We are delighted to announce that from next season Exeter City Ladies will be renamed Exeter City Women.
It is a move designed to modernise the club and bring City’s women’s team in line with clubs such as Manchester City and Chelsea as well as the FA and its affiliated leagues.
Sharon Dixon, an Associate Professor at the University of Exeter who is a member of the Women’s Technical Board and supports the female football pathway at Exeter City, explained the reasoning behind the decision.
"‘Ladies' is associated with behaviour, rather than just being a description,” she said. “The term comes with many negative associations, such as ‘ladylike behaviour’, and ‘ladies don’t sweat’. So by labelling a women’s team as ‘ladies’ you are giving subconscious instructions on how the players should behave.
“It is therefore considered to be patronising to refer to a women’s team as ‘ladies’. ‘Women’ is also a powerful word. For example, you hear reference to strong, independent women, which would not be a description you would hear used for ladies.
“In summary, ‘women’ is the female equivalent of ‘men’, and so is a parallel term, and as such, this is the most suitable term for a football club to use to differentiate between a women’s and a men’s team."
Exeter City Women will start next season in the FA Women’s National League Division One South West, following a successful campaign that saw them win the South West Women’s Football League Premier Division by six points, reach the semi-final of the Devon Senior Cup and get to third qualifying round of SSE Women’s FA Cup.
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