Switzerland is considered conservative on gender issues. So women’s football could develop slowly there. The European Championship in its own country is now supposed to trigger a change that goes beyond sport.
Laura Kaufmann believed that time was ripe, but many others didn’t believe that. With a small team, she wanted to develop a printed magazine that is all about the football of women. It would be one of the first magazines of this kind in Europe. And if not now, when then, Kaufmann thought with a view to the European Championship of women, which begins in Switzerland on Wednesday.
“We promoted support from many companies”says Kaufmann. “But the response rate was bad underground. The marketing departments, which are mostly shaped by men, are obviously not as far as Swiss society.”
The photographer Kaufmann and her colleagues started a crowdfunding campaign. And after just a few weeks, the goal was reached: more than CHF 80,000, around CHF 85,000 – compiled by almost 900 donors. And now the magazine is ready for the European Championship. The title: “Mrs. Muller”. That should sound like everyday life, after normality.
Premiere with washed -out jerseys
Laura Kaufmann conveys a spirit of optimism that can also be felt in many other places in Switzerland. Especially in the big cities, administration, clubs and companies have launched around the European Championship programs. Film evenings, plays, readings. And often football serves as a medium to talk about gender justice. Because this is where Switzerland has a lot to catch up.
The causes can be found out of one of the most important football club in the country, especially in the FC Zurich Museum. A photo exhibition conveys the history of the women’s Swiss national team between old trophies, pimp and time boards.
The first picture from 1970 is full of symbolism. It shows The Swiss players before their first unofficial international match in Schaffhausen Against Austria. They carry washed -out and oversized jerseys that male youth players had no longer needed. It was only a year later, by the way, in 1971, that women in Switzerland received the right to vote at the federal level. And it wasn’t until 1972 that physical education lessons also became binding for girls.
Grätschen, flanks, goal celebrations
“Switzerland’s early international matches often took place in smaller towns”says historian Marianne Meier: “Players had to cancel their participation again and again because the travel expenses were too high.” And also skepticism in the media, for example at the magazine “Tip”: “The woman should do the sport that gives her fun. But if it is football, it should best stay away from the public so that she does not reveal herself to ridiculousness.”
Hardly anyone can trace this story as well as Marianne Meier. In 2000 she came across a newspaper advertisement in which the national players of the early 1970s campaigned for a meeting. Meier contacted him, took part in the group, distributed questionnaires for her research. “Only one of 16 players from that time viewed the football in 1970 as a political act”she says. “Some expressly did not want to be understood as feminists.”
The pioneers strangers with political categories, perhaps also with their role model. And yet they were feminists. Because they took something out of what men have been able to do for a hundred years: gravel, flank, flank, bale the fists at the goal. With the gender researcher Monika Hofmann, Meier has now written a book and produced a podcast. The title: “The right to kick”.
Hardly women in Leadership positions
However, this right was not a matter of course for the following generations, as a visit to the Bernese Wankdorf Stadium shows, the home of the BSC Young Boys. In the catacombs, Franziska Schild comes out of her office in a quick step and takes a seat in the conference hall, behind her posters show the full stands of the stadium. Schild, who played four caps for Switzerland around the turn of the millennium, is responsible for women’s football at Young Boys. “The old role models are still anchored in Switzerland today”she says.
Franziska Schild wants to achieve that more women come in management positions in football.
Schild grew up in a suburb of Bern. In their youth, many mothers stayed at home and took care of the family. She was one of the few girls at school who were interested in football, but she had to look for role models. In 1994 the Swiss Football Association celebrated its 100th birthday. The women’s national team was not even mentioned in the commemorative publication.
Switzerland is wealthy, has the third highest gross domestic product in the world per capita. But in the ranking of the World Economic Forum on gender justice, Switzerland only ranks 17th. “We should also advertise in football that more women move up in management positions”says Schild.
Initiative of the Federal President
As one of the last national associations in Europe, the Swiss Football Association did not accept women to its board until 2024. Overall, the proportion of officials in Swiss football is 13 percent, the proportion of trainers in eight percent and that of referees at three percent.
Schild already had different jobs as a official, and sometimes it happened that she was held on the phone for the secretary. She thinks it is good that even the former Swiss President Viola Amherd took on sport. In the future, at least 40 percent of managers should be female in sports associations.
Nevertheless, Schild is aware that the footballers at their current club in Bern do not receive the same status as soon as the footballers. But at least it can bring together the structures. “We don’t want to lead their own life”says Schild. “All departments in the club, whether marketing or media, should have a look at women and men’s football alike.” At autograph sessions or sponsorship events, for example, players should perform together.
Low salaries for players
The BSC Young Boys’ footballers have been playing their home games in the Wankdorf Stadium for two years, sometimes in front of more than 10,000 spectators. It is an atmosphere that differs from the sometimes charged mood in men’s football. Many families and school classes visit the games. Schild hopes that this also appeals to sponsors who have so far avoided football.
“I am sure that after the euro more girls want to play football”says Schild. In the long term, she also wants more referees, trainers or stadium speakers.
The players of the BSC Young Boys have just become champions in Switzerland. But only a few of them can make a living with football. A Bernese player works as a cook, one other than a carpenter, others pursue a degree.
According to a survey from 2022, Swiss footballers received an average monthly salary of almost 400 euros. This average could grow due to the attention of the EM, but the financial level of men’s football remains unreachable for the time being.