Writings by me

I can’t quite describe how powerful it is to see the woman’s England Football team get to the final of the European Championships. My own dalliances with football as a child mostly involved trying to avoid the ball and standing in one spot sucking my thumb. What else was I supposed to do? Football was for boys and adult men only; a fact driven home relentlessly by popular culture.

Now in 2022, to see such strong positive female role models playing the national sport with such flair, class and prowess makes me so proud to be a woman, sparks a light inside of me that perhaps team sport isn’t the devil and is the perfect example for our children, boys and girls, of what women can do.

It’s almost impossible to contemplate what may have been possible for me and the other girls in my class if we could see a team of women doing so well at football, alongside a strong male team. Obviously, we’ll never know if there were national footballers in-the-making in our midst, but I’d say a lot of the girls in my class may have felt more encouraged to try football and other sports traditionally seen as male, by at least seeing women in those roles. And it doesn’t stop there either; once you open the genie’s bottle and broaden those horizons, little girls can imagine a whole world of opportunity waiting for them beyond sport.

And it doesn’t just do girls good; boys seeing women playing football on the international stage means that gender roles are challenged for them too. Having boys myself, it’s been a great learning opportunity for them; letting my eldest stay up to watch the women’s game makes the broader point that supporting the women’s team is as important as supporting the men’s team at this year’s World Cup.  Sharing football with the kids is another lovely part of parenting (from someone who loves a good national tournament); having such a prominent women’s team is the icing on the cake.

Go Lionesses, we can’t wait to see what you do next!