FIFA is Trying to Tackle Women's Soccer's Biggest Blind Spot
The governing body says much of the research used to train and protect athletes is still based on men
Women’s soccer isn’t just having a moment. It’s entered a new era. It’s passed an inflection point. Whatever cliché you choose, it’s big.
But there's a problem that’s lingered in the background for years: Much of the sports science and medical research being used today is still built around, and tailored to, the male athlete.
A year out from the 2027 Women's World Cup in Brazil, FIFA has now said that it’s trying to change that. The governing body recently launched a global education initiative designed to help players, coaches, medical professionals, parents, and football organizations better understand the health needs of female athletes.
The program includes 30 online learning modules covering 13 different topics and will be available to all 211 FIFA member associations worldwide.
Emma Haslett
“Much of the existing sport and exercise science research has been based on the ‘average’ 70 kg (154-lbs) white male, leaving important gaps in knowledge about female health, performance, and injury risk,” FIFA wrote in a report introducing the initiative.
“Many training methodologies, workload models, and performance benchmarks used in sport have historically been derived from male athlete data, requiring female athletes to adapt to systems that may not reflect their own unique physiological characteristics,” it added.
FIFA also points to studies showing that only about 6% of sport science research focuses exclusively on women, and that only about 8% of elite female athletes have enough knowledge about how the menstrual cycle might affect their training and performance.
‘Confounding variable’
Some of this gender research gap can be attributed to concerns about conducting studies on women, after the sedative thalidomide was found to cause birth defects when taken by pregnant women in the 1960s. As a result, the National Research Act of 1974 made it much harder for pregnant women to participate in research studies.
But the gaps extended far beyond pregnancy. Researchers have historically also viewed women as more difficult, and therefore more expensive, to study because hormonal fluctuations associated with the menstrual cycle can introduce additional variables into experiments.
As a result, male physiology has become the default model, or widely-accepted gold standard, for everything from exercise science to medicine. Researchers at the American Physiological Society have noted, women are still frequently treated as a "confounding variable" rather than a population worthy of study in their own right.
Grace L. Williams
