Damning results show how much work there is still to do for women and ethnic minorities in football | Suzanne Wrack | OneFootball

The latest Women in Football survey into the experiences of women working in the sport is full of alarming statistics again, with four in five women reporting that they have experienced sexism in the workplace.

Included for the first time in the survey, which had 867 members take part, is distressing but unsurprising data on the experience of ethnic minority women.

“It’s something that wasn’t a surprise, but I’m glad we’re able to show it,” Women in Football’s CEO, Yvonne Harrison, says. “It was a trend that was visible to us last year but the sample size wasn’t big enough to be able to use it. The fact is that women of colour are disproportionately affected in terms of opportunities, perceptions and in terms of the obstacles that they face.

“I’m pleased that we’re able to highlight that because anecdotally we knew it to be true and we see it, particularly where we’re talking about women from underrepresented communities in leadership positions.”

Perhaps most damning is that levels of optimism about the future of the industry are substantially reduced for women from underrepresented ethnic origins. Despite the challenges presented to women working in the industry, 77% of women are optimistic about the prospects for women in it. Meanwhile, 55% said the football sector is one where women can excel, but for women of underrepresented ethnic origins this dropped to 29%.

“We are very intentionally aware of our membership base and working to engage more people from different communities and collaborating with other organisations who are working with different communities already,” Harrison says. “The saddest thing of all for me is the optimism statistics because four in five women, despite all of the evidence that we’ve got, are still optimistic, but actually that drops to less than a third for people from an underrepresented ethnic background.

“Then it’s the same for the aspiration piece, where women feel like they can excel: just under 30% of women from underrepresented ethnic backgrounds compared with 55% of women feeling like they can excel in this industry isn’t good enough. Women in Sport produced some specific research around the ‘dream gap’ for young black girls and that talks to this as well.”

Separate from workplace sexism, women from underrepresented ethnic origins are also at the sharp end of discrimination and abuse, with 76% of women saying the level of discrimination they experienced online had stayed the same or increased, compared with 81% of women from underrepresented ethnic origins, while 56% of women cited unconscious bias as one of the biggest challenges of working in the industry compared with 75.6% for women of underrepresented ethnic origins.

The rise in online abuse has been highlighted in recent weeks, with the Tottenham forward Jessica Naz speaking about the racist abuse she has been subjected to online and the journalist Alison Bender posting about rape threats she has received. England’s Jess Carter withdrew from social media during Euro 2025 after suffering racial abuse.

“It’s disgusting and we see it for players, but also coaches, administrators, broadcasters, journalists,” Harrison says. “We almost absorb them as ‘it is what it is’. The fact that more women are having the courage to just put it out into the world is helpful to the cause to go: ‘You know what, this is happening all the time and it’s not OK.’ But that comes at a risk and a cost to those women because no doubt their inboxes are filled with a load more. Then if you’re a woman of colour it’s going to come at you two times more. If you’re somebody from the LGBTQ+ community, it’s going to come at you more, too. I despair with the current landscape of society and the misogyny.

“The action is about football using its collective power and voice to lobby and advocate in rooms that individuals cannot get into on these issues.”

There is work to be done in workplaces too, with only one in four noting that they have had access to digital safety training. Another key finding was that 86% of women believe they have to work harder than their male counterparts to achieve the same recognition and benefits. Only 69% of men surveyed agreed with them.

“That is an interesting perception gap,” says Harrison. “Men’s perceptions of women’s experiences in the game are quite different. So what comes out of the survey is that men have a much more optimistic view about what it’s like for women and the reality is quite different and that’s why having this data is so important because it’s an opportunity to objectively help educate and provide knowledge. To say: ‘This is the reality and you can play a role in changing that.’”

Header image: [Photograph: Simon Dael/Tottenham Hotspur FC/Shutterstock]