Celebrating Women in Brazilian Football

Visibility for Women's Football (2015) by The Football Museum CollectionThe Football Museum

The football country

It is common sense to refer to Brazil as the football country. However, a pice of this history is forgotten. For over four decades, women were forbid to play football, as it was considered that some sports were incompatible with their "nature". Only in 1983 was female football starting to be regulated. This exhibition aims to bring the history of women who fought for the right to play football into the spotlight.

Visibility for Women's Football (1960/1970) by Teresa Cristina CollectionThe Football Museum

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?

Visibility for Women's Football (2015) by The Football Museum CollectionThe Football Museum

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

Visibility for Women's Football (1988) by Suzana Cavalheiro CollectionThe Football Museum

Visibility and research

This exhibition aims to make the history of women who fought for the right to play football widely known. We share the curatorship with the athletes, referees, and field journalists themselves, who pointed to representative images of their careers and opened their personal files to The Football Museum, in order to make it public for reference, aiming to enlarge the sources of research which are almost non-existent in Brazil.

Visibility for Women's Football (2015) by The Football Museum CollectionThe Football Museum

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

Visibility for Women's Football (2015-05-19) by The Football Museum CollectionThe Football Museum

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

Visibility for Women's Football (2015-05-19) by The Football Museum CollectionThe Football Museum

Suzana Cavalheiro (National Team 1988-1991).

Visibility for Women's Football (2015-05-19) by The Football Museum CollectionThe Football Museum

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

Visibility for Women's Football (2015-05-19) by The Football Museum CollectionThe Football Museum

Aline Pellegrino (National Team 2004-2013).

Visibility for Women's Football (2015) by The Football Museum CollectionThe Football Museum

We had included the history of women's participation in football in the main exhibition of The Football Museum in May 2015. It is the right place for this history to be publicly told. Through the virtual platform of Google Cultural Institute, we want to reach more people who cannot visit us at Pacaembu Stadium, or that are interested in knowing the history of this sport.

Visibility for Women's Football (2015) by The Football Museum CollectionThe Football Museum

"Imagine if you were forbid to do something that you really like?"

Visibility for Women's Football (1988) by Michael Jackson CollectionThe Football Museum

Remembering women in football

Why do we make collections? Albums, postcards, toys, and tickets are objects that symbolize our love for football. This sport is inserted in the memory and personal history of most Brazilians. But this collection of countless objects from the world of football rarely remembers the women who took part. Women that, due to their persistence, contributed to the conquest of titles, places, and also tell the history.

Visibility for Women's Football (1988-06-04) by Suzana Cavalheiro CollectionThe Football Museum

Return to the fields

After the 1941 Act was, Brazilian women were not allowed to play football. Their return to the field symbolized a struggle for equality and increased visibility of the game. The National Team was only organized in 1988, and was composed mainly by the Radar players, from Rio de Janeiro, and Juventus Athletic Club players, from São Paulo. This team participated at the first female championship organized by FIFA, the International Women's Football Tournament, hosted in Guangdong, China, before the first official World Championship, which took place only in 1991.

Visibility for Women's Football (1988) by Suzana Cavalheiro CollectionThe Football Museum

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

Visibility for Women's Football (1988) by Michael Jackson CollectionThe Football Museum

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

Visibility for Women's Football (2015) by The Football Museum CollectionThe Football Museum

Creating female idols

Since childhood, we have admired players and some of us dream to join the Brazilian football idols. This dream also seem possible when girls and boys have players like Marta and Formiga as examples. They held winning records, never achieved by male players. The athletes were included in the Barroc Angels Rooms, a place for people like this.

Visibility for Women's Football (2001) by Fernando Pereira collectionThe Football Museum

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.

Visibility for Women's Football (2015) by The Football Museum CollectionThe Football Museum

Visibility for Women's Football (2001) by Fernando Pereira CollectionThe Football Museum

Marta and Dani Alves in Under-19 selection.

Visibility for Women's Football (1999) by Delvanita Souza Santos CollectionThe Football Museum

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.

Visibility for Women's Football (1999) by Delvanita Souza Santos CollectionThe Football Museum

Torcedores no Estádio das Laranjeiras (1920) by Acervo Fluminense Futebol ClubeThe Football Museum

The beginning

When football arrived in Brazil, in the beginning of the 20th century, it was only played by the elite: lower class and black people were not accepted in the first clubs, so they played in the streets and on the factory floors. The women were also only supposed to go to the bleachers. In elegant suits of the time, the ladies carried their tissues and waved them at the match. It was the first female contribution to football, and the word "torcedor" (twister), was a name used to call football fans in Brazil.

Visibility for Women's Football (1930) by Memorial Collection of the Portuguese Sports AssociationThe Football Museum

Act 3199, April 14 1941

This Act laid the groundwork for organizing Brazilian sports across the country. The President of the Republic used the rights assured by the Federal Constitution in article 180.

Chapter IX: general and transitional provisions

Art. 54 stated that women were not allowed to play sports that are incompatible to the conditions of their nature. This made the National Sports Council responsible for establishing the necessary instructions to sport in Brazil.

A citizen's letter to president Getúlio Vargas

"[I came] to ask the clairvoyant attention of Your Honor to adjure a calamity that is coming to collapse upon the female youth in Brazil. I refer, Mr. President, to the enthusiastic movement that is exhilarating hundreds of girls, attracting them to become football players regardless of the fact that women cannot play this violent sport without seriously affecting the physiological balance of their organic functions, due to the nature that compels them to be mothers... The papers informs us that in Rio there are at least ten female teams. In São Paulo and Belo Horizonte others are being gathered. At this pace, within a year, it is probable that all over the country there will be like 200 female football clubs, meaning: 200 destroyers of the health of 2,200 future mothers that, besides that, will be trapped in a depressive mentality, subjected to rude and flamboyant exhibitionism."

Visibility for Women's Football (1938) by Magazine Educação Physica / Collection CEME / UFRGSThe Football Museum

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

Visibility for Women's Football (1938) by Magazine Educação Physica/Collection CEME/UFRGSThe Football Museum

"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.

Visibility for Women's Football (1937) by Magazine Educação Physica/Collection CEME/UFRGSThe Football Museum

"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.

Presentation of women's football at Circo Irmãos Queirolo (1926) by The Magazine Cigarra/State Archive of São PauloThe Football Museum

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.

Visibility for Women's Football (1934-01-05) by Correio do Paraná/National Library Foundation Collection - BrazilThe Football Museum

"Do you know that female football was once a circus act?"

Visibility for Women's Football (1940) by Magazine Educação Physica / Collection CEME / UFRGSThe Football Museum

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.

Visibility for Women's Football (1940-06-23) by The journal A Batalha / National Library Foundation Collection - BrazilThe Football Museum

"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.

Women's Football from Casino Realengo, 1940 (1940) by Magazine Educação Physica / Collection CEME / UFRGS and Equipe de mulheres do Casino Realengo, 1940The Football Museum

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

Visibility for Women's Football (1940) by Magazine Educação Physica / Collection CEME / UFRGSThe Football Museum

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

Visibility for Women's Football (2015) by The Football Museum CollectionThe Football Museum

First championships

In a time that the Brazilian male football team were three times world champions, women were still forbid to play the same sport. The prohibition act was only canceled in 1979 and in 1983 the sport was regulated, while some teams and small championships were illegally happening. Only in 1991 the first Female Football World Cup organized by FIFA was carried out. Here is the multimedia totem, placed in the World Cup Room, at the Museum of Football, during the exhibition.

Visibility for Women's Football (2015) by The Football Museum CollectionThe Football Museum

What do we know of female championships?

Italian team that competed in the unofficial 1970 World Cup in Turin, Italy. (1970) by Archive Getty ImagesThe Football Museum

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.

Visibility for Women's Football (1970-07-11) by Popperfoto | Getty ImagesThe Football Museum

Mexicans and Italians play at the semifinals, 1970.

Danish national team that competed in the 1970 World Cup in Turin, Italy. (1970) by Archive Getty ImagesThe Football Museum

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.

Visibility for Women's Football (2015) by The Football Museum CollectionThe Football Museum

Pioneeers

Who are the pioneers in the world of football? Who are the women that had crossed the borders of prejudice? We use this space to give visibility to women that imprint their signature in this history, as players, referees, coaches, supporters, journalists; struggling for the love of the sport. To know who those women are is to tell a history that was little known and must be acknowledged.

Visibility for Women's Football (1970/1970) by Léa Campos CollectionThe Football Museum

The first FIFA female referee

From Minas Gerais, Léa Campos was the first woman in the world to referee a game, in 1971, during the female world championship in Mexico. Therefore, Léa had to challenge the military regime in Brazil and ask for the permission of President General Médici to represent Brazil in the official referee team. She was arrested 15 times and fought her own family to be able to work with football. She was the first FIFA female referee and opened the way to many other referees and assistant referees that emerged in the following years.

Visibility for Women's Football (1922) by The magazine Cigarra / State Archive of São PauloThe Football Museum

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."

Visibility for Women's Football (1970/1970) by Léa Campos CollectionThe Football Museum

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.

Visibility for Women's Football (1960/1970) by Teresa Cristina CollectionThe Football Museum

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.

Visibility for Women's Football (1960/1970) by Teresa Cristina CollectionThe Football Museum

"(...) 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.

Visibility for Women's Football (1959-01-22) by National Library Foundation Collection - BrazilThe Football Museum

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.

Visibility for Women's Football (1962) by Teresa Cristina CollectionThe Football Museum

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

Visibility for Women's Football (1970/1980) by Zuleide Raniere CollectionThe Football Museum

Radio Mulher (women's radio)

In its six years of operation – since its foundation in 1970 until its closure in 1976 – Radio Mulher made history with its innovations and pioneers. Bought in 1969 with the name of Santo Amaro AM by the entrepreneur Roberto Montoro, the radio station had a makeover in the following year, becoming a reference of what we know today. From the driver to the sound technician, the 930AM crew was mainly female.

Visibility for Women's Football (1970/1980) by Germana Garili CollectionThe Football Museum

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.