Welcome to Level The Field

Oh hi! Welcome to the FIRST ever edition of Level The Field - your new one-stop shop for all things women’s sport from Missing Perspectives. We’re detailed but digestible, landing in your inbox every two weeks with cracker stories of female athletes from all over the world absolutely KILLING it. Our mission? To keep up the momentum and interest in women’s sport post the Women’s World Cup and the Matildas winning the hearts of Australia and the world.

Contrary to some of our classic Instagram comments over the last month (how good is the Internet??), we’re confident this interest isn’t just a phase but the beginning of a culture-shifting trend that is long overdue. The immediate reaction to us announcing this newsletter is proof of that and honestly, we’re planning to prove it tenfold while also smashing the grass ceiling (we’re still not sure about this phrase but we’re trying to make it ~happen~). Let us know if it’s working or if it sounds like we’re talking about a certain substance?

Every edition of this newsletter is going to be packed with stuff from stats and fun facts about the progress of women’s sport to fun interviews, giveaways and reporting from some of the best up-and-coming sports reporters and content creators (you’ll meet Ashytn and Lucy in the next few editions!). We’ll be the space for unpacking the real issues that lie at the heart of why women’s sport around the world has so long been ignored or diminished.

Speaking of which, we stand with Jenni Hermoso and the rest of the Spanish women’s football team as they navigate this egregious abuse of power from a man who knows better but clearly doesn’t care. The whole world saw what happened to Jenni Hermoso and so, no matter what way Rubiales and the institutions or people that support him try to spin it, we know the truth. There’s a reason Spain is finally having its long overdue #metooreckoning (and be sure to read Missing Perspectives contributor Marta’s perspective on this down below).

We plan to go global with this thing, bringing you female athletes you know and love as well as shining a light on those working hard at the grassroots level in the communities they care about. Even if we’re talking exclusively about women’s sport here, the driving force is still the same. Intersectional. Global. Real. That’s who we are as a media company and no matter what we’re talking about, that will never change.

We have some EPIC stuff in the pipeline, so watch this space! And don’t forget to scroll all the way to the bottom of the newsletter to go in the running for an epic PARK kit (more on that down below!).

Can’t wait to see how this grows,

The Missing Perspectives Squad xx

The Interview: Brandi Chastain

Thanks to VISA and the US Embassy, we were stoked to be able to interview American soccer hero Brandi Chastain (aka American soccer legend). Brandi’s bio could go on-and-on-and on….but in a nutshell, she’s a two-time Olympic gold-medalist, coach, and sports broadcaster, who played for the US national team from 1988 to 2004. We absolutely LOVED spending the morning with her.

Missing Perspectives contributor, champion surfer, equal pay advocate Lucy Small interviewed Brandi about her incredible career as a pioneer of women’s soccer in the US, her iconic photo, penalty shootouts and fight for equal pay. Read an excerpt below, or head over to our podcast and listen to the full episode.

Lucy: Early on, could you feel that there was a difference in the way the women’s team was treated to their men’s team? Were you paid?

Brandi: I would say initially no, because we were just so happy to be there. We were so happy to be playing, to be around other women and girls who had the same feelings and wanted to compete at that kind of higher intensity. It was just awesome.

I think the time when we noticed it was when you got to see the men's national team on the television wearing their uniforms and then we got the same uniforms in the same sizes and it was like, the sleeves that hit the men here kind of hit us down near our elbows!

We weren’t being paid, but we received per diem, which was awesome because we got to enough money to do our laundry and maybe go see a movie at the end of the week (note: sarcasm).

We just didn’t know better. I think players today are much more aware of their surroundings and the equity or the equality of the environment that they're in.

Lucy: After the 1999 World Cup win - had you noticed that women’s soccer was growing and changing? What could you tell had changed over the 90s?

Brandi: There was a push towards FIFA to be like “hey, let's get this going” and that summer in 1996 really saw the rise of the female athlete. Women's soccer, basketball, track, gymnastics, softball, swimming, all gold medalists. So there was this upswell of women doing great things in sports in America that just like tipped the thing over and everything spilled out. Now, girls and women were signing up in record numbers to be a part of soccer leagues and teams all over the place.

Some #MissingPerspectives from this week:

Here’s some opinion pieces from young female reporters who might not be on your radar (so glad they are now!).

The Giveaway: Win a PARK kit!

Millions of women football players around the world are forced to play in kits designed for men. Recent research shows 96% of Australian women players have had to play in a men's kit (Professional Footballers Australia, 2023). Australian-born company, PARK, is campaigning to stop women playing in ill-fitting kit, launching a sustainable women’s kit designed with real feedback from women players around the world. What’s not to love?

To go in the running to win one of these fabulous kits, all you have to do is reply to this email and let us know if there’s a particular story/perspective you’d like to see in the next edition Level The Field - you might even get a shoutout too! While you’re at it: forward this email to two friends and spread the Level The Field love (because the more eyeballs we get on women’s sport, the better).