TAMMY WYNETTE sang: “Sometimes it’s hard to be a woman.”She was wrong… it’s hard all the bloody time!
Joey Barton claimed that women ‘shouldn’t be talking with any kind of authority’ about men’s football last weekCredit: Alamy
I don’t suppose that most of the people reading this column would understand, worry or even care what it is like to be a woman in a traditionally all-male industry like football.
But I ask them to take a pause and consider it because this has been a mixed week for women in football.
First, pleasure at a record 59,042 Women’s Super League crowd at the Emirates Stadium.
Followed by the grim news that 152 players out of 697 monitored at the Women’s World Cup received discriminatory, abusive, or threatening messages on social media.
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Players at the women’s finals in Australia and New Zealand were found to be 29 per cent more likely to be targeted for online abuse than players at the 2022 men’s World Cup.
One was even subjected to open misogyny when Luis Rubiales, the former head of the Spanish FA, bear-hugged World Cup winner Jenni Hermoso before kissing her firmly on the lips.
Then this week Joey Barton’s had his say, claiming women pundits “shouldn’t be talking with any kind of authority” on the men’s game before comparing their input as the equivalent of “me talking about knitting or netball”.
Joey’s entitled to his opinion, of course, but I suspect his comments just encouraged more vile social media abuse aimed at women who just want to be left alone to get on with their job.
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Arsenal broke the WSL attendance record when they faced Chelsea on SundayCredit: Getty
England and Manchester United goalkeeper Mary Earps has been nominated for Sports Personality of the YearCredit: PA
I wonder what Joey’s wife and daughter make of his anger on a fresh target, singling out Alex Scott because, I suspect, the England international is making much more of a splash than Barton ever will.
Scott has no chip on her shoulder. Barton has a whole plank on his.
She had a career of 140 appearances and 12 goals for England as a right-back, he played one international for, ahem, 11 minutes.
This, he thinks, entitles him to judge that Scott should shut up about the men’s game.
She hasn’t experienced it and neither she nor any other woman should commentate on it or analyse it. Anyway, she wasn’t “a great player”. What rubbish.
She has earned her right to do the job she does, and she does it very well.
Why should she be subjected to abuse and singling out just because she is a woman? Barton’s attitude is reminiscent of the one that women should stay at home, clean the house, look after the kids and not dabble in men’s business.
There are many that still think like that. Sadly, the view that only men should cover men’s football is common.
Alex Scott has responded to Barton’s commentsCredit: Reuters
But you’ll have to get used to it because, chaps, our impetus towards the top in almost every sphere is unstoppable.
We are to have our first female ref in the Premier League.
Rebecca Welch will take charge of the game between Fulham and Burnley on December 23. Most will presume this is a token gesture, but it is not.
She is yet another woman who has earned the right having spent years working her way up from the very bottom of the referee programme.
What difference does it make it you are male or female if you can do the job?
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The best retort to male supremacists might well come very soon.
Should goalkeeper Mary Earps win the Sports Personality of the Year award — the second consecutive female winner after Beth Mead — it will be a further salute to equality. Something we should all strive for.
Rebecca Welch will become the Premier League’s first female referee this monthCredit: PA More
