{"id":64680,"date":"2024-05-03T13:43:04","date_gmt":"2024-05-03T12:43:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sheffieldwire.co.uk\/?p=64680"},"modified":"2024-05-03T14:08:26","modified_gmt":"2024-05-03T13:08:26","slug":"female-football-fans-suffer-sexist-abuse-at-games","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sheffieldwire.co.uk\/index.php\/2024\/05\/03\/female-football-fans-suffer-sexist-abuse-at-games\/","title":{"rendered":"‘He was pressing up against me’: The sexist abuse female football fans suffer at games"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Abigail Rudkin was standing in the crowd at a Liverpool game when a male supporter grabbed her arm and forced himself behind her. Her dad was in another stand. She felt alone and vulnerable. \u201cThis male stranger was on top of me, he was pressing up against me, breathing by my neck. It was horrible.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cPeople were looking at me and looking at him and all I could think was why did no one just turn around and say \u2018give that girl some space\u2019,” Abigail, 23, says. \u201c I had a sick feeling in the pit of my stomach. This wasn’t someone doing this by accident, he was doing it on purpose.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Abigail Rudkin at Anfield (Credit: Abigail Rudkin)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Abigail reported the incident to Her Game Too<\/a> but is understandably annoyed about the frequency in which men make women feel uncomfortable at games. \u201cIf I\u2019m on my own, lads will grab my waist to get past,” she says. \u201cThey will go past all the lads and not touch them, but then they go by a woman and feel like they\u2019ve got to move past and touch your waist. If I\u2019m with my Dad, though, it never happens.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kick it Out<\/a> reported a 400% increase in sexism and misogyny across all levels of football last year. This is after Her Game Too revealed in 2021, out of 370 respondents, 216 had experienced sexist abuse at a football ground or in a pub.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Founder of Sheffield Wednesday Women\u2019s Supporters Group,<\/a> Emma Partridge, attended her first game in 2004 with her friend’s Dad, but it was only after she developed an online presence that she became victim to sexist abuse at football games.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019ve had direct abuse when I\u2019ve been with friends\u201d, the 28-year-old says. \u201cThere was an occasion when I was walking home after a game, when boys on the tram shouted \u2018get your tits out!\u2019”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The verbal sexist abuse occurred on the same day Sheffield Wednesday designated their fixture to Her Game Too, something Emma was directly part of. \u201cAfter the abuse we thought we need to set something up where we, as women, can come together and know that we\u2019re safe and not have to worry about being on our own.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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our walk back from the dedicated #hergametoo<\/a> fixture tonight \ud83e\udee0 pic.twitter.com\/ancxhsXThb<\/a><\/p>— Em \ud83e\udd89\ud83d\udc99 (@_owlornothing_) March 17, 2023<\/a><\/blockquote>