Women’s Football Is Waking Up - Now It’s Golf’s Turn To Act And Normalize Periods

The world of sport is waking up to women. Being a woman and succeeding in the field that you specialise in throws up so many challenges, whether it’s on the athletics track, the stock exchange, or on the golf course.

Women’s football is taking on these challenges and golf can learn a huge amount from the likes of Arsenal and Persil’s hard-hitting campaign, which acknowledges and normalizes a sportswoman’s menstrual cycle. The campaign highlights the double standards of how blood on a sportswoman shows grit and bravery unless it’s on their underwear, then that quickly turns to shame.

Gone are the days when a player had to walk cross-legged out of the tunnel as her period was flooding and nobody was ever going to stop the game. The humiliation connected with stains is fading because those stains actually signify the best part of being a woman.

Yet the ridicule of something so natural has been a barrier not just for girls taking up football or any sport, but for girls taking up golf. Lioness and Arsenal player Leah Williamson says, “We need to normalize girls and women having periods and playing sports. I skipped PE because of my period, every girl has. But we shouldn’t have to. Every stain should be part of the game. Blood is blood, whether it’s from your nose, your knee or your uterus.”

When it comes to golf, the fear of a leak mid round with nowhere to hide is terrifying. Yes, some clubs provide sanitary products in changing rooms, but when there is no halfway stop in a 4-hour round this gesture could be too little too late. With so many teenage girls dropping out of sport, the fear of period leaks are a huge contributing factor in both the recruitment and retention of young women in golf.

What needs to change? The golf world needs to acknowledge and accept that periods are a normal everyday challenge. Our sport can follow Arsenal by taking a look at how the Every Stain Should Be Part Of The Game campaign launched a new programme through Arsenal in the Community, designed to support young girls and boys break down barriers to sport participation.

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This is key. To educate boys as well as the girls to completely normalise periods. It’s no different to teaching boys at junior level to integrate and play against girls, minimising the risk of casual sexism creeping in. Stamping out stigma at grass roots and coaching kindness.

But as golf is a game where grass and mud stains aren’t a regular occurrence, perhaps prevention of leaks is a focus that needs priority. England Golf’s Golf Fore Her campaign outlines information for clubs about menstruation and the challenges this places on female golfers. This has opened up a reason for us to talk about women’s health, which is a big step forward, but only if clubs pay attention to information and act upon it.

I’d call on every pro shop (not just women’s changing rooms) to have sanitary products, or for there to be some readily available from multiple places at a club or range, whether behind the bar, halfway house, or in the secretary’s office.

Part of county and junior training should be to learn how to pack a suitable supply in a golf bag, so there isn’t a chance of being caught out, while PGA training should include how to talk about periods and deal with anyone needing assistance discreetly.

We need to review sanitary underwear for women so girls feel prepared and offer advice on wearing patterned skorts over white shorts. Any county teams picking white bottoms should reconsider, just like many other women’s sports have adapted their uniforms.

Making girls aware of apps that can track periods from an early age and help them build awareness of changes in energy levels, concentration and so much more. All of this information will empower them to feel in control of their cycles and able to vocalise symptoms to coaches and parents.

The most important part of the subject is to recognise that it is totally normal to bleed. Adding anxiety into the equation and fear over flooding on the fairways will certainly keep young girls and women away.

Perhaps we should also consider the availability of shorter versions of golf as an option for anyone who doesn’t want to have to not play. Improving on-course facilities would be a great start. Many of us on day 3 of our periods wouldn’t make it round without that heart stopping moment when you know you’ve picked the ball out of the hole and got more than you bargained for.

We plough so much into grass roots recruitment of girls and women into the sport, I wonder if some of those funds would be better spent in ensuring the facility those women are entering into makes them feel secure, catered for and actually proud not ashamed to be a woman.