The Final: FIFA Women’s World Cup® 2019 vs Gender Equality

Have you wondered why in the last couple of weeks every time you wanted to Google something, the Google sign would turn into a football pitch full of female players?

This was actually the first and most prominent sign of the incredible attention that the FIFA Women’s World Cup® 2019, that finished last Sunday with the victory of the invincible US team, drew worldwide. This global sports tournament encouraged international organizations, the sports industry, politicians, private sponsors and each one of us to put gender equality in sport on the table.

What is the issue here? According to UN Women, the main problems that female athletes face nowadays are invariably: gender pay gap, lack of targeted investment that would allow women and girls to develop their careers in sport and gender-based violence. The results of the 2017 special edition of the Global Sports Salaries Survey (GSSS), dedicated to gender inequality in global team sport, are striking: the annual salary and bonuses of one of the best football players in the world, Lionel Messi, is twice as big as annual salaries of all women footballers from the top 7 women’s football leagues combined. This accounts for – and have a seat now – 1693 players. Similarly, NBA male basketball players make 96 times more than WNBA female professionals.

Not surprisingly, less money means less opportunities to play. Apart from receiving a salary that hardly allows them to sustain themselves, women athletes face much more difficulties in finding the sponsorship necessary for the development of their careers. The same problem is dealt with by female sports associations and federations. They frequently struggle for sourcing financing for their activities and events. As a result of financial constraints, GSSS 2017 reveals that only 0.93 percent of the world’s professional footballers are women.

Another issue too commonly faced by female athletes is gender-based mistreatment. This problem is particularly complex and, as the recent example of Colombia shows, is very difficult to resolve. Last year, two Colombian female footballers Melissa Ortiz and Isabella Echeverri decided to publicly address the sexual and financial discrimination faced by women footballers in the Colombian national team. Sadly, the reaction of the Colombian Football Federation to these accusations was quite opposite to what might be expected: the cut of resources has led to exclusion of the Colombian national team from international tournaments since July last year. As a result, although Colombia scored fourth in the 2018 Female Copa America in Chile, it did not participate in FIFA Women’s World Cup® this year at all.

“Football is the most widely played and watched sport in the world”, says Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, the UN Under-Secretary-General and Executive Director of UN Women, and adds that “it can have a massive impact on advancing gender equality, both in the world of sport and beyond”. And this impact must be created, starting from the highest levels of sports authority. Notably, this year FIFA and UN Women signed a first-ever Memorandum of Understanding to work together to “change policies, raise awareness on gender equality, and use football as a tool to empower women and girls worldwide”.

What is the solution? According to Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, we need three different types of stakeholders to get involved in the process. “The private sector needs to step up and sponsor women’s sport on equal terms. The media needs to produce more and better coverage of women on and off the field. And we need women’s rights activists to drive awareness of injustices and to push for stronger accountability.” However, the ripple effect has already started:

Visa, one of the sponsors of FIFA Women’s World Cup® 2019, has launched an amazing campaign aimed at disseminating hope and creating role models of women footballers by telling their stories.

Nike, one of the biggest clothing brands in the world, has recently changed its maternity policy and committed to include in future sponsorship contracts a provision protecting athletes’ remuneration during and after their pregnancy.

Colombia, where female footballers received huge support from their male colleagues, is working towards hosting the next FIFA Women’s tournament in 2023.

And good old Google, that always notifies you about events of global importance.

There is a rising global momentum for gender equality and sports is one of its best drivers. Global initiatives such as FIFA Women’s World Cup® 2019 are landmark opportunities to raise awareness and to foster the necessary changes. Suffice to say, the final sold-out game between US and the Netherlands has been watched by 57,900 spectators in the Stade de Lyon, not to mention the audience gathered in countless pubs all round the world on this Sunday night. To quote Nikita Parris, one of the football players that tells her story through Visa’s campaign: “People say there is a glass ceiling but I don’t believe that, I think that sport can smash that glass ceiling.”

#WomenInSport #FIFAWWC #sustainabledevelopment #genderequality #SDG5

Sources:

1. https://time.com/5620124/team-usa-womens-world-cup-final/

2. https://www.fifa.com/womensworldcup/news/mlambo-ngcuka-football-can-have-a-massive-impact-on-advancing-gender-equality

3. https://www.fifa.com/womens-football/news/fifa-and-un-women-sign-first-ever-memorandum-of-understanding

4. https://www.visa.co.uk/about-visa/sponsorships-promotions/fifa-partnership/fifa-womens-world-cup.html

5. http://www.unwomen.org/en/about-us/directorate/executive-director/ed-bio

6. http://www.unwomen.org/en/news/in-focus/women-and-sport

7. http://www.unwomen.org/en/news/stories/2019/6/news-un-women-at-the-fifa-womens-world-cup

8. https://globalsportssalaries.com/GSSS%202017.pdf

9. https://www.bbc.com/sport/football/47410463

10.https://www.reuters.com/article/us-soccer-usa-colombia/women-footballers-in-colombia-revolt-over-mistreatment-idUSKBN1QQ0F1

11.https://www.cbsnews.com/news/following-backlash-nike-will-change-its-pregnancy-policy-in-future-athlete-contracts/