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.