In England’s top two women’s football leagues, only 24.5% of the club’s directors are women or identify themselves as women, according to an exclusive analysis of Companies House by myself.
The analysis examined all the active directors for the current 24 Women’s Super League and Championship clubs for the 2023-24 season. It revealed that there are 102 directors in total, 77 of these are male and only 25 are female.
The percentage of female directors at the clubs has decreased by 0.5% compared to the 2022-23 season. However, last season there were only 96 directors in total, 72 of those were male and 24 were female.
However, the number of female directors has increased by 4% from 2022/23 to 2023/2024, as there is one more woman this season compared to last, but there are five more men, meaning the number of women in director jobs is still considerably low.
Michelle Dorgan, Head of Marketing and Communications for organisation Women in Football said: “Female directors across the industry are low, undoubtedly historical norms, stereotypes, gendered bias, and expectations have contributed to this.
“So while women’s football has begun to be where female employees are now almost expected to work, the WSL was only professionalised in the 2018/19 season, so there are still very few with relevant experience at a senior level from football across other industries who all have a link to or passion/inclination to become a director within football to select from.
“Imposter Syndrome is discussed a lot by women at our events – both those on our panels and in the audience – so another reason for the lack of female directors in the women’s game could well be attributed to the number of women who see the role and doubt their caliber/ability/likelihood of being successful, leading to them not applying in the first place meaning there aren’t enough applications from women to choose from.
“As there are such a limited number of director roles in football as a whole, there will likely be many more men who have applied for roles in men’s football and been unsuccessful – and as many director role job descriptions state board experience is required, some of these men may see director roles in women’s football as a way to gain experience to allow them to apply to join boards in the men’s game later on.”
In both seasons, West Ham United and Brighton had more female directors than male. West Ham has three women in director positions compared to one man and Brighton has four women compared to three men.
However, in both sets of data, 12 clubs have no female directors at all. This is 50% of all the clubs and includes all the top WSL sides, Arsenal, Manchester City, Manchester United and Chelsea.
Here are some of the names of the current female directors involved with either a WSL or championship club: Charlotte Louise Harvey, Rosemary Anne Read, Frankie Brown, Dawn Louise Hepple, Karren Rita Brady, and Tara Warren.
Dorgan added: “Many women who work in football, especially those who have climbed the ladder to senior leadership positions, are well accustomed to being in the minority, therefore, being the sole woman at board level will not be a new experience for them, so it’s less likely to deter women away from the director role.
“However, women from other industries who have the skillsets football clubs are looking for, coupled with a passion for the may be put off if they come from a more gender-equal industry. The prevalence of ‘imposter syndrome’ felt by women, added to the expectation of being the only female on a football board, might well put many women off though.”
Over the last few years, many former Lionesses stars including Ellen White, Fara Williams, Alex Scott, Kelly Smith, Karen Carney, and Eniola Aluko all retired from professional football. Upon retirement, becoming a director of a club tends to be mentioned as a potential next step.
Eniola Aluko is the only ex-player to do this, in January 2020 she became the sporting director at WSL club Aston Villa, before moving to America in 2021 where she became the first-ever female sporting director of NWSL (top-flight women’s league) side Angel City. But in January 2023, she and the club mutually agreed to part ways due to Aluko wanting to focus on her broadcasting career and be closer to her family.
Women in football host regular leadership events/conferences across the country, Dorgan said: “We’ve held our annual WIF Be Inspired Conference in partnership with Barclays at Wembley for the past three years and this includes a host of panel themes, many of which are aimed at women who aspire to become leaders within the game, and many of our sessions include female directors who will often be asked about their career and how they broke the glass ceiling.
“The sessions are designed to inspire female leaders to have confidence in their ability and take a risk by applying for positions even if they don’t feel they can fulfill all of the criteria,
“We also run a leadership course in partnership with Barclays as well as hosting a lot of in-person events and webinars on various topics, as with Be Inspired, our panels often include female directors and other senior leaders from within the women’s game, and getting more women into senior/director positions across the game is a regular theme that arises a lot.
“The WIF community is an extremely open and welcoming one and also includes many male and non-binary allies which is also really important as we need more allies to celebrate the importance of gender diversity on boards as unfortunately, some men are much more likely to listen to other men than to women.”
With women’s football continuing to rise in popularity as well as the standards improving, and with club boards still facing the issue of equality, the number of female directors is likely to increase again over the next few years especially with the great work Women in Football are doing. But whether ex-players will go down this career path or not remains a mystery.
Sporty AF 