"It can bind and loose, make or mar, suppress or exaltSpeak highly of someone or something. , and it controls not only the game, the clubs, the officials, and the players, but the crowd too - and even the crowd fears it. This augustThe eight month of the year. It also means "respected" or "impressive". body has decreedTo officially decide or order something. that women's football is undesirable. It is a game 'not fitted for females.'"

This is how one newspaper responded to the FAThe Football Association is the governing body of football in England and the Channel Islands. It was founded in 1863.'s decision to ban women from playing on their grounds in 1921. For traditionalists, women's football was an aberrationSomething that goes against what is normal - and not in a good way. that they believed caused infertility and a masculine disposition.

A little more than a century later, and women's football is back with a vengeance. 2023's Women's World Cup is set to be the biggest in history, rivalling the popularity of the men's tournament.

The audience is expected to surpass two billion - the largest audience in history for a single women's sport. And, for the first time, FifaThe Federation Internationale de Football Association is the world's highest governing body of association football. will pay participation fees to players in a bid at levelling pay between its female and male players.

But it draws attention to a historic disparityA noticeable and unfair difference, often in the way two people are treated. . There is still a gap in popularity between men and women's sports. Women's sports attract smaller crowds, less funding, fewer opportunities, fewer accoladesAwards or strong praise. .

Some say that physical limitations make sports less interesting when played by women; others say there is just no way of making them commercially successful. For others, both of these reasons are just thinly-veiled misogynyHatred of or discrimination against women. The term comes from the Ancient Greek "miso", meaning "hate", and "gyne", "woman"..

After all, there was a time when women's football was even more popular than men's. During World War One, female factory workers set up factory football teams to boost morale and raise money for the war effort - but their popularity far surpassed what anyone had expected.

Some of the sportswomen, like Lily Parr, became national celebrities - and her team's match against a rival women's team attracted almost 70,000 would-be spectators in 1920. This level of attendance would not be matched for another 92 years.

Shortly after, women's football became a victim of its own success. In 1921, fearful that women's teams were rapidly overshadowing the men's, the FA banned women's football. The ban would be in place for 51 years.

It is just one notch in a shameful history of women's exclusion from mainstream sport. They were banned from the first modern Olympic Games, and occupy a small minority of the Olympic Committee even today. For much of modern history, female athletes were denigratedCriticised unfairly. and discouraged from participating in sport.

But things have undoubtedly been looking up. What started as a roaring gender pay gap between men's and women's sports has narrowed, with 83% of sports now awarding men and women equal prize money. And studies show an almost 50% year-on-year increase in people watching the Women's Euros in the UK and Germany.

Some say the bar is too low. Women in the 2023 World Cup are still expected to make just 25 cents for every dollar earned by men at last year's World Cup.¹ And they will still make cumulatively over £250m less than men did in the 2022 World Cup.²

Social attitudes towards women in sports are surely less discriminatory than they have been - and clearly efforts are being made to expand participation. But whether the gender balance in sport can be described as equal is another question entirely.

Yes: Women's sports are making waves, attracting crowds and allowing female athletes to claim the accolades they are owed.

No: Clearly we still have a long way to go. It is not just a problem of salaries and opportunities, but also social attitudes, which are deeply ingrained.

Or... For as long as male sports attract more viewers, male sportsmen will be worth more money. It is not necessarily a sign of inequality that women still earn less - just an economic response to social conditions.