Have 16 years and, after finish ESO in it IE Pallerola of Sant Celoni, they just started high school. In different centers, something that makes their hearts shrink a little. Isabel Maldonado has started scientific baccalaureate in the Baix Montseny -the ‘insti’ of the people-, and Judit Puigtioa training cycle in Cardedeu. It’s Sunday and the two friends are dressed in the team’s uniforms. CF Vallgorguina, club in which they both play and They feel “like family.”
“At school I stopped playing because it made me insecure; there were children who They made comments about my body, or told me that I didn’t play well. and they always made me the goalkeeper, and that made me lose my desire; instead, when I enter our field [el del CF Vallgorguina]it’s different, I feel like we are a team, I feel safe“, says Judit, with bright eyes, excited about the match against Europe what awaits you this afternoon and eager to share with whoever wants to listen to it – for the moment, via this interview – the ESO final project What did four hands with Isabel and that earned them an “excellent assistance”. Project, as they emphasize on more than one occasion in the text, that wants to be “a letter to the world, a claim and a warning to make people aware that everyone is aware of the abysmal gender inequality in football and no one does anything to change it“.
The objective of their work – that they began to prepare and deliver months before the outbreak of “it’s over” – was, on the one hand, to demonstrate with countless historical and current data the gender inequality in football, and, on the other, show that it is absolutely normalized (through a survey of 100 people). His ambitious intention was clear: shake consciences. Problematizing something that, in the eyes of girls born in the 21st century, is absolutely crazy, such as how a situation that is clearly so unfair is so assimilated. They have already made the ‘click’ and they are determined that the world does the same.
Far beyond salary
“It’s not just the salaries, which of course; the problem is much deeper. They are the match schedules, media monitoring, lawn care and even the fields themselves; For the girls’ games it seems that with three rows of seats for the public it is already fine, because, after all, who is going to want to go see them…”, he says. Isabel, who was the one who, in his day, encouraged Judit to play soccer. “I used to do figure skating; I have always really liked all sports, but I had never thought about signing up for football until Isa convinced me,” she remembers, grateful.
Isa and Judit are friends since the first year of ESO, when the first one arrived Sant Celoni. “In my school, in Ecuador, I was the fastest of the girls, and I came here and asked a classmate who was the fastest in this school. She told me that Judit, I approached her and told her, ‘I’ve been told that you’re the fastest, let’s have a race,'” she explains. “And I beat you!” adds Judit, to her friend’s knowing laugh. “Well “Well, I beat you once, one day when you were injured,” they laugh.
Always with the “it’s a joke”
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In these four years, until reaching the sweet moment they are now living at Vallgorguina, with a coach who has them dazzled – “she studies at the university, plays in the first class and coaches girls, she does everything I would want to do!” says Isabel -, they have had to put up with many “jokes” from their classmates. “They are always ‘jokes’, they tell you not to get angry, but they let it go,” Judith points out. “I remember that until the day we delivered the work, which is titled ‘Gender equality in football: an investigation into knowledge and lack of action’, “A child saw the title on the laptop screen and said ‘Wow, gender equality’ and laughed,” they say.
Regarding the tsunami experienced in the last month, after Spain’s victory in the World Cup on August 20 – only a month ago, although it seems like a century – and the “it’s over” carried out by the players who have said enough to injustices and abuses, Judith and Isabel They are optimistic, but cautious. They see that the fact that girls have references like World Cup winners -either his coach at Vallgorguina– is very positive, and “doors are opening more”but they insist that there is still a lot to do. “You go to the coles courts and the majority are boys; They let the girls play so that the teacher doesn’t say anything to them, but it is still very difficult for them to be taken into account, let them pass the ball. “You can’t demonstrate your potential if they don’t give you a chance, if they tell you you don’t play well,” they say.