Women in Football

Women in football, whether playing or spectating, have always been on the backfoot. From being banned by the FA until 1970, to the inherently male-dominated environment in the stands to this day, many women feel we are invading a space that is often meant to actively deter us.

The recent years have felt like a breath of fresh air, with certain platforms and communities building momentum behind women in football, and women who love football. Quite notably, we can’t ignore the England Women’s Team winning the Euros and how this introduced a whole new wave of interest in women’s sport. There is still a long way to go but there’s a change in the air for sure.

Make way for ‘Her Game Too’

The viral video campaign, launched in 2021, highlighted the ongoing sexism and misogyny still intertwined in the football sphere, with a number of women across a range of teams sharing experiences they have had with men undermining their right to like football. Initially, the aim was to raise awareness and rally troops behind a just cause. It has since grown, expanding not only into football, but rugby, cricket, and hockey too, demonstrating a wider issue of the inclusion of girls and women in sport.

Ultimately the aim of Her Game Too has grown into making football a safe and welcoming environment for ALL, regardless of gender, sexual orientation, and background. The list of clubs throughout the UK from Premier League down to grassroots is vast, and certainly far too long for this humble Free Press article so I’ll leave you to Google that at your leisure.

So why did we join Her Game Too? Seems like a no brainer, but humour me for the next paragraph.

Her Game Too @ Dulwich Hamlet

Anyone who supports Dulwich Hamlet will instantly recognise the overlapping values of the Her Game Too campaign with our Club Ethos of acceptance for all. We would be doing the club a disservice not to sign ourselves up to this campaign and look at how we can improve the already solid platform of equality we have. So what does this involve? And what have we been doing?

Firstly we appointed a rabble of 5 individuals. Selfproclaimed feminists, football nuts, and all round good eggs that reiterate the common rally cry amongst the HGT Collective; make football accessible for all! Our aim is to improve the experience for women and non binary people at Dulwich Hamlet from matchdays, to online comms, and everything else in between.

It starts in the stands. Calling out nonsense then and there. However, we understand this can be intimidating so you can rest-assured that if you approach a HGT Ambassador on the day to report said nonsense, it will be taken seriously and escalated to the Club who can deal with the issue accordingly. It’s highly likely at least one ambassador will be at all men and women’s Dulwich games and we wear HGT merch and lanyards to differentiate ourselves from the crowd. If you’re unaware about who the ambassadors are, or can’t find one, please report the incident directly to a member of staff - stewards and staff will be in high vis during matchdays. Lastly, you can email us directly at hergametoo@ dulwichhamlet.co.uk

On a lighter note, we have other tactics to banish sexism from Dulwich Hamlet. In March, we hosted our first dedicated HGT fixture with a pre-game social held at the Clubhouse to raise awareness and money for two wonderful women’s charities; Solace for Women, and Housing for Women. We plan to host more meetups and events in the future so keep your eyes peeled on the socials and your inboxes for that.

Want to get involved?

In our eyes, there’s no such thing as “too many ambassadors” and certainly not too many allies. We wish to create an army of like-minded individuals to make this Club an even better place. More hands make light work after all.

If you wish to get involved at any level, if you have any great ideas, or have noticed areas of improvement, you can email hergametoo@dulwichhamlet.co.uk or simply hunt one of us down during the game.