By Amanda Rose
It’s not everyday that you see a woman as a referee, especially for competitions involving men’s teams. The world soccer FIFA (Fédération Internationale de Football Association) is taking the lead in showing the world that they pick their referees not by gender but by talent.
For this year’s men’s World Cup in Qatar in November, FIFA — which describes itself as an international governing body of association football, futsal and beach soccer — has named three women among the 36 referees chosen to officiate the event. They also selected three additional women to be assistant referees.
Will other men’s sports follow suit?
For some sports, they still will not allow women to be a referee due to a lack of perceived respect from male athletes and fellow officials, inequitable policies, a lack of female role modeling, and an increased level of gendered abuse when compared to their male counterparts.
According to the website Female Referees in Professional Sports, there has only ever been three full-time female refs in the NBA in the last 69 years. The NFL has only one, hired only last season, in its 95 year history.
The web site also states: “Heather McDaniel was the first female referee in 1995 to ref one NHL game, until she became pregnant and stopped. Since then the NHL hasn’t had another female ref. Finally, in the MLB, since the 43 years that Bernice Gera sued to become a professional umpire, there hasn’t been a full-time one since.”
