Sunday 8 March 2015 14:20, UK
US Women’s National Team striker Alex Morgan believes the recent protest against playing the Women’s World Cup on artificial turf underlines why days like International Women’s Day are so important.
Morgan and former FIFA World Player of the Year winners Abby Wambach and Nadine Angerer were among the players who argued playing the tournament on turf amounted to gender discrimination.
The players eventually withdrew their complaint to focus on getting used to the 3G surfaces before the tournament, but Morgan says the struggles with FIFA shows that gender inequality still exists.
“International Women’s Day is always an important day as is International Girls Day (celebrated on October 11),” Morgan told Sky Sports.
“It’s always great to celebrate females and how far have come in sports and acadaemia and economics or whatever it may be in their careers.
“I think that women have fought for gender equality for a really long time and we are still fighting - as you can tell with FIFA on certain things - but it’s great to celebrate how far we have come.
“For us, in sports at least, the fact that we can sell out stadiums is great to see and great to celebrate.”
England’s most capped international player Fara Williams believes International Women’s Day gives women in sport the opportunity to be seen and celebrated.
“Days like this are very important and I think International Women’s Day is great for women,” Williams said.
“Women’s sport in general needs to be highlighted more, not just football, and days like International Women’s Day are much-needed in that respect because they get the media and everyone else raving about it.
“I think we are getting there albeit slowly. More and more women’s sport is now being showcased and the added exposure is certainly better for us and our game.”
