On July 5, millions of people watched the U.S. Women’s National Team triumph over Japan in an action-packed 5-2 World Cup football final. The match marked the end of a tournament that has pushed women’s football firmly into the spotlight and reignited the debate surrounding sports and gender.
Midway through the tournament on June 30, the Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) reported that the FIFA Women’s World Cup Facebook page had seen a sharp increase in their followers to 662,000. Record viewing figures have been repeatedly set and shattered. In the United States, the final showdown became the most-watched soccer game in national television history.
The Ukrainian women’s team gave a solid performance early on, but was knocked out in the final stage of the European qualifiers. They are ranked 23rd in the world. The more popular and better-known Ukrainian men’s side is ranked 35th.
The women’s showing is particularly impressive given the lack of institutional investment.
Taisiia Artyushenko, manager of the women’s Amateur Football Club NRG, says, “In Ukraine there are no opportunities for girls to start playing at a young age, unless you go to a specialized sports school or play with boys in the yard. When you are older, there is nothing for you. Our government does not think about sports for women over 20.”
There’s a strong correlation between a team or athlete’s high-profile success, and increased amateur interest in their home country. In Ukraine, the success of the Klitschko brothers Wladimir and Vitaliy has inspired countless numbers of their countrymen to take up boxing.
Adversely, when sports can’t provide viable careers, they’re also less likely to be popular on an amateur level. This is the situation facing the majority of women’s team sports. Negative, or often zero, media attention means no sponsorship, limiting the funds available to commit both to training talent and attracting publicity.
Professional women’s football teams around the world have spent decades playing for a fraction of what men earn, to smaller crowds, with matches often ignored by broadcasters. This is the case across the sporting industry, although tennis notably secured equal prize money in 2007. Meanwhile, the FIFA World Cup 2014 awarded the winning German men’s team $35 million. The US women will receive $2 million.
Former professional footballer and Football Federation of Ukraine technical expert Inna Didych compares this to wider inequalities, asking “In which country are women players paid more than men? This doesn’t only apply to sport, this is a general problem in wages between men and women, especially in Ukraine.”
Justifications for the pay gap between men’s and women’s sports almost always come back to either economics or physical ability. As women’s sports currently attract fewer fans than men’s, they generate less revenue.
Tamara Karlova, PR manager for the Bandits, a Kyiv-based women’s American flag football team, says that sponsors are simply not interested in women’s teams. American football for either gender isn’t popular in Ukraine, something Karlova acknowledges as an additional obstacle. “If you have a ball in your hand, people ask if you’re playing rugby. They don’t know that it’s even possible to play flag football in Ukraine. But when we practice in the park, women are interested to see other women playing and want to join in.”
“I have heard that ‘football is not for women’ more than once,” says Artyushenko. “But in our opinion, if the FFU gave the development of women’s football at least one third of the attention and financing they give to men, at the next FIFA Women’s World Cup the Ukrainian team could compete for prizes.”
“In the last two years I have seen changes for the better,” says Didych. “However, I know many people working purely out of enthusiasm, without help or financial support. We need to plan a good program for the development of women’s football in Ukraine.”
It’s safe to say that as a woman, you don’t play team sports hoping to get rich and famous. Instead, female athletes often self-fund their teams and train around full-time occupations, while facing criticism for playing the sport they love. Karlova comments, “It doesn’t come from players, because they understand the game and they know it’s hard work. The men’s teams are supportive. But friends, relatives, they will say it’s not womanly.”
While governments and official bodies drag their feet, it’s left up to the initiatives of passionate and dedicated individuals to provide women in Kyiv with a chance to fall in love with sports. Right now, organizations like theirs are the exceptions. They should be the rule.
Sandra MacKenzie can be reached at [email protected].
