Anti-misogyny in sport
Sport has been too slow to change, too slow to face up to the realities of the misogyny women face.
Sexism in Sport
No-one should be excluded from the joy, fulfilment and lifelong benefits of sport. Women and girls deserve equal opportunity to enjoy the benefits of sport, which is why our charity it determined to tackle sexism and misogyny in sport at every level.
Sexism and misogyny: what’s the difference?
If you look up misogyny in the dictionary, it will take you back to the word’s ancient Greek roots and tell you that the word means a hatred for women. Whilst that is the literal meaning, it does not reflect the reality of misogyny that women and girls experience every day in 2025.
Misogyny is contempt for women, prejudice against women and malice towards them. It is, fundamentally, about power; specifically preserving male power and traditional gender roles.
Sexism is more about active discrimination; the actions people take, or fail to take, that discriminate against someone based on their sex.
Crucially, sexism is discrimination based on sex, either sex, whereas misogyny is specifically targeted at women and girls. Sexism can be experienced by men, misogyny can’t.
At Women in Sport, we talk about misogyny more than sexism as it is these harmful beliefs that underpin the exclusion, deliberate or otherwise, of women from sport. For us, the underlying beliefs of misogyny can be thought of as systemic sexism. We can’t close the gender play gap if we don’t stamp out the misogyny embedded in society.
What needs to change to tackle misogyny in sport?
- All organisations should introduce anti-misogyny policies and anti-misogyny training
- Government funding of sports organisations should be conditional on:
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- Anti-misogyny policies and training being put in place.
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- 50-50 representation of the sexes on their boards and within the senior executive team.
- The UK Government should introduce dedicated legislation against misogyny so that it becomes a criminal offence to, for example, threaten rape.
It will take men and women working together to tackle misogyny and sexism in sport. Male allies who understand that stamping out misogyny and sexism requires them to challenge and change their biases, actions and behaviour are vital.
Access and opportunity
- More boys than girls take part in sport and activity. There is a shocking 24% team sport gap between girls and boys
- Midlife women are suffering from the cumulative impact of decades of limiting gender stereotyping. 84% of inactive midlife women want to be more active
- Just 6% of sports science research is specific to female athletes.
Stereotyping and gender norms
- Gender stereotyping is alive and kicking. Girls as young as five years old feel they don’t belong in sport.
- Only 30% of parents believe playing sport is very important for their daughter, compared with 41% of parents for their sons.
Leadership
A recent count of leaders in the top 20 sports by participation in England showed that across the roles of CEO, Chair and Performance Director, just 24% were women. Women are a minority in coaching, especially at an elite level.
Harassment and abuse
- Elite female athletes are more likely to face abuse, both online and offline. Female footballers were 29% more likely to face online abuse during their most recent football world cup than men playing in their equivalent tournament (Signify).
Elite sport
- Female athletes, and others working in sport, are still likely to be paid less than their male counterparts. Whilst the top male footballers earn hundreds of thousands of pounds a week, only the very best female players will earn that in a year.
- Women’s sport is still underrepresented in media coverage, despite huge growth in recent years. In 2024, just 8% of sports coverage on key channels was of women’s sport (WST).
The bigger impact... women's health
- Gendered health inequalities could be eased if more women and girls were finding the joy and lifelong benefits of sport.
- There’s a mental health crisis in teenage girls. Anxiety is spiralling upwards, along with self-harm and eating disorders. By the time they reach puberty, 1.3 million girls who once loved sport are disengaging.
- Women in wiser life are twice as likely as men to suffer a fracture after a fall.
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Our Research and Insights
We are continuously researching and gaining new insights into sport through the eyes of women and girls across a range of communities, ages, life stages and backgrounds.