from male football fans is a troubling and paradoxical concept. Football is integral to my culture, class and history. And yet, how should I navigate the troubling research that shows 68% of male football fans hold openly misogynistic views? How do I reconcile my love of the beautiful game with the prejudice I face just for the simple fact of being a woman? 

In this blog, I will discuss my reflections on Manchester’s cultural history in its relation to football, and how women fit into this cultural framework. 

I recently saw an American comment on a tiktok video from when Taylor Swift performed at Anfield (Liverpool FC’s stadium), marvelling at how close the stadium was to the neighbouring terraced houses and estates – that the people who live there could sit on the street and hear the music from the stadium so closely. They asked if that was normal in England? To have stadiums in the midst of housing estates? 

How would you sum up 100 years of class, community and cultural history with a 150 character tiktok comment limit? 

How would you explain that people who would work in the factories, the mills, in the mines, would walk to stadiums on their day off. Would gather round their radio to listen to the matches. Football is a cultural centre for many working class people. Even today, you will catch children playing football on the road, in the parks, over lunchtime in schools. Children emulate their football idols – often ones who grew up in the same town and look or sound like them. You wouldn’t have to look hard to see kids in shirts with Marcus Rashford, Kobbie Mainoo or Phil Foden’s names on the back.

For me, football is the great leveller and cultural jewel of the UK – especially Manchester. It’s what connects me to my family. It’s what connects us to the world. It connects children to adults – any child can have an opinion on the match and talk to an adult as an equal. When I am travelling anywhere, I am always approached by people asking me about football in Manchester – United or City? I had a man hug me in Berlin and tell me how sorry he was about the ‘Manchester crash’, I later realised he was speaking about the Munich disaster. A Turkish shop owner in Paris – who spoke few words in English – started a conversation with me, as he heard me speaking to my friend, simply by saying ‘Sir Alex Ferguson?’. 

I had a friend at University once ask me ‘how do you decide what team to support?’. Well…it’s not a question of deciding, for many it’s just what you are born into. You just support who your mum or dad supports. And who their mum or dad supported, and so on. It’s communal, tribal and borderline religious. 

Have attitudes to women playing football and women in football spaces truly changed? A culture of abuse and misogyny: examined. 

It’s easy to see how women feel isolated and intimidated when entering into the realm of professional football – either as a fan, a coach, a lineswoman, a player or a manager. Misogyny is prevalent in football, whether mainstream broadcasters want to acknowledge it, or not. 

A study of male fans showed that 68% of them showed openly misogynistic views. 

I am brought back to my experience as a Manchester United fan: Manchester United only formed a women’s team in 2018. It seems to me that Manchester has dropped the ball – pun intended – by not establishing itself as a center for women’s football and a safe space for women, as it has with men. 

Not to mention the gender pay gap: A survey of women footballers revealed that 88% of UK Women’s Super League players earn less than £18,000 per year and that 58% have considered quitting for financial reasons. 

After Spain won the world cup in 2023 – their victory was marred by one of the players being forced a kiss on international television, sparking many of their staff to resign. It plagued social media for weeks, as it was debated whether men are allowed to kiss women without their consent, and if this is considered assault (it is!). Having to watch our own rights be debated in the wake of a win was all too much for me, and I had to stop following women’s football for a while so I could escape the realities of being a woman and supporting such a male dominated sport.

There are many male managers in women’s football – but I have never even seen a woman in the coaching staff of any men’s team. It makes me think, have things truly changed for women in football since Nettie Honeyball’s time?

However, when examining women’s long and often painful relationship with football in England, I would be amiss to not highlight the somber and uncomfortable truth: domestic violence often goes hand in hand with football hooliganism. 

Football does not cause domestic abuse. However, I would argue the culture of alcoholism and misogyny protects and encourages abuse. Research by Lancaster University showed cases of domestic abuse increased by 38% when England lost a match and 26% when they won or drew. Whilst I sat, enjoying the games and festivities, many women lost their lives due to violence after the games. Violence against women and girls is now considered a national emergency. 

How and why should women try and reconcile their class, culture and history with the misogynistic backlash to the recent success of women’s football? 

This paper offers three key recommendations to address sexism and misogyny in men’s football: 

1. Introduce a mechanism to identify, report, respond to and remedy sexism and misogyny in football. 
2. Redesign stadiums to create women friendly environments. 
3. Undertake further research to monitor the effectiveness of recommendations 1 and 2 and identify the best future mechanisms to drive forward change, in consultation with women fans. 

In summary, I think that reconciling my class and cultural football identity with misogyny is a challenging task. One that I don’t have the answers to. What I am going to do is continue my support of the women’s teams, try to safely confront misogynistic views where I can, and offer support to other women. 

I hope that in another hundred years’ time, girls aren’t being forced to stop playing football at a school level – and I hope that women aren’t isolated from supporting or playing the beautiful game due to the violent culture of misogyny that clouds football currently.

Resources

• Report and Support : If you or someone you know has experienced or witnessed any form of bullying, harassment, discrimination, gender based violence, hate or micro-aggressions, or have a safeguarding concern, you can report it anonymously or get support from a trained advisor. 
• Women’s Aid
• Greater Manchester victim support services – Call 0161 200 1950
• Women@Manchester Resources 
• There are campus league sports that you may be interested in: https://www.sport.manchester.ac.uk/sport-and-activity/sport-leagues/ 

Emma Shiels – Teaching, Learning and Student Experience Coordinator (Project and Events), Directorate of Student Experience

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