THE RISE OF WOMEN’S FOOTBALL
GENDER EQUALITY DRIVES INTEREST... I t may be that some of this new interest in the women’s game is driven by societal changes around gender ...AS DO QUALITY AND POPULARITY...
Fans are, naturally, drawn by the merits of the game itself. The women’s game is high quality, with 50% of its followers saying that is why they are interested. Specifically, they say the game is entertaining, exciting, and offers something different to the men’s game. The next key driver of interest was ‘increased popularity’, cited by 47% of followers: the very fact that women’s football is becoming more popular and enjoying increasing hype makes it something fans want to feel part of. Specifically, followers said that the women’s game is inspirational and that it gives them another opportunity to watch football.
equality. The research shows that 54% of football followers say they are interested in women’s football because they want to support gender equality – this is more than any other reason. Specifically, they want to support the players, they feel like they should support the women’s game and they are interested because of the strong role models in the game. This is similar to earlier academic research findings; 1 it is significant that this is still being reported more than seven years later.
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1 Dunn, Carrie, ‘Football and the Women’s World Cup’ (Palgrave Pivot, 2015) 2012 Olympic Final: https://www.npr.org/sections/thetorch/2012/08/10/158502155/womens-olympic-soccer- final-u-s-vs-japan-for-gold 2015 WC Final: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2015_FIFA_Women%27s_World_Cup_final#/media/File:Off_to_a_ good_start_(19781364556)_(2).jpg Barca v Real: https://www.skysports.com/football/news/28508/12578437/barcelona-5-2-real-madrid-nou- camp-breaks-womens-football-attendance-record#:~:text=Barcelona%20broke%20the%20women’s%20 attendance,an%208%2D3%20aggregate%20win. https://www.fourfourtwo.com/features/the-5-biggest-attendances-in-womens-football
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