Challenges in women’s football in Turkey and solution approaches

Kızlar Sahada (Women on the Field), established in 2013 in Turkey, is a social enterprise that aims to advance gender equality through football by collaborating with various stakeholders such as public, private, and civil organizations, as well as football clubs and associations, by designing and implementing various programs to empower women and children in society against discrimination.

Identifying the issues

To define the needs in women’s football, Kızlar Sahada conducted a Female Footballer Needs Analysis Survey to measure all the aspects of women’s football in Turkey in 2020. Women’s football, which was already behind men’s football at that time – only 7% of the total female population in Turkey are licensed athletes, out of which only 1% are licensed female football players – has further regressed due to the pandemic. Upon analysing the survey results we encountered multiple barriers, including:

• Lack of role models
• Limited career goals
• Fragility in economic sustainability
• Lack of information about menstruation
• Football is not an option for women’s future career
• It is impossible to overcome the prejudice against women’s football
• The athlete cannot tell her problems to the coach
• Success is measured by the number of goals

Added pressures of the pandemic

On top of these, lockdowns and quarantines caused mobility restrictions particularly for women and women athletes. Further, labour force participation rates were just 34% for women in 2019. More recent data show that the pandemic has made the situation even worse, pushing the number to just 30%. Studies also show that women are more likely to be fired than men. In addition, housework balances have changed, and domestic violence has increased. Adding this to the gender inequality in the field, female footballers don’t have chance to play and participate in any organisations at any level. Due to the amateur status of women’s football, they can’t earn incomes like amateur or professional male football players.

When we asked about football career expectations, personal development and post-football career goals, we received some interesting results. Female footballers, including Turkey’s top league footballers, wanted to become physical education teachers in schools or football coaches in clubs. That was their top priority. Even if they are coaches in clubs, they will need financial assistance from their family or they will need to find another job to support their coaching career due to lack of resources in women’s football sector.

According to the Sports and Physical Activity Association for Women’s Report in 2021, the rate of licensed female football players is only 1%, which was the lowest among all sports. The number of female members in the boards of directors of sports federations is 67, which culminates to only 7.37%. Women’s football federations are among those sport federations which do not have women on their board of directors. It seems impossible to make progress in an area where there is almost no female representation and participation. In the post-pandemic period, women’s football has a long way to go in Turkey.

An opportunity to break through

Turkey has opportunity to reshape women’s football in the field and at a management level. According to the data from the Turkish Statistical Institute, the young population in the 15-24 age group constituted 15.3% of the total population. This rate is higher than the young population rates of 27 European Union member countries. Of these young people, women and girls account for 48.7%.

According to recent Women’s EURO 2022 Spending Report, football fans are predicted to provide £1.2 billion boost to the economy during the Women’s UEFA 2022 European Championships. We can also talk about an organic relationship between the financial statement and the ratings. Based on a FIFA report, the consumption of the FIFA Women’s World Cup France 2019 on digital platforms saw an increase of 460%, in comparison with the 2015 edition of the tournament. It should also be noted that sponsorships have also increased. The Football Association and Barclays have agreed to a new three-year £30 million sponsorship deal that will double the bank’s investment in women’s and girls’ football in United Kingdom at the end of the 2021.

How do we proceed?

At a fundamental level, women athletes in football need education on different subjects. According to the results of our survey, women footballers need to improve their knowledge about training, healthy nutrition habits, sports injuries and menstruation, relationship with coaches and their team, personal development and psychology.

Considering all the aspects with the development needs determined by the athletes’ own expressions, Kızlar Sahada designed the Athlete Development Program. The programme depends on five dimensions: financial, social, physiological, cultural, and physical empowerment. According to a survey conducted with participants after the training program, the rate of participants who did not have knowledge about the causes of gender inequality in sports before training was 30%. After trainings, 98% of the participants stated that the issue of gender equality in sports attracted their attention. Further, in subjects such as career management, which is not taught in schools in Turkey, 96% of the participants stated that they started to feel stronger about the subject after the training. In addition, on personal brand management, 88% of the participants stated that they could look at the brand concept from a wider perspective after the training.

We have a lot of work to do in order to achieve gender equality in women’s football in Turkey. We need football to reshape women’s participation in football and advance their achievements in the field. When specific problems are identified and the program is designed accordingly with the use of different approaches to a solution, better results are obtained. Women’s football in Turkey needs a rational and sustainable plan keeping in line with the needs analysis.

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Sercan Ergün is the Resource & Business Development Lead at Kizlar Sahada, a Turkish social enterprise that aims to advance gender equality through football by collaborating with various stakeholders.