Women at the match report released

The report of our Women at the Match survey has been released, giving fans more details on the work that was carried out earlier this year when we polled women supporters from both the men’s and women’s game. 

Our initial Women at the Match survey undertaken in 2014 was the first of its kind, and gives us a baseline against which we can compare the experiences of women attending football in 2021.

It’s a world that, thanks to the #MeToo movement and so much else, looks remarkably different just seven years on.

While women’s attitudes towards and experiences of sexism garnered plenty of column inches when the results were reported – you might have seen coverage in places like the Guardian, Independent, Sky News or Football365 – the survey looked at a whole range of issues, including how and when women supporters got into following football, the factors that influence their attendance and lots more besides.

"It's good that people are saying, I don't feel comfortable with this happening to me," says the FSA's @ally_pv

CALL IT OUT! Our survey shows that women are now less willing to accept sexist behavior at the match than they were in 2014: https://t.co/GnZtwS1o3T pic.twitter.com/PprCaw3vJh

— The FSA (@WeAreTheFSA) November 9, 2021

The report allows us to cover the results in a little more depth, and provide a bit more context to the headlines you might have seen.

• Half of fans attending their first women’s games are doing so as adults (48%) compared with just 11% in the men’s game.
• Women are more than five times more likely to have started going to women’s football on their own than they are in the men’s game.
• Tolerance for, or the expectation of, sexism at the women’s game is lower than in the men’s game, with fans more likely to be angry when they hear it (64%) or find it upsetting (34%) when it does happen.

You can download the full Women at the Match report here…