Chelsea manager Emma Hayes believes women have had to become used to dealing with “systemic misogyny and bullying” in football.
Hayes is one of the most successful managers in either the men’s or women’s game over the last decade after six Women’s Super League titles with the London club including four in a row.
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She also enjoys an acclaimed media career away from the sideline and is a regular television analyst for ITV in the UK.
Despite her success Hayes, who is set to leave Chelsea at the end of the season to take over the United States’ women’s team, knows all too well the difficulty that many women face within the sport.
Asked for her thoughts on the subject on Friday, she said. “The realities are that male privilege has been something that has always been at the centre of football in this country. Women were banned from playing football up until the seventies — I don’t expect any individual or personality to understand their privilege.
“Nonetheless, you only have to see scores of women across the internet or in the business, whether you are a presenter, you are a coach or a player to realise that we are routinely used to dealing with systemic mysogyny, bullying and behaviour that has been pretty normal for a large part of the football public.”
She added: “I think when it comes to the sport of football, in this case, we have to remember that society isn’t always as well represented across the media or across the game in coaching or playing etc and if you haven’t experienced systemic misogyny like lots of us have you can’t for one moment understand how detrimental some of these conversations are knowing that anything anyone says just enables an absolute pile-on, particularly on social media. It’s pretty normal for a lot of people that support football.”
Hayes went on to address the view that female pundits shouldn’t be asked to analyse the men’s game.
She said: “We wouldn’t go into a hospital and have a female physician who’s carrying out a surgical procedure on someone’s kidney — we wouldn’t turn around and say to that surgeon ‘I hope she was a good patient once because being a good patient means you are good doctor’. We know that’s not true. Talent and experience might help but you need a skillset.
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“It’s the same about being a great banker. Does that mean you had to be a frugal spender to be a good banker? Much in the same way, do you have to be a well-travelled passenger to be a good pilot?
“I think we become so unaware of our confirmational biases and when there is an existential threat the things we do to make ourselves relevant create a lot of noise around a very, very, very interesting topic, but perhaps we can do it better in another way.”
GO DEEPER
Emma Hayes hasn't yet taken over, but USWNT players are relishing a new start
(Photo: Justin Setterfield/Getty Images)
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