WOMEN PLAYING BY MEN’S RULES

heaRT aTTaCKS present differently in women. a study of more than a million subjects in the United States between 1994 and 2006 discovered that less than a third of females experienced chest pain before falling ill, compared to over 42 per cent of men. The younger a woman is, the less likely she is to suffer what we consider traditional symptoms. For traditional, read male. Like much in modern life, the template skews towards 50 per cent of the population, which is a bad thing. except in football, where it is heresy to suggest physical difference between the sexes. Well, some of the time. Complaining that kits and equipment and gyms and stadium facilities are all designed with men in mind — that’s fine. That’s the patriarchy in action. Suggest that goals and pitch dimensions and the ball might be modified to better suit female players — that’s sexism. Fabio Capello has been widely condemned for suggesting these adjustments to benefit the women’s game, particularly smaller goalkeepers, despite Chelsea women’s manager emma hayes saying the same thing only a year ago. at least hayes (below) could not be accused of disrespecting women. Capello was. In this way, the status quo prevails. In women’s football it means that some games, some tournaments will be undermined by very avoidable differences in physiology. In the field of medicine it meant that women’s mortality rates from cardiac events were 4.3 per cent higher. It doesn’t have to be a man’s world. We just make it that way.