How Level Is The Playing Field?

Still basking in the glory of the Lionesses becoming back-to-back European Champions?

Settling in for a fantastic post-summer Women’s Rugby World Cup in England?

Feeling proud of the record-breaking nine mothers that represented Team GB in Paris and wondering what success will come our way in the upcoming Winter Olympics?

Or maybe you’re simply working out the logistics of ferrying various daughters to their grass roots football / netball / hockey (and the rest) fixtures for the start of the school year.

Women’s sport is thriving; the numbers say it, the success shows it, the nation feels it. Across the country, eager England fans have been recreating the Chloe Kelly hop. The Lionesses’ final penalty taker, now forever framed in that one moment when, after spinning the ball several times before placing it on the penalty spot, she bunny hopped forward and struck a penalty as fierce as anything we’d seen in the competition. Kelly’s conversion fired England to the title.

Social media was awash with the trend of bunny hopping before anything; putting litter in the bin, stepping forward to make a brew, entering an elevator. An iconic moment on the field and one – that crucially – cut through to the mainstream public consciousness off the field.

Kelly, herself, is no stranger to high-profile moments that transcend sport. In the previous final of 2022, it was her winning goal celebration, where she swung her England top above her head, revealing her now-famous sports bra underneath.

Iconic. And empowering.

Everything you’ve read in this article up until now, paints a picture of a burgeoning success story in women’s sport; but are the high profile ‘wins’ simply distracting us from the more subtle invisible barriers that hold us back?

Ask Fara Williams MBE, the most capped England player in the game (both men’s and women’s), and she will tell you that for all the positive steps we are seeing, there are still barriers to overcome. Yes, more girls are playing grassroots football than ever before, but as pitches become more expensive to use, are we making sure that access at entry level isn’t an issue?

There have been summer initiatives from big players such as the National Lottery to create entry points to the sport with their ‘Big Football Day’ and Just Eat supporting the ‘Feed The Game’ fund, aimed at supporting 100 grassroots teams in the UK. Do we need to see more?

With success on the pitch comes responsibility off the pitch. Media outlets and broadcasters can do their bit to ensure the visibility of the women’s game is available to all, not hidden behind paywalls.

As for scheduling, what message does it send when French Open tennis organisers featured no women’s matches in any of the 11 prime-time night sessions in the 2025 tournament?

Back to football, as a leading pundit in the game, Fara knows more than most the misogyny that can follow the sport. Social media comes alive with the usual suspects criticising the women’s game or simply comparing it to the men’s. The dissection of the players behaviour and fixation on their appearance creates an unwanted noise around women in sport.

And it’s not just the players; a quick look down the timeline of anything posted by TalkSport presenter Shebahn Aherne reveals a dark insight into the mindset of those who feel a women’s viewpoint on sport is less worthy than that of a male counterpart.

Fara and Shebahn will be joined by Olympic medallist Emily Campbell, Professor Leanne Norman (Director of the Centre for Social Justice in Sport and Society at Leeds Beckett University) and award-winning rugby player and LGBT+ activist Verity Smith to discuss all of this and more.

There is much to do to improve the status quo; the Lionesses have done their bit… how does society ensure the visibility they have created is capitalised upon, and the moment is seized?