The Lionesses have done it again - monumental sporting wins that have united the nation. With record-breaking audiences and a generation of young girls looking up to them, they're sporting heroes. While the vast majority of the country has got behind them, a few have used their platforms to diminish their achievements – a sad reminder that, despite progress, equality is still something women have to fight for, both on and off the pitch.
Writer and commentator Kathy Lette has a few choice words for those critics - and she doesn’t hold back. Read her passionate defence of the Lionesses and the ongoing fight for gender equality:
The Lionesses have roared. Back to back European championship wins has put the whole nation on a sporting high…. But wait. What’s that moaning noise I hear from the side lines? Oh yes. It’s the predictable male whinging denigrating their achievement and scoffing at the idea of levelling the playing field to ensure sports women get equal pay.
Men like this prove that dinosaurs still roam the earth. And these prehistoric attitudes are not just holding women back in sport. 100 years since Emily Pankhurst chained herself to the railings and we still don’t have equal pay. Plus we’re getting concussion hitting our heads on the glass ceiling – and we’re expected to clean it whilst up there.
Females face a second glass ceiling at home. It seems that a woman’s work is never done; not by men anyway. Even though women make up half the work force, we’re still doing the majority of domestic chores and childcare. Giving a room a sweeping glance is the closest most men ever come to housework.
The sad fact is that women’s rights are slipping backwards all around the world. A woman born in America now has less rights than her grandmother. Abortion bans in America; the erasing of women in Afghanistan... And what about Iran? Never has a haircut been more political...
And it’s not just a developing-world problem. The gender gap, upskirting, Andrew Tate, Incel, revenge porn, trolling, date rape, grooming, stealthing... Not to forget the sexual predator in chief now running the White House. The conviction rate for rape is limbo-low and domestic violence figures sky-high; one in four women will be sexually assaulted or raped in her lifetime.
It's a sad state of affairs and by and large women are programmed to just persevere, despite the odds. My only motto in these regressive times is – laugh and the world laughs with you; cry and you get salt in your champers. And, just like the Lionesses, we fight on with verve and nerve.
But in reality, women won’t get equality until more men join us at the barricades. And it’s not as if we’re asking for too much. What do women want? Number one - equal pay. We’d also like men to help more around the house; which is actually in their interest as its scientifically proven than no woman ever shot her husband while he was vacuuming. We’d also like fellas to work out that 'mutual orgasm' is not an insurance company. And to do the odd sensitive thing with mange tout in the kitchen. The way to a woman’s heart is through her stomach – that is not aiming too high. What does a woman really want in bed?... Breakfast!
The Lionesses have changed the game - breaking barriers, making history and inspiring the next generation. In a big raspberry to moaning male trolls, England's dramatic Euro 2025 final victory against Spain was the most watched television moment of the year so far, with a peak live audience of 12.2 million across all BBC platforms. (It’s a conundrum, isn’t it? The clitoris has around 8,000 nerve endings and yet, somehow, it’s still not as sensitive as an angry bloke on the internet.)
But on this celebratory day of sisterly solidarity, any mean-spirited misogynist who belittles the Lionesses’ achievements deserves a free kick. Preferably someplace painful.
Kathy Lette is the author of 20 books, her most recent release being The Revenge Club.
