
One of the many joys of women’s football is the fan culture that is shared by supporters across the world. The inclusivity remains a key attraction of the game and that extends off the pitch to the stands, concourses and bars where fans congregate.
These facets culminate to create an environment which is unique to the women’s game. Featuring data from our Women’s Football Fandom Insights Report (download a free copy via our insights page) , we outline the aspects of fan culture that make it so special.
A shared commitment to activism
Women’s football has always relied on a level of self-advocacy. From the pioneers who continued playing through the 1972 FA-imposed ban, to the women who came after and forged a path without any visible role models, it has sadly been a necessity.
Women have faced unending barriers to accessing competitive sport. For years, just to lace up your boots and kick a ball has required subverting expectations of ‘femininity’.
But, through those years of struggle, such a necessary tradition has also found a home among the fans who remain willing to fight for the hard-fought rights of the pioneers before them.
It has led to an extremely informed fan base, where 59% of fans feel that negative press about a club would weaken their support.
It is the reason why the plights of former WSL side Reading and Thornaby FC provoked such a strong response from the community. It is the reason why, when a player crowdfunds for ACL surgery due to the lack of financial support from their club, fans rally to repost and donate.
Reading provoked a moment of reflection on the state of the women’s game after the main club issued a statement in June confirming that they were withdrawing from the Women’s Championship and moving to Tier 5 of the pyramid. Reading cited that financial difficulty meant they could not afford to commit to the investment required to stay in the league.
Further down the tiers, Thornaby FC had decided to drop their women’s team until public and media outcry convinced them otherwise.
It is perhaps unsurprising that 86% of women’s football fans do not believe there is enough support for failing women’s clubs.
But what is certain is that fans will stand up for injustices in women’s football, whether it is happening to their club or not.
Kit culture
Football and fashion have never been too far apart. Clubs are releasing new kits yearly making the most of collaborations with high-end fashion houses e.g. Labrum x Arsenal to provoke conversation, educate audiences and generate hype.
Women’s football kit culture is part of the conversation now. The explosion in the popularity of the women’s game has been accompanied by a boom in shirt sales and memorabilia as fans seek to own a piece of the action.
Interestingly, our audience insights found that 39% of fans would buy another team’s kits because they love it – which subverts the narrative around tribalism in the women’s game.
From the growth of women’s football kit brand Foudy’s to TikTokkers making ‘matchday ‘fits’ content and interest in the fashion of players themselves, football shirt fashion is blossoming.

In fact, just under half of female, women’s football fans consume content on footballer fashion, while that figure still sits at over a quarter of male women’s football fans.
Just walking around the Emirates concourse on the opening day of the season, the passion for accessorising kits was clear. Fans dialled down in Levi’s or scaling up with jewellery, scrunchies and bows – it was a concourse catwalk – a pre-match show of the best dressed in the community.
Women’s football culture is celebrating different points of entry into falling in love with the beautiful game and it’s something we love to see.
IRL watch-alongs are winning
As society in general grapples with a decline in third places (social spaces away from home and work), in women’s football, they only seem to be becoming more available.
Watching football at a pub may previously have been seen as the domain of an exclusive masculine core, where knowledge of obscure facts about Chelsea’s third-choice keeper in 2005 and willingness to shout abuse at a projector screen, qualified your acceptance.
Increasingly, however, we are seeing those less inclined to enter that hyper-masculine environment benefit from the success of women’s football watch-alongs.

They provide a far more inclusive space to be equally as passionate about the team you support, so much so that 96% of women’s football fans would be keen to consume football in this way.
It is an exciting aspect of women’s football culture that inclusive spaces are being embedded as go-to spaces to consume sport, diverging from the well-trodden path of men’s football.
LGBTQ+ inclusive culture
Inclusivity is not restricted to watch-alongs in the game, as women’s football culture, in many respects, has also found itself intertwined with queer culture.
There are many explanations and theories for the perception that women’s football is home to a high proportion of LGBTQ+ people. It’s a fact that has been reclaimed by the community and whatever the explanation or truth, it has contributed to creating a welcoming space for all.
Outspoken and visible role models in the elite game as well as inclusive LGBTQ+ grassroots football clubs have all ensured that, for the LGBTQ+ community, women’s football has developed into a space where you can be yourself.

While under a third of LGBTQ+ people feel safe at men’s games, at women’s matches that increases to nearly all LGBTQ+ fans feeling safe (96%).
However, there remains work to be done to include all backgrounds and cultures into the women’s football space, as Black, Asian and mixed heritage fans and those from a lower socio-economic background remain underrepresented in crowds.
(Photo credit: Arsenal/adidas)