In the November of 2024, 9,823 people turned up to Goodison Park to watch Everton Ladies take on Liverpool Women in the Merseyside Derby. Just a couple of months later, 39,280 were there to see James Tarkowski score an equaliser in a pulsating 2-2 draw that capped off Everton’s time at the Grand Old Lady.
Yes, it was the club’s last ever game for the men’s team at the ground that they had called home since 1892, but it still represented a marked difference when it comes to the interest in the two different versions of the sport.
The question is, will the women’s game ever reach a point that it is as big as the men’s game?
It Used to Be Massive
It isn’t really possible to talk of the exact moment that women started playing football, but we do know that it developed largely arm-in-arm with the men’s game. The outbreak of the First World War saw attendance at the women’s game increase, raising what was the equivalent of millions of pounds for charities.
Dick, Kerr’s Ladies F.C. played 828 games during its existence, including one on the Boxing Day of 1920 that was played at Goodison Park in front of 53,000 people, whilst more than 10,000 were turned away when the ground became too full. Soon, though, nonsense stories about football being bad for the health and morality of women emerged.
Have you booked tickets for Not A Game For Girls at @SCTheatre1 next week? This fantastic play tells the incredible story of the Dick, Kerr Ladies F.C.-the pioneers of women’s football. Without them we may not have the women’s football we know & love today https://t.co/6xSRzUWABd pic.twitter.com/DBCu453xB1
— The Plays The Thing (@playsthethingmk) May 10, 2024
The result was that the Football Association decided to ban women from playing in Football Association-affiliated stadiums and training grounds, meaning that women’s football on the professional stage all but ceased to exist. It took until 1971 before UEFA forced the FA to lift its ban on women’s teams, with the FA steadfastly refusing to take any involvement in that side of the game until 1993.
It is not unreasonable to surmise, therefore, that the women’s game may well have developed at the same rate as the men’s, both in terms of popularity and also when it comes to the ability of the players, had the ban not been instigated.
It’s Trending in the Right Direction
Although the Merseyside Derby attendance in 2024 was disappointing compared to the men’s game, that wasn’t true in every ground around the country where matches were being played. At the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, for example, 28,852 supporters turned up to watch Arsenal win 3-0 against the home team.
Yes, that only amounted to 46% of the stadium’s capacity, but it still gave it the feeling of being full for the match. As the final whistle approached, thousands headed for the exits in a manner that suggests that needing to beat the traffic has become just as much of a thing as it is when you go to watch a men’s team play.
@bbcwomensfootball WSL attendances have dropped by nearly 10% – but why? #WomensFootball #WSL #Arsenal #WomensSuperLeague ♬ original sound – BBC Women’s Football
Just shy of 20,000 people were in attendance for Chelsea’s 2-0 win over Manchester City, which was something of a top-of-the-table clash. In the February, a record attendance for a Women’s Super League match had been set when 60,160 people turned up to watch Arsenal defeat Manchester United, whilst the same venue welcomed in 60,050 a month later when Tottenham Hotspur were the visitors.
In other words, there is definitely the appetite to watch women play football, even if it isn’t yet at the same level as the men’s game, with tens of thousands of people happy to turn up and watch matches play out.
The Money Still Isn’t There
The simple truth of the matter is that the money isn’t in the women’s game to the same level that it is in the men’s. At the start of 2026, Trinity Rodman signed a deal with the Washington Spirit to become the highest-paid female footballer in the world, agreeing to be paid in the region of £1.5 million per year including bonuses.
Although that is obviously a significant sum of money that most people would delight in being paid, it is worth noting that the highest-paid player in the men’s game, Cristiano Ronaldo, was projected to be paid $280 million during the 2025-2026 season, playing for Al Nassr in the Saudi Pro League.
Whilst few male players would expect to be paid that much, it is still a sign of the difference in earnings between the two genders. The average salary in the Premier League comes in at around £3 million, with the average salary of players in the WSL being about 1.56% of that, at in the region of £47,000.
Those responsible for paying the players would doubtless point out that there is no justification for paying women the same as men when the women’s game isn’t as popular, but it is also worth noting that the game will only stand a chance of growing if the wages paid are more likely to attract the best players and cause the development of the sport.
