The latest wave in women’s sports? No more white shorts

Photo of author

By Webdesk


England team players celebrate after winning at the end of the UEFA Women's Euro 2022 final football match between England and Germany at Wembley Stadium in London, on July 31, 2022. - England won 2-1 against Germany - Not usable as moving images or quasi-video streaming.  Photos should therefore be placed with an interval of at least 20 seconds.  (Photo by FRANCK FIFE/AFP) / No use as motion graphics or quasi-video streaming.  Photos should therefore be placed with an interval of at least 20 seconds.  (Photo by FRANCK FIFE/AFP via Getty Images)

Women’s sports are in a moment of transformation – and so are their uniforms. Heading into the FIFA Women’s World Cup this summer, soccer teams are ditching their white shorts in a bid to be more considerate of periods, marking a huge win for women’s issues in the sport.

The England women’s national football team is swapping their white shorts for a more practical navy blue pair after their historic Euros victory. The New Zealand national team forgoes white for teal. This move isn’t exclusive to World Cup-bound teams either; the Orlando Pride, part of the US National Women’s Soccer League, also announced their switch to black shorts in February, in an effort to “make players more comfortable and confident playing during their menstrual cycle”.

The England players had expressed concerns about wearing white on the pitch during that time of the month, and let’s face it, who would want to to wear white shorts when they are actively bleeding? After discussions with the Football Association, the organization finally agreed to switch the color to navy blue, which still matches the national kit color scheme.

The team famously rallied as part of an unofficial campaign to change the uniform once and for all. Striker Beth Mead reached out to Nike, England’s official kit manufacturer, which recently unveiled its first menstrual staples for the upcoming FIFA Women’s World Cup, to discuss the change. “It’s really nice to have an all-white kit, but sometimes it’s not practical when it’s that time of the month,” the 27-year-old Arsenal striker said, according to The Guardian. “We deal with it [menstruation] as best we can, but we discussed the shorts issue together as a team and passed our opinion on to Nike.”

In addition to removing white shorts from the lineup, Nike will also provide their new shorts as a uniform base layer for all 13 federations that equip them during the World Cup.

Image Source: Nike

This move for football kits follows the change to the Wimbledon dress code in 2022. The all-white dress code of the Wimbledon tennis championships has been around since the Victorian era, yet women athletes were disproportionately affected during their menstrual cycle. The organizers changed this rule last summer to allow female participants to wear mid- to dark-colored underpants, provided they are no longer than the player’s shorts or skirt.

Periods have a major impact on women’s and girls’ involvement in sport. Greater Manchester Moving found that 64 per cent of girls aged 16 to 17 have stopped playing sports by the age of puberty, while 42 per cent of 14 to 16 year olds say their period prevents them from taking part to physical activity at school.

When Nike was developing their new short period, they came to a similar conclusion: In their “Teen Girl Insights Project,” Nike researchers found that “At age 14, girls are twice as likely to drop out of sports as boys. And at age 17, an age when most have gone through puberty, 51 percent will have stopped,” Lisa Gibson, senior apparel innovation project manager for the Nike Advanced Innovation Collective, told POPSUGAR. “We know menstruation isn’t the only reason it stops with sports, but it’s a crucial part… that fear of blood flow is very real; It doesn’t just last when you’re a teenager, it really lasts your whole adventure with menstruation.”

Elite athletes, such as those playing in the World Cup, are not immune to blood flow concerns. In fact, those fears are probably even more acute on the global stage and when playing at such a high level. “Professional football players play two 45-minute halves with no breaks or timeouts,” Jordana Katcher, vice president of global women’s sportswear for Nike, said in a press release. “Many told us that they can spend several minutes on the pitch, worried they might experience leakage of their period. When we showed them this innovation, they told us how grateful they were to have these shorts to give confidence when they can’t leave the field.”

Some athletes choose to use hormonal contraceptives like birth control pills to try and control their periods so they don’t have to worry about bleeding during important events. For example, a 2018 study of 430 elite female athletes from 24 different sports (including soccer) found that about half used some type of hormonal contraception, and about 12 percent said they enjoyed being able to reduce the number of periods. they experienced. But birth control is an extremely personal choice and the same solution doesn’t work for everyone. Playing during menstruation can be difficult for people with heavy periods, including women with conditions such as endometriosis or polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS).

These statistics again highlight inequality in women’s sports, which affects everything from research on female athletes, available training resources and media coverage, to fair pay. The Brazil, England and US national teams have all made great strides in securing compensation equal to their male counterparts, but the fight for equal pay in sports has only really begun – as has the awareness movement of how the menstrual cycle affects athletes.

By changing the color of their uniform shorts, teams like England and New Zealand help lead the attack.

– Additional reporting by Lauren Mazzo





Source link
#latest #wave #womens #sports #white #shorts

Leave a Comment

Copy link