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Women in Football CEO Yvonne Harrison has hailed the “determination and togetherness” of the football community in tackling gender discrimination after presenting the organisation’s annual survey findings to an audience at the House of Lords.

The survey, conducted over the summer of 2025, reveals that four out of five women working in the football industry have experienced discrimination based on their gender. More than half of those who reported such an experience to their employer said no action was taken as a result.

The findings showed a degree of optimism about the future, but WIF’s intersectional analysis of the data lays bare some alarming divergences. While 55% of women said the football sector is one where they have the opportunity to excel, the figure drops to 29% among women of ethnicities that are underrepresented in the industry.

WIF convened an audience at Westminster on 25 September 2025 to hear a group of experts discuss the findings. Those invited included representatives from WIF partners, policymakers, senior football industry leaders and other key stakeholders.

The event began with an introduction from Yvonne Harrison, followed by a ‘fireside chat’ between WIF Chair Ebru Köksal and her counterpart at the Premier League, Alison Brittain CBE.

 

Drilling down

Then a panel took the stage to drill down into the survey findings a little further, chaired by Preeti Shetty, CEO of Upshot, the community interest company that supported WIF to analyse the survey data and director at Brentford FC.  The panel comprised:

• Sue Day MBE, Director of Women’s Football, the FA
• Holly Murdoch, COO, WSL Football 
• Isabelle Pitt Senior EDI Manager, the Premier League
• Simone Pound Director of EDI, Professional Footballers’ Association

The panel acknowledged that inequality in the football industry reflects the way women are perceived and treated by society more widely, and that some excellent employers are doing the right thing by their female workforce. The scale and pace of change, however, remain inadequate.

Another issue that arose was the importance of collaboration. If organisations combine their efforts on inclusion initiatives, the benefits are twofold in that they avoid duplication of effort and produce stronger messaging. Women in Football’s role was seen as crucial here, with the potential to convene and co-ordinate collaborative work.

Collaboration was also highlighted as an important style of approach for individuals. Male allies are needed to support gender equality, and the needs of both on- and off-pitch employees should be considered together.

Three quarters of the women who responded to the survey said they have witnessed levels of online discrimination increasing or remaining the same. Panellists stressed the need for education to tackle this – early and continually. The theme of collaboration arose again here, around the need for collective responsibility.

Asked to name the women who inspired them, panellists praised Mary Phillip, the first black player to captain an England side; Donna Muxworthy-McIvor, the FA’s long-serving champion of women’s football; and Su Cumming, who recently announced her retirement from a ten-year stint as Head of Women’s Football at Newcastle United FC.

 

 

While the event was taking place, Women in Football’s team were also working to secure media coverage for the findings, ensuring as wide a hearing as possible for the voices of the hundreds of people who took part in the survey.

Media outlets covering the results include The Guardian, The Athletic, Sky Sports News, BBC Sport and talkSPORT.

Yvonne said: “We’re not here to sugar-coat the results of this Women in Football survey, which make for deeply uncomfortable reading when it comes to the experiences of the industry’s female workforce, and for women of colour in particular.

“But I’m encouraged by the unprecedented interest in our survey from the football community and their response to our findings. We’re seeing a determination and togetherness that give us hope.

“The next step is for employers to walk the walk. We need you to work with Women in Football to tackle inequality and make sure your female workforce feels safe, welcome and supported. Discrimination in the football industry is not going to fix itself, and without more proactiveness from employers the game will not undergo the change that all of us recognise is needed.”

 

First step

Preeti said gathering and breaking down the data was an important first step towards “real change”.

After chairing the panel she reflected: “The fact that Women in Football has started to collect such robust data means we can now say, ‘here's the evidence, here's the proof it's not changing’.

“We've seen all different types of people today, from all the football stakeholders, and the one thing I heard is ‘we are working together, we understand there's a problem and we know we have to deal with it collectively’, which, again, is newer and in big part down to Women in Football bringing the stakeholders together.”

Among the guests who attended the event was Arsenal FC CEO Richard Garlick, who said employers’ responses to reports of discrimination need to improve.

Referring to “situations where people report things and nothing happens”, he insisted: “We need to see some action being taken in relation to that.”

Women in Football extends warmest thanks to all those who played a role in the event and to the hundreds of people who completed the survey.

Read the survey results in depth

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Photos: Nixon Wong

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