Women and football: a complicated history

By Niamh Maguire, published on 8/2/22

Ever since the recent news broke, I have been thinking about women's relationship with football, particularly Man United, so I will explore it in this article.

As a female fan, I have to prove myself as a fan to some because some men think that because I am a woman, I don't know as much as them. Even though I know more about the sport than any man, I know and am an encyclopedia of knowledge on players from other leagues that isn't England.

Many people need to understand that women can also have the same knowledge as men because we have different body parts. I see on social media that certain men think the only reason she is on it is because of "tokenism" and not because she has far better knowledge than some of her male colleagues. Take Alex Scott, for example, one of the best pundits that TV offers and one of my favourites. Many of us would rather listen to Alex Scott's balanced and fair opinions than Graham Souness's reality show-esque comments. Watching woman pundits is inspiring for young girls who want to get into football which wasn't around when I was a kid.

The women's team at United is doing well and in the title race in the WSL, but some jerks on Twitter like to poke fun at women playing. They think it "boring" without ever actually watching a game of it and only judging it of fail comps on Twitter made by edgy teenage boys who smell of three-day-old pot noodle. Karna Solskjær recently made her debut for the first team, but some "reputable journalists" made her success out to be because of who her dad is and what he did for the club as a player and manager, but Karna did it on her own with her goals and performances in the u23s. Nobody said the same when Jamie Redknapp made his debut or when Tom Ince made his, but they had to slander her because of who she is.

Don't go around telling a woman to go back into the kitchen if you disagree with her instead, actually listen to her and understand her point of view and respect it. Football is for everyone regardless of whether you are a man or woman, or non-binary.

All Reds Equal.