Former Premier League referee: women must choose career or pregnancy
Former Premier League referee Mark Clattenburg has been criticized for saying that female officials need to decide between their jobs and becoming a mother.
Rebecca Welch became the first female referee to be appointed to an English Football League game earlier this year, while Sian Massey-Ellis has worked as an assistant referee in the Premier League for the past decade.
Former Premier League referee
Mark Clattenburg
was asked about the absence of female referees in elite men’s football after Sara Cox became the first woman to referee a Premiership rugby game last weekend.
Clattenburg, who officiated the Champions League and European Championship final in 2016, told talkSPORT:
"The problem with women is, and certainly in refereeing in football, they have a difficult pathway if they get pregnant during their refereeing career - it can stop them a long way.
"So they have to make this choice: do they want to be pregnant or do they want to be referees?"
In response to Clattenburg's comments, Women in Football CEO Jane Purdon said in a statement:
"Mark Clattenburg enjoyed a successful career as a match official but his judgment is way off when it comes to women referees and pregnancy.
"Mark says "the problem with women" is having to choose between carrying a child and their refereeing career, and that being pregnant "can cost you two or three years of your life".
"Women in all professions face challenges in balancing work and family. So do many men - but for men, this is never seen as a problem, and men are never expected to choose between the two.
"In fact, many women in elite sport are in a position to resume their sporting careers quickly after giving birth. Others take more time out - by choice or by necessity. Neither of these scenarios is a "problem". The real problem is assumptions about female biology, and gender roles in childcare, which are lazy, outdated, or plain false."
Clattenburg said that a reason for the lack of female officials in the men’s game is that they might also struggle with passing the fitness testing requirements.
"They also have to pass the men's fitness tests and a lot of women struggle with the men's fitness tests; because, if you want to be in the men's game, you have to meet that criteria,"
he said.
"If they pass all this and then choose the right path, I believe that women should be involved in the men's game as well as women being involved in the women's game.”
When invited to clarify his views, Clattenburg added: "Certainly, when you have a baby, you're out nine or 10 months and then you'll take another six months to recover from your body, so therefore it's nearly two years. And to pass that men's fitness test is very, very demanding."
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