Her Game Too started five years ago, and more than 75 professional clubs have now partnered with the campaign, including my local club, Lincoln City, writes Abi Hartnell.
Women should have equal opportunities in sport, whether they are watching, playing, commentating, officiating or presenting. For many years, sport has been mainly dominated by men, with women often made to feel less welcome or less valued. That is why an important campaign called Her Game Too was created, to help women feel safer and more welcome in sport.
The campaign is mainly focused on football, but other sports, such as ice hockey and cricket, have also started to become more inclusive and help get the message across to different groups of people. The goal for the future is for women to feel they have exactly the same opportunities as men. While we are already seeing this happen, there is still more work to do.
Lifelong Bristol Rovers fan Caz May received a torrent of online sexist abuse for sharing her football opinions on Twitter, now known as X. This abuse was unacceptable, and something had to be done to make sure women had equal opportunities to men in sport.
On 15 May 2021, that all started to change, as Her Game Too was set up. The campaign focuses on combating sexism and misogynistic abuse in sport. Over the last five years, more than 75 professional clubs in the top divisions of English football have partnered with the campaign to tackle sexism and promote gender equality, helping girls and women feel safer at football matches.
The aims of the campaign are to raise awareness of the issues women face in the game, celebrate female fans, players and professional athletes, and work alongside clubs and governing bodies to make football more equal.
Although Her Game Too has only been around for five years, it has already made a real difference to the beautiful game. More fans are attending women’s matches, and more women are feeling inspired to try other roles in the game, such as commentating, presenting and officiating.
One of the most important referees in this area is Stephanie Frappart. In December 2020, before the campaign had even been created, she refereed a major men’s UEFA Champions League game between Juventus and Dynamo Kyiv in the group stage.
As another positive step, more than 500 pubs in the UK have pledged to show women’s sport in their venues, helping women feel more welcome in public places. Many professional sports clubs have already backed the campaign, along with corporate sponsors, county sporting organisations and people from other sports, such as cricket bodies and Manchester Storm ice hockey team.
This campaign has already inspired change and helped football remain a game for all. Remove the barriers before judging the result.
It is not only professional clubs that have partnered with Her Game Too. Grassroots and local clubs have also got involved, and Lincoln City is one of the clubs helping the game move forward.
Rachel and Dominique spoke about their experiences of the partnership with Lincoln City and how much women’s sport has grown over the last five years. Rachel, a Her Game Too advocate at Lincoln City, spoke about her journey and said football used to be “predominantly male”.
“When I started going to matches and got my season ticket, you start to hear things and you start to see things. I don’t like not saying stuff, so when I’d hear things, I’d say them.
“At the same time, there was also the rise of women’s football. You had the Euros and all of that, so all of those things came together. Her Game Too came out five years ago, we heard about it and saw it, and you’re kind of waiting for Lincoln to get involved.
“You started to see it around different clubs, with a lot of the Premier League clubs, and then it filtered down through the tiers to the EFL and National League clubs. Then the partnership was announced between Her Game Too and Lincoln City, and I thought, yes, I like that.”
Dom, on the other hand, had been watching football from a young age and said she felt like the club was a “family”, which shows how far it has already come in many different ways.
“It is literally about turning up on a Saturday or a Tuesday night, or whenever it is, going to watch your game and feeling like you’re part of that community. Community is a massive thing with Lincoln, and I think they do it really, really well.
“I sometimes go to games on my own. I’ll travel down to the stadium on my own, or I’ll go to away games on my own, but I always know that when I turn up to Sincil Bank or the LNER Stadium, there’s somebody there that I know and can go and talk to. At away games, I always know there’s somebody there that I’m going to know. I’m not going to be alone.
“With women, it’s about knowing you can turn up, you can go, and there is going to be somebody there to talk to. It is the same with anybody. I know we’ve got a big Ukrainian fan base now because of Ivan, and they turn up and enjoy themselves as well. It is all about being able to turn up and not worry about what people are thinking about you.”
Rachel explained how the campaign could bring more girls and women into the game. When the partnership between Her Game Too and Lincoln City was announced, she felt it was something she wanted to support.
“The partnership was announced between Her Game Too and Lincoln City and I thought, yes, I like that.”
That helped lead her to becoming an advocate.
Rachel and Dom also spoke about their future goals for the campaign locally. Dom said they want to involve more grassroots teams, which could help more girls feel welcome and supported in the game.
“We want to get more grassroots teams involved, some local grassroots teams.”
Rachel and Dom both explained how much can change in 12 months, with more people now aware of the campaign and its purpose. That shows the message is working extremely well.
“People know who we are,” said Rachel. “People have heard of Her Game Too, but they think of us as a once-a-year thing. One of our objectives this year is to make it not a one-time thing. That could be visibility, mentions, being on the website, or having our name out there more often.
“The more visibility we get and the more mentions we get, it helps us. It means we can have posters in the toilets. We don’t even have posters in the toilets at the moment. They are advertising Lincoln Castle gigs that happened two years ago. Why can’t we be in the posters? Not us, but Her Game Too, advertising what we do.”
In conclusion, football is a game for everyone to enjoy, with equal opportunity for all. This campaign has already achieved many positive things, both nationally and locally, for many different clubs.
“If I go back 15 or 20 years ago, when I first started doing away games, I didn’t feel safe. Sometimes I went to Lincoln matches and I didn’t feel safe as a woman. Now I do,” added Dom.
“Wherever you go, you should be able to feel safe. As a whole, Lincoln do that very, very well, whether home or away. I don’t think we’ve come across anything yet as advocates and ambassadors, and nothing has been brought to our attention yet regarding anything within Lincoln City.
“Obviously, I am aware of things happening at other clubs where Her Game Too has had to get involved. But regarding a safe environment, I think everybody should be able to go, enjoy themselves and have a good day, whether that is during the match, before the match or after the match.”
This shows the growth in the women’s game and how invested people are becoming in the women’s side of football.
No racism. No sexism. No misogynistic abuse. Equal game. Equal opportunity. A game for all.
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