Women's European Football Championship | From Bern to Zurich: Visiting a country full of contradictions

Laura Kaufmann believed the time was right, but many others didn't. With a small team, she wanted to develop a print magazine exclusively about women's football . It would be one of the first magazines of its kind in Europe. If not now, when, Kaufmann asked herself, looking ahead to the Women's European Championship , which kicked off in Switzerland on Wednesday. One of the biggest sporting events in the country's history began in Basel with a 2-1 defeat for the national team against Norway.

Underestimated women

"We solicited support from many companies," says Kaufmann. "The response rate was abysmally poor." Sitting in a small room at the Zurich University of the Arts, where she once studied design, she speaks patiently, smiling. Sometimes the content doesn't quite fit her calm tone: "The marketing departments of these companies, which are mostly dominated by men , are apparently not yet as advanced as Swiss society."

Kaufmann knows the feeling of being underestimated. She worked as a picture editor and photographer for a Swiss daily newspaper, and later photographed the FC Zurich women's soccer team. Her male colleagues let her do it, probably because their interest in women's soccer in Switzerland was limited. She built trust with the players, portraying them as competitive athletes, not as objects for a male audience. Her blogs and photo series were particularly popular on social media. Her colleagues in the editorial departments were surprised, but she herself was not.

Political will

So, she believed, this magazine was bound to succeed. A crowdfunding campaign followed. And after just a few weeks, the goal was reached: more than 80,000 francs, around 85,000 euros, raised by almost 900 donors. And now, shortly before the start of the European Championship , the magazine has been published with an initial print run of 10,000 copies. It's called "Frau Müller." It sounds so normal and dry that it almost seems provocative. "We want to be positive and constructive," explains Kaufmann, "and also political."

It seems to be a good time in Switzerland to explore cultural boundaries . In major cities, government agencies, clubs, and companies have launched special programs around the European Championship. These often focus on issues of equality . In a popular football pub in Basel, for example, female politicians are discussing pay gaps with female football players. In Zurich, artists are taking a walking tour to describe representations of women in public spaces. And in Bern, plays, readings, and workshops for children are also taking place.

Social debates

Football as a catalyst for social debate? For a long time, this was unthinkable in Switzerland – and this is primarily due to historical reasons. The reasons can be explored at the FC Zurich Museum, one of Switzerland's most important football clubs. A photo exhibition, amidst old trophies, pennants, and timelines, tells the story of the Swiss women's national team.

The very first image on the timeline, from the summer of 1970, is full of symbolism. It shows the "pioneers," the Swiss players, before their first international match in Schaffhausen against Austria. They wear faded, oversized jerseys in yellow and orange, not the national colors of red and white. These were jerseys that male youth players no longer needed. And yet, several of the players appear confident and proud.

It was a time when traditional structures were gradually breaking down, partly influenced by the 1968 movement. In many Western European countries, women were networking and demanding equal rights. This also applied to football, where women's football had long been banned by football associations. Female players now formed national teams and soon played their first international matches. In Germany in 1982, in Italy in 1986, and in Austria in 1990. The Swiss women were earlier with their premiere in 1970, although in some matters they were second-class citizens. Women's suffrage was not adopted in Switzerland until 1971. One year later, girls and women were given equal rights in physical education.

Feminists against their will

Further development was slow, as historian Marianne Meier knows: "The associations didn't tolerate women's football because they thought it was contemporary, but because they wanted to control it." Skepticism prevailed in the media, as in the magazine "Tip": "Women should play the sport that gives them pleasure. But if it is football, it's best they keep it away from the public eye so they don't expose themselves to ridicule." Few can trace this history in Switzerland as well as Marianne Meier. In 2000, she came across a newspaper advertisement in which the national women's soccer players of the early 1970s were advertising a meeting. She volunteered, participated in the group, and distributed questionnaires for her research. "Only one in 16 players at the time viewed football in 1970 as a political act," says Meier. "Some explicitly did not want to be seen as feminists." But they were feminists nonetheless – because they did something men had been allowed to do for 100 years: sliding tackles, crossing, and clenching their fists when celebrating a goal.

Meier has just written a book about this generation with gender researcher Monika Hofmann and produced a podcast: "The Right to Kick." But this right was by no means a given for subsequent generations, as a visit to Bern's Wankdorf Stadium, home of BSC Young Boys, shows. In the catacombs, Franziska Schild briskly emerges from her office and takes a seat in the conference room. She played four international matches for Switzerland around the turn of the millennium and is now in charge of women's football at Young Boys.

Old role models

Schild grew up in a suburb of Bern. She was one of the few girls at school interested in football, but she had to search for role models. In 1994, the Swiss Football Association celebrated its 100th anniversary – the women's national team wasn't even mentioned in the commemorative publication. "Even today, outdated gender roles are still deeply entrenched in Switzerland," says Schild. While the country is wealthy and has the third-highest per capita gross domestic product in the world, Switzerland ranks only 20th in the World Economic Forum's gender equality rankings.

The Swiss Football Association (SFA) was one of the last national associations in Europe to admit women to its board in 2024. Overall, the proportion of female officials in Swiss football is 13 percent, the proportion of female coaches is eight percent, and the proportion of female referees is three percent. Schild has held various jobs as a football official; she was sometimes mistaken for the secretary on the phone. She welcomes the fact that former Swiss President Viola Amherd has called on the sport to take responsibility: In the future, at least 40 percent of managers in associations should be female.

Schild is aware, however, that the female footballers won't soon be given the same status as the male footballers at her current club in Bern. But she can at least bring the structures together. "We don't want to lead a life of our own," she explains. "All departments within the club, whether marketing or media, should have equal focus on women's and men's football." At sponsorship events or autograph sessions, the players and the female players should appear together.

Less aggression

For two years now, the BSC Young Boys women's soccer team has been playing their Super League home games at the large Wankdorf Stadium, sometimes in front of more than 10,000 spectators. It's an atmosphere that differs from the sometimes aggressive mood in men's soccer. Many families sit in the stands, as do several school classes and youth groups. Schild speaks of an "event crowd," but for her, this term doesn't have a negative connotation.

During the European Championship, four of the 31 matches will take place in Bern: three group matches and one quarterfinal. Signposts and sponsor logos are posted around the Wankdorf Stadium, and restaurants and bars in the city center are advertising public viewings. "I'm sure that after the Euros, more girls will want to play football," says Schild, who also hopes for more female referees and stadium announcers in the long term, as well as better grass pitches and changing rooms for girls.

The BSC Young Boys players have just won the Swiss women's championship. But only a few of them can earn a living from football. One player from Bern works as a cook, another as a carpenter, and still others are studying part-time. According to a 2022 survey, female footballers in Switzerland received an average monthly salary of just under €400. The official slogan of the European Championship in Switzerland is "Together we rise." It's a long way to the top.