Has the status of women’s sport changed for the better?

Published on 20, August, 2025

Dr Paul Davis, Senior Lecturer in the Sociology of Sport and Exercise at University of Sunderland, has shared his insights into the status of women’s sports in the aftermath of the Lionesses’ Euro Cup win and ahead of the Women’s Rugby World Cup.

"The Lionesses’ second successive Euro triumph was the most watched television moment of 2025 across all TV broadcasters, with a peak live audience of 12.2 million across all BBC platforms. This illustrates the dramatic improvement in the status of women’s football.

When women’s football resumed in Britain in 1972 with a match between England and Scotland, the contest figured on Scottish Television’s Friday sport preview only as a moment of comic relief, a player having only just discovered her pregnancy and therefore having to withdraw from consideration.

Five decades later, elite female footballers are now household names and front-page material for the same, serious reasons as their male counterparts. Opportunity, practice, coaching and investment has resulted in a vastly improved standard of player and team. Olivia Smith provides illustration as the first million pounds female player.

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The above progress consolidates the status of women and girls as physically and mentally able and dynamic. Again, female strength and competence do not carry the social connotations of mannishness and lesbianism to the extent they once did. Similarly, the historical tendencies towards sexualisation and infantilisation of sportswomen (and females in general) are substantially declining.

At the same time, few doubt that there remains a way to go. Coverage of women’s football (and sport) remains less than that of male football (and sport). There is substantially less money in the women’s game, graphically illustrated by the fact that the first million pounds UK male transfer (Trevor Francis) was in 1979, and by the consequences of the Covid pandemic.

And, as the case of Lauren James illustrates, a more visible women’s game is not invulnerable to the spite and poison that historically disfigures the fan culture of the male game. Again, however, there is the opportunity for the female game to be an engine of cultural change.

The sharp proximity and English hosting of the Women’s Rugby World Cup provides a rare opportunity to consolidate the profile of female sport in England (and Britain). While there is no guarantee of further English glory, the tournament will (like the football Euros) luminously illustrate female capacities thought barely credible half a century ago.

While the deficits yet suffered by women’s football (investment and coverage, for example) are paralleled in women’s rugby, the material and cultural trajectory of the latter gives equivalent ground for hope."