According to Chelsea manager Emma Hayes, women in the football industry are well-accustomed to dealing with systematic misogyny and bullying. Hayes’ take follows comments made by former footballer Joey Barton on X (previously Twitter), where he criticised women in the men’s game. The 41-year-old had said women shouldn’t discuss men’s football with “any kind of authority”.
“The realities are male privilege has always been at the centre of football in this country,” Hayes said.
“I don’t expect any individual personality to understand their privilege. Nonetheless you only have to see scores of women across the internet or in the business – whether that’s coaches, presenters, players – we’re routinely used to dealing with systemic misogyny, bullying and behaviour that has been pretty normal for a large part of the football public,” she said.
Hayes, who will leave Chelsea at the season’s end to become the head coach of the U.S. women’s national team, joined the Blues in 2012 and has led them to six WSL titles.
“If you haven’t experienced systemic misogyny, like lots of us have, you can’t for one moment understand how detrimental some of these conversations are knowing that anything anyone says just enables an absolute pile on, particularly on social media,” she said.
The bias towards women in the sporting world has been a recurring phenomenon. In 2019, 28 players of the United States women’s soccer team filed a gender discrimination lawsuit against the United States Soccer Federation, in their public battle for equality. Till 2006, Wimbledon offered less prize money to Women winners than Men’s. It changed in 2007 after pleas from Serena Williams and others.
In September, Spanish players went on strike after failing to reach an agreement with the league on better conditions and pay. They withdrew after getting assurances from the Spanish Federation.
It remains to be seen Hayes’ comments can help address this issue of biasness any further.
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