Interest in women’s football is at an all-time high and on the surface it appears to be flourishing. Coverage of the Women’s World Canada 2015 is a testament to this. However, as a parent of both male and female youth players, it is evident that the gap between the women’s and men’s game is huge; a gap that exists from grassroots right through to the top level.
At youth level, I see coaches with higher qualifications assigned to boys’ teams and parent coaches allocated to the girls. My eldest daughter is consistently allocated Monday nights for training; Monday is a post-match, rest night for my son. My children have always been able to play EA Sports, FIFA games and select from a range of megastar male football players. It’s only recently been announced that FIFA 16 will feature female players for the first time, a great progression for the profile of the women’s game. Of course, young female players can play on male teams and many top women’s players such as France’s pacey left back, Amel Majri, have done this during their player development years, but this is not the same thing as equality. Majri’s confidence in her ability to reach her goals is high, but she could never tread the same path as her male teammates.
Canadian Women’s National Football Team, FIFA Women’s World Cup 2015. Photo: IQRemix
So while the women’s game is flourishing more than ever before, the playing field is still vastly uneven. From a positive psychology perspective, this poses some interesting questions about possible differences in goal motivation between the male and female players. The men may occupy the higher ground and all its promised riches, but abject circumstances can be the catalyst for remarkable achievement, so as a parent I wonder if occupying the lower ground could benefit my daughter’s development. Could it cultivate greater goal motivation for her?
Goals (and I’m not talking about the back-of-the-net variety) are natural motivators that research has linked to happiness. They provide us with direction in life, such as aiming to reach our maximum potential as a player. They motivate us and structure our time and actions. They inform the decisions we make. For aspirational youth players, these actions and decisions can be sacrificing other activities in the pursuit of dedicated practice, choosing a healthy diet and getting plenty of sleep. Working towards our goals provides meaning; achieving them gives us a sense of accomplishment. However, not all goals are created equal. By looking towards what motivates our goals we can discover which type of goals we are more likely to persevere with and which will make us happier. It is here that the differences between the men’s and women’s game are evident.
Goal motivation has been split into two categories, intrinsic and extrinsic, of which we can have a combination of both. Intrinsic goals are deemed to be inherently satisfying, whereas extrinsic goals are related to external factors such as good pay; think the mega salaries of the top-flight men’s leagues. Intrinsic goals are related to well-being, possibly because they are more highly valued and more personally rewarding. They provide feelings of growth and autonomy. Extrinsic motivators such as popularity, fame and money are linked to anxiety and interpersonal problems. They can also contribute to stress. Simply put, the external stakes in the women’s game are not as high as in the men’s game with its obscene salaries and promises of international fame.
Simply put, the external stakes in the women’s game are not as high as in the men’s game with its obscene salaries and promises of international fame.
Tony Readings, Head Coach for the New Zealand Football Ferns, says, “There are some female players that receive substantial financial rewards, not at the same scale as male players – but substantial nonetheless. However, these numbers are far reduced compared to their male counterparts so the extrinsic rewards are often different.” This raises the question of whether female players are more intrinsically and less extrinsically motivated than their male counterparts? If so, do they have a greater sense of well-being and less anxiety, stress or interpersonal problems than male players? Readings says, “Merely living the life of a full-time player often fulfills the intrinsic satisfaction that players crave. Thenon-financial extrinsic rewards can often be provided by forming a strong bond and unity with teammates and also the life lessons that can be gained through playing overseas and experiencing different cultures.” England forward, Lianne Sanderson, famed for her unique hairstyles, has touched on the lack of extrinsic rewards in interviews. She acknowledges that the women do not get paid as much as people think they should, but that says that she feels, “like a millionaire,” because of the lifestyle she gets to lead. She quantifies this by saying how much she values being a role model and having people reach out to her. She says you can’t put a price on that. Researcher Robert Emmons states that goals associated with generativity (guiding the next generation), such as being a good role model are positively associated with greater happiness.
Germany vs England, FIFA Women’s World Cup 2015. Photo: IQRemix
In contrast, sport psychologists are reported as saying that the most difficult players to motivate are the rich and pampered elite players from the English Premier League. Readings believes that this is likely to change with the global growth of the women’s game where financial rewards and fame will become more common. Female players also face the prospect of having to choose between their life as a professional footballer and starting a family. For males, having children does not interfere with their careers, for females it is valuable time out at their peak. This is a choice my daughters will be faced with both on and off the field. Defensive US mid- fielder Shannon Boxx returned to football after having her first child, stating that she never wanted to be away from the sport she loved. She found motivation to get back into the game by striving to do well for her daughter. What could be more inherently satisfying and meaningful than Boxx’s other-focused intrinsic goal?
While income and family pose different challenges for men and women, players of both genders that reach the pinnacle of their game have one thing in common. They are often motivated by a strong need for self-actualisation, what Abraham Maslow defines as “a person fulfilling their talents and potential”.
“…the most difficult players to motivate are the rich and pampered elite players from the English Premier League.”
“Individually, female players want to be the best they can be regardless of any extrinsic rewards. Their internal motivation to realise their own potential is very strong,” says Readings. In the women’s game Abby Wambach epitomizes this. Despite two Olympic gold medals under her belt in the run up to the FIFA World Cup, Abby’s mother says winning the World Cup tournament would validate her daughter. Her need for self-fulfillment is so strong that over 180 international goals cannot sate her appetite. No male player has even come close to this. In fact, Wambach has scored as many international goals with her head as Pele did by any method in his international career. The women’s game is full of evidence that women can perform at spectacular levels to rival men.
“Individually, female players want to be the best they can be regardless of any extrinsic rewards.” – Tony Readings, Head Coach New Zealand Women’s National Team.
Australia’s Lisa De Vanna, France’s Louisa Necrib and Ireland’s Stephanie Rouche have all been Puskas Award nominees. While their nominations set them alongside the likes of Neymar, Ibrahimovic and Van Persie, they are far from the household names of their male peers. The video quality of the female goals is a salient reminder of chasm the women’s game needs to cross to reach the level of the men’s game, too. Nonetheless, no matter how uneven the playing field, there is plenty of evidence that women can still achieve great heights.
Aside from the possible nuances in motivation between male and female players, the ways they respond to stress may also affect their performance on the field. For around 70 years it was generally accepted that “fight or flight” was the human stress response, until close to the turn of the millennium when researchers realised that most of the study participants in this area were male. It has since been proposed that the female stress response is “tend and befriend”, in that women are more likely to nurture others and maintain social networks in response to stress. This raises the question of whether women respond differently on the field under pressure. Are they less likely to become aggressive and blame each other and more likely to work on pulling together as a team? In other words, does the “tend and befriend” response aid teamwork? Readings hints at a more collectivistic nature in the women’s game.
USA Celebrate their victory over Japan in the final of the FIFA Women’s World Cup 2015. Photo: Ronald Woan
“There also seems to be a shared purpose amongst female players to not only grow themselves, but also the women’s game as a whole. Whether this is within their own environment (domestically or nationally) or on the global stage, there is a selfless commonality here. This provides additional motivation for players that are working towards something bigger than themselves.” What all of this points to is that the women’s game is a fertile ground for researchers interested in player development. Undoubtedly it is a rich bed of talent that largely escapes the lure of money and fame, but may instead enjoy the hidden benefits of greater intrinsic motivation and capacity for teamwork.
So what does the current climate mean for my own children or perhaps yours? My eldest daughter plans to head off to the US through the NSR program to play football at a level that is not currently offered in Australia. My son, on the other hand, still dreams of playing in Australian and British top-flight leagues. Paradoxically, his dream, which promises greater riches may deny him the level of well-being my daughter’s journey suggests. As a parent I cannot fix the splintered paths they travel on. Instead I plan to help my children understand what intrinsically motivates them to play football, so that hopefully their love of the game may never be overshadowed by extrinsic rewards or despondency about the inequalities that exist. No matter how far their football journeys take them, if their passion for the game remains I will consider this a worthy accomplishment.
References
Books:
Positive Psychology Coaching; Robert Biswas-Diener and Ben Dean
The How of Happiness; Sonja Lyubom- irsky
The Stupid Footballer is Dead; Paul McVeigh
Journals:
Sheldon, K. T. (2008). Psychological threat and extrinsic goal striving. Moti- vation & Emotion, 32(1), 37-45.
The New York Times, Jeré Longman article 22 May 2015-05-24
Websites:
http://www.ussoccer.com/womens-na- tional-team/2015-wwc-1n1t-23stories
http://www.fifa.com/womensworldcup/ index.html http://www.thefa.com/videocentre
Cover Image: ·ju?bilo·haku·
