Formerly known as Dublin University Ladies Association Football Club (DULAFC), Trinity’s women’s footballers have undergone a rebrand, now called Trinity Women’s Football Club or, more commonly, Trinity Women’s Soccer.
The name change came after reservations about the use of the word “ladies” in the title of the club were raised at last year’s AGM. The idea of changing the name was put to a vote in an EGM on Monday evening after one of the club’s training sessions. With 50 players in attendance the motion was passed unanimously.
In an email statement to The University Times, club captain Áine Tucker said: “To refer to the team as ‘ladies soccer’ is widely outdated and brings forth the image of a group of weak women playing a man’s sport. The current Women’s Soccer team in Trinity is far from weak, and the game of soccer is hardly a male-only sport today.”
“I think the name change coincides perfectly with a strong shift in the wind for Trinity Women’s Soccer. And beyond this, a huge shift in the culture surrounding women in sport. No longer will we be seen as the refined ladies trying to play a man’s game. We’ll be the strong, relentless, and talented women that play the beautiful game.”
In Trinity, most sports that are divided into a men’s and a women’s club specify the women’s club by name. Men’s clubs are not specified by name.
In an email statement to The University Times in April, Tucker expressed annoyance at the gender specification of women’s clubs. She said: “It is inappropriate for us to identify our club as a women’s club while the men do not. For any of the men’s sports clubs to not have to identify themselves as men undermines the competitive level of the women’s sport.”
Women in sport continue to face obstacles in society today. In most sports the majority of funding and television air time is still devoted to men’s sports.
