Women Footballers in the United Kingdom: Feminism, Misogynoir and Hate Crimes

Abstract

The sociology of sport literature details the nature and extent of racism in sport – mostly men’s sport, and in particular men’s football. The literature shows that racism was present in the men’s game in the United Kingdom (UK) before, and after, the inception of the 1993 Let’s Kick Racism Out of Football campaign (now Kick it Out). Sport sociologists have offered critical accounts of how racism impacts men’s football and men footballers. These analyses rarely cover women’s experiences or intersect with constructions of hate crimes and misogyny. Despite significant campaigning by feminist criminologists, the Law Commission, in its 2021 review, has recommended not to add misogyny to hate crime legislation. Currently, the law in England and Wales protects race or ethnicity, religion or beliefs, sexual orientation, disability and transgender identity. Hate crime literature has failed to consider the intersections of multiple forms of marginalization, such as the impact of both race and gender. Despite many police forces in England and Wales collecting data on misogyny, prosecutions are limited to the existing five hate crime strands, thus reducing the experiences of many women and girls to a single identity characteristic. This fails to acknowledge the reality of their lived experiences. In this chapter, we review the shortfalls in both sociological and criminological analyses of gender and racism in football. We demonstrate the value of a focus on women footballers in developing a feminist approach to gender, racism and hate crimes. In this way, we conclude that it is time to connect sexism, racism, misogynoir and football to ensure a hate crime framework that includes women and girls in sport.