Celebrating Women in Brazilian Football

The visibility of women's football defies the way we tell the history of Brazilian football.

What to we remember?

What do we forget?

What do we know about women's participation in the most popular sport in Brazil?

These and other questions became part of the Museum Educational sector program with its different audiences.

The entrance of the Museum was covered with flags and pictures of generations of players who wore the yellow shirt.

Mariléia dos Santos, aka. Michael Jackson (National Team 1988-1996).

Suzana Cavalheiro (National Team 1988-1991).

Daiane Menezes Rodrigues, aka Bagé (National Team 2002-2013).

Aline Pellegrino (National Team 2004-2013).

Norway beat Sweden at the finals, for 1x0, and Brazil secured the bronze medal.

The competition had twelve teams from six confederations: Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, Czechoslovakia, Ivory Coast, Japan, Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, Thailand, and United States.

Marta (Dois Riachos, AL, 1986)

With a powerful left strike and enviable speed, Marta's skill has made her the only player elected as the World's Best by FIFA for five times in a row, and the greatest striker in Brazilian Team's history, scoring 101 goals in 2015 – a deed unmatched by men or women. She is the only honoured woman at Maracanã sidewalk of fame, which has opened way to the visibility of women's football in the 21st century.

Formiga (Salvador, BA, 1978)

Playing for over 20 years in Brazilian National Team, Formiga is the most requested athlete. She is also the only player in the world to participate in six World Cups and six Olympic Games. She is quick, precise, and has an outstanding game vision. The wing player played for Malmo FF Dam (Sweden), Santos, São Paulo, Paris Saint German (France), and São José (SP), where she won three Copa CONMEBOL Libertadores and a FIFA Club World Cup. Together with Marta, she got a silver medal in Athens (2004) and Beijing (2008), and gold in the Pan-Americans of 2003, 2007, and 2015.

"Football is unsuited for women." – O Dia, Curitiba, June 26 1940. Leonor Silva, queen ambassadress of Vasco da Gama and National Team of 1938.

"Surely no one would demand that women would play football or rugby, or punch antagonists with box gloves, or throw iron bars, or grapple in roman wrestling. There are exercises that are not proper and would be harmful to women, not only to their beauty but to their health, and would be ridiculous." – Novelist Coelho Neto, known as a football supporter, 1926. Educação Physica magazine, 1937.

"The sport women, the champion, besides having a below average health, has a compromised feature." – Dr. Leite de Castro, at newspaper O Dia Esportivo, Curitiba, June 26 1940. Educação Physica magazine, 1937.

But women wanted to play and during the 1930s, a time of popularization and professionalization for football, they started to learn the rules of the game.

Female teams emerged in the outskirts of Rio de Janeiro, such as Casino Realengo, S. C. Brasileiro, S. C. Bemfica, Eva F. C., and Primavera A. C. They were the pioneers facing and exposing this practice to the public. They were invited to matches abroad and carried out a match in C. R. Flamengo and São Paulo F. C., as well as in the opening of Pacaembu Stadium, in May 1940.

"The National Sport Council (...) decided to ask for state governor's actions, together with their Police Chiefs, in order to not allow, by any chance, the occurrence of female football games." – Folha de São Paulo, São Paulo, February 04 1965.

Female team of Casino Realengo, Rio de Janeiro, September 1940.

Bemfica F. C. female team, Rio de Janeiro, 1940.

The first female world championship took place in Italy in 1970. The contest was not supported by FIFA and, because of that, was almost wiped from history. The Federation of Independent European Female Football (FIEFF) sponsored the tournament. Austria, Denmark, England, Germany, Italy, Mexico, and Switzerland took part in the opening event. Denmark beat Italy at the finals in Turim for 2x0 and almost 50,000 supporters witnessed the match.

In the next year, the second edition of this World Championship was carried out in Mexico – a year after the Brazilian male team became world champion for the third time at the same field. Over a 100,000 supporters followed the danish conquest against the Mexicans (3x0).

The Mexican Football Federation tried to stop the female players in their fields. The problem was dismissed when two private stadiums opened their doors for the tournament: Jalisco and Azteca. Brazil and Argentina were invited.

In 1922, the newspapers from Rio de Janeiro reported on a woman who allegedly refereed a football match. The illustration of cartoonist Waldo had satirized the unusual episode with the following subtitle: "if it became popular, the football matches among men would become courtship struggles."

Fifty years later

"To referee a football game is no profession for women." – Revista Placar São Paulo, August 20 1971. Léa Campos in the center of the photo.

Araguari Atlético Clube

The Araguari Atlético Clube team, from Araguari, a city 585km from Belo Horizonte (MG), was portrayed in the widely known O Cruzeiro magazine in 28 February 1959. The story called "GLAMOUR" WEAR CLEATS called the national attention as it revealed one of the rare football clubs with female participation that publicly presented itself in a period when women were unadvised – if not to say forbidden – to play football.

Araguari was created when the Grupo Escolar Visconde de Ouro Preto board has proposed to the club with a charity match against the athletes of their biggest rival, the Fluminense Futebol Clube, aiming to get funds to the school.

"(...) Women have more fragile bones, less muscle mass, ubiquitous pelvic girdle, larger and so less resistent bodies, a lower center of gravity, smaller hearts, less red blood cells count, breathing less appropriate to heavy sports, less nervous resistance and organic adaptation." – Folha de São Paulo July 16 1961. Eleuza, goalkeeper from Araguari.

Perhaps due to their naivety, Araguari players and board wish to professionalize the modality. They had promoted friendly matches among other teams that were also clandestine and had some press coverage.

The boldness of those women resulted in an early ending of the team's history. Some say that it was due to the pressure of the local church, others say it was a recommendation of the Brazilian Sports Confederation.

A photo of a malfunctioning train during male and female Araguari athletes trip.

The program, created by and for women, had a football coverage during weekends. Germana Garilli's, aka Gegê, field reporter credentials, representing the Radio Mulher.

Women's space in football coverage

During one of those programs, the first sportscast made by a woman in 1972. Zuleide Ranieri was the main commentator of a match between Soviet Union and Czechoslovakia.

Germana beside Jairzinho

Other important names in the history of the radio were Germana Garlilli, reporter and commentator; field reporter; Claudete Troiano, Jurema Yara and Leilah Silveira, both commentators; and Léa Campos. The former referee was responsible for analyzing the referee performance during the matches.

Semiramis Alves' field reporter credentials during the perioed she worked for TV Tupi

Radio Mulher reached greater audiences, specially male listeners. Keeping it in mind and aiming for more audience, Roberto Montoro, in the words of Zuleide, "married" the radio, inviting men to join the team.

The reporter Semíramis Alves between Alberto Torres and the goalkeeper Gilmar

Little by little, the male presence grew, giving the radio a new frame. Since 1974, many girls no longer worked for the 930 AM, which was closed in 1976 due to a lack of sponsors.

Germana Garilli, aka Gegê, during the broadcast of Rádio Mulher.

Léa Campos, Zuleide, Gegê (on the back) and Claudete and non-identified person during Rádio's awards

Despite the closure of the station, the legacy of women – even if few of them – commenting, covering, and earning their living off football, was also due to Rádio Mulher.

Claudete Troiano interviewing Pelé to Rádio Mulher.

Rose won this nickname after being involved in an important episode that made history, in a period that the prohibition act was already cancelled, but women continued boycott the field, due to the lack of regulation.

In September 1982, São Paulo hosted the National Festival of Women in Art, organized by Ruth Escobar. Ruth, actress and cultural producer, organized the festival with the support of the Revista Nova. It was no doubt a great example of female artistic production in a wide range of acting fields.

Initial kick from Ruth Escobar during the match between women played at Morumbi, 1982

In the ending day of the festival, two teams were assembled, one from Rio de Janeiro and one from São Paulo, to play in the lawn of Morumbi Stadium.

The organization of the event received a Restraining Order and was able to work around it by calling the match a foreplay "spectacle", previous to the match between São Paulo and Corinthians. The match duration was shortened – twenty minutes each half – as to de-characterize it as an authentic match.

68,000 supporters came to the stadium, at the same time as a telegram from the São Paulo Football Federation forbidding the match. According to Rose do Rio's testimony, the male players were supportive of the match, and Sócrates one of the leaders of Corinthians Democracy, said it out loud:

"The public is here to see the female game. They are not here to see Corinthians and São Paulo. So, if they cannot play, we won't play either!"

Casagrande beside Rose.

When CND regulated the practice in 1983, the rules of the sport set the duration of the match in 70 minutes, with 15-20 minutes of break; the ball's size was 62-66 centimeters and maximum weight of 390 grams; the players must use cleats without metal or pointed studs; and they cannot exchange shirts with the opponents after a match.

This last rule is due the episode occurred at Morumbi, when Ruth Escobar exchanged her shirt with a player from São Paulo team.

The only commercial sponsor of the event, the candy factory Mars, took the lead and assigned the tournament the name M&M's Cup. After considering the tournament a success, FIFA renamed the event retroactively as "Female Football World Cup".

Despite having the same name, the Female World Cup would still struggle for years to assure the basic infrastructure to carry on the championship every four years. Broadcasting, sponsorship, fields, calendar, public are challenging topics for organizers and, as such, for participating teams

Brazilian delegation preparing to the 1995 World Cup, at Granja Comary.

Brazilian National Team, 1995. Notice the male uniform they wore, whose model was used by men at 1994 Cup.

Formiga and Maravilha celebrate Brazilian victory.

First sticker album of FIFA World Cup, 2011, that was only sold in Germany, host country of the competition.

Brazilian Football Reference Center

The majority of this collection was gathered by the research and digitalization work of Brazilian Football Reference Center, the Museum of Football sector responsible for the digitalization of the contents.

"Do you keep materials that can help to rescue the history of female football?"

It was important to share the curatorship of this exhibition with the protagonists of this history, athletes, referees, and journalists, that had pointed out significant images from their careers.

This doorway allowed us to discover and scan their personal collections and, thus, made them available at the project for increasing the visibility of female football.

Therefore, we are proud to have, at the Football Museum, the biggest collection on the Brazilian sport. These collections are today the most important clues to begin to understand the history of female soccer in Brazil. Is is available to the public for free.