In Brazil, the self-proclaimed “Country of Soccer,” about 39 million Brazilians play the sport, but only 15% are women.

This data reflects the societal sexism and prejudice within  Brazil’s history under two dictatorships: the “Ditadura do Estado Novo,” which occurred between 1937 and 1945, and the 21-year Military Dictatorship from 1964 to 1986. These misogynist governments led to women being prohibited from playing soccer for more than 40 years.

Now, 46 years have passed since the decree banning women from the sport was revoked—yet the shadow of those prohibitions still lingers.

The government’s argument for prohibiting women from practicing the sport claimed that “playing soccer would be detrimental for female health and that it would disturb women’s capacity to reproduce, as well as spoil their good manners.” This speech reinforced the stigma that soccer is not a sport for women that persists when fans, referees, and players are confronted with misogynistic commentaries and discrimination. Research made by Meiry da Paixão, a graduate student from Universidade Federal do Paraná, shows that approximately 66% of women suffered discrimination for playing soccer.

“We have many losses that go through our culture, a culture that denied, and still denies, soccer to women. We still carry a lot of the aftermath of this in our culture, and this is what harms us the most,” said historian Giovana Capucim e Silva in an article for Senado Notícias.

These consequences are visible today in the lives of young girls who play the sport.

“At school, we don’t have a girls’ practice hour[…]so we had to share the field with the young boys, because there weren’t enough girls.” Isabela Souto, who used to play soccer for her school’s U14, said in an interview for the Yale Daily News that because her school does not have a practice hour, the small number of female players there had to share the field with the male team.

Her experience with playing the sport is part of a pattern in  Brazil regarding women’s soccer, with not enough girls engaging in the sport and a lack of structure even in private schools. Souto explained that because the team has no formal structure from the school, they were only able to attend one championship a year.

While women are no longer legally barred from the sport, the lack of framework and recognition conveys that soccer is not meant for women.
Rodolfo Gazzeta, Physical Education teacher and master’s student, has been researching how students react to Physical Education classes. He said that teenagers frequently described exclusion, either due to their level of experience or gender, which were often associated with one another.

“I realized that many of the teenagers reported that they had suffered some exclusion in games throughout their lives. So, for example, only the good players play, only the boys play. So, like, the girls only play when the boys allow them to[because of that exclusion]”. Gazzeta said in an interview for the News.

Even with barriers around female participation in soccer, Brazil has produced icons like Marta Vieira da Silva, who is considered by the International Federation of Football History and Statistics (IFFHS) the best female player of all time. Da Silva’s success is an example of the potential of women’s soccer in Brazil, inspiring millions of girls. Over the years, da Silva has used press conferences as a way to defend gender equality and advocate for better resources for women. She herself has spoken about wanting to be remembered not only for her goals, but for fighting to create a path where future generations of girls can thrive.

“I don’t want them[the people] to see me just as Marta, the soccer player, the one that scored most goals in the World Cups, the one that won the best player in the world many times; I want them to see me as an athlete that made improvements in our sport.”

This article was written for the Yale Daily News’ 2025 Summer Journalism Program for high school students.