![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.euruni.edu\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/Women-world-cup-winners-3.jpg\")
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You could say\u00a0there isn\u2019t as much interest in women\u2019s sport as there is in\u00a0men\u2019s. You could say that men’s\u00a0sport generates more revenue through advertising, sponsorship, and so on. But\u00a0there’s no denying that there’s an underlying problem of sexism here.\u00a0And\u00a0it’s not being tackled. The World Cup winning women\u2019s U.S. football team drew the largest U.S. television audience for a football match ever <\/em>\u2013 men\u2019s or women\u2019s. That\u2019s a fact that can\u2019t simply be ignored.<\/p>\n \n Sepp Blatter, infamous for the corruption allegations that blighted his term as the eighth president of FIFA, never seemed to attach much importance to encouraging equality. This is an issue that any high-profile member of the football community should deem vitally important. Although, to give him his due, he did offer one suggestion for increasing interest in women\u2019s football. \u201cThey could, for example, have tighter shorts.\u201d This is a man who was the president of the world\u2019s leading football body. If he doesn\u2019t take women\u2019s sport seriously, who will?<\/p>\n \n Countless other examples of sexism paint a similarly worrying picture. Chelsea\u2019s ex-first-team doctor, Eva Carneiro, highlighted an enormous problem when, following her complaints of sexist abuse and discrimination at the football club, she revealed that at no point did the FA ask to hear her side of the story. She said, \u201cIt is incidents such as these, and the lack of support from the football authorities, that make it so difficult for women in the game.\u201d<\/p>\n Women all over the world, in all walks of life, are insulted when outdated gender roles are perpetuated.\u00a0This is\u00a0something that Salvo Sports obviously didn\u2019t think was a big deal. A sports kit they released in 2015 featured the following washing instructions: \u201cGive this jersey to your woman. IT\u2019S HER JOB.\u201d The clear idea portrayed here is that while men go out and play football, women should be at home washing the kit.<\/p>\n The lackluster apology, in which women are cited as \u201cmore capable\u201d in their laundry-washing abilities, is equally insulting \u2013 this time to both men and women alike. Was no man even slightly offended by the implication that a woman, purely by virtue of her gender, is supposedly better at washing clothing than he is? And where does this assumption come from? Is there a talent for washing hidden in the extra X chromosome and missing from the Y?<\/p>\n Salvo Sports need to be made aware that post-furor apologies just aren\u2019t enough. They may not have intended to humiliate women. They may well issue an apology, but how about thinking these things through first? What happened to \u2018think before you speak\u2019? Any apology that rolls out the pathetic old \u201cwe apologize profusely for any misinterpretations\u201d is misguided. It also serves to absolve the guilty party of any real culpability, casting the blame instead on the people who (in this case quite rightly) took offense.<\/p>\n Examples of sexism such as these simply lead back to the notion that women aren\u2019t welcome on the pitch. Or, as the Eva Carneiro case suggests, even the sidelines.<\/p>\n Gender equality in sport needs to become the norm. Football players shouldn\u2019t be surprised to have a female coach, a sportswoman\u2019s attire shouldn\u2019t be a point for discussion, and the hard work and accomplishments of talented female athletes should not be undermined by belittling interview questions. Justin Trudeau summed it up perfectly when asked why having a gender-equal cabinet was important to him. \u201cBecause it\u2019s 2015.\u201d Maybe we could all take a (maple) leaf out of his book.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Sexism is prevalent in many arenas, and the world of sport is no exception. There seems to be a constant stream of complaints from sportswomen suffering from inappropriate comments, discrimination, insulting generalizations and inequality. From a financial point of view, a startling pay gap still exists. It\u2019s something we\u2019re all aware of. It’s customary in many industries and\u00a0women suffer from it on a daily basis.\u00a0It’s even been used as a marketing ploy \u2013 did you hear about the New York bar that charged women 77c for every dollar they charged a man? Fair play? In some cases, there is an […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":16234,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1771],"tags":[694],"class_list":["post-16229","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business-trends","tag-sports-management","post--single"],"yoast_head":"\r\nSexism: the ugly side of the game<\/h2>\n
A level playing field<\/h2>\n