Rood wants men to join fight for equality
Football Ferns striker Katie Rood is encouraging more men to join the fight for equality after signing for a professional club trying to level the playing field for women.
‘‘It can’t just be thought of as a problem for female footballers to solve ourselves because we are doing our best on and off the pitch to show that we deserve respect,’’ she said.
‘‘We simply aren’t in the positions of power that can make the monumental differences. When enough people, especially men, are strong enough to publicly support us, I think that will drive real change.’’
Rood recently joined FA Women’s Championship club Lewes FC, which is leading the charge when it comes to the fight for equality in football. Through its Equality FC campaign the Sussex-based club became the first in the professional game to pay men’s and women’s players the same, and just this month the club wrote an open letter to the FA asking the board to address the ‘‘vast difference’’ in prizemoney on offer for its respective cup competitions.
The winner of the FA Cup receives £3.6 million (NZ$6.75 million) while the winner of the FA Women’s Cup receives just £25,000.
Rood commended her club for taking a stand against what she described as ‘‘deep-rooted sexism ingrained into society’’. The 26-year-old said she could not fathom why there is still such a huge pay discrepancy.
‘‘I really believe that if we want to evolve as a society then we need people to seek justice, especially when it doesn’t directly involve them. At this stage we need more men standing up to say, ‘no, this isn’t OK, women deserve better’. So much progress has been made in female football in recent years and that’s down to those that have been involved in pushing the game forward over previous decades. The fact that women were actually banned from playing football in England for 50 years in the 1900s has clearly stifled the rate of development. Vast improvements have now been made at the grassroots level and there are initiatives in place to help the growth of the female game globally, all of which is super positive,’’ she said.
‘‘There is however so much more opportunity for growth and investment which aren’t currently being utilised and the FA Cup and World Cup prizemoney pots are good examples of that. I’m confident that the growth of the women’s game will be exponential in the coming years but it won’t happen on its own and it needs people from within the wider community to do all that they can so that organisations with the power and finances to change the game, such as the FA, are constantly thinking about how to do that.
‘‘The fact the prize pool for the Women’s FA Cup is less than 1 per cent of the men’s simply doesn’t add up, especially in a country where female football is thriving. A lot of people, which happen to mostly be men, have seen the headline and jumped behind the keyboard to make their point that it’s simple market forces at play and the female game doesn’t generate enough revenue to warrant equal investment. It seems to me like a misguided comment that lacks a basic understanding and empathy towards the plight of women, especially in the sports sector.’’
After grinding away with Glenfield Rovers, Rood made her long-awaited professional breakthrough when she signed a shortterm contract with Italian giants Juventus in 2017. While that contract allowed her to not only play football for a living but to earn more than in her previous job in New Zealand, she said that was a ‘‘rarity’’ in the women’s game.
For example, the maximum salary for players in the National Women’s Soccer League in the United States, which is widely regarded as the premier women’s competition, is $3000 lower than the minimum salary for players in the A-League.
After taking a significant pay cut when she moved to England to join Bristol City, before going out on loan to second-tier Lewes, Rood said it was common for women’s players to rely on other perks, such as accommodation and meal allowances, to get by.
‘‘Coming to the UK meant earning less than half of what I was in Italy but they have looked after me in terms of accommodation, bills and transport etc. Here at Lewes even my food is included so I really don’t have any expenses or anything to fret about other than football which is all I need at the end of the day.
‘‘In saying that, it would be fantastic to be able to pay off my student loan faster and save more for the future. We commit the same amount of effort, energy and time as the male players, or at least in most cases we would if we could afford to do so.’’
While Rood shared many of the same values and knew all about the Equality FC campaign before signing, she said another major reason for joining Lewes was the fact she would be able to play more regularly in the leadup to the Women’s World Cup.
With experienced strikers Hannah Wilkinson and Amber Hearn both in doubt due to longterm injuries, the selection door is wide open for Rood to stake her claim.
‘‘The fact that it was Lewes that came knocking definitely made the decision easier. It’s a club that is using its platform to raise awareness of inequality throughout society and more specifically within football. They are challenging the current norms and providing a working example of how things can be run differently. I really admire that and it’s an honour for me to represent this club,’’ she said.