When Steph Catley placed the ball on the penalty spot in Australia’s Group B fixture against Canada, the entire host nation watched with bated breath to see their captain send the Matildas into the knockout stages for fifth consecutive FIFA Women’s World Cup™. What most of the fans watching didn’t know was that Catley was placing the ball on a pitch that was prepared and maintained by women: something which would not have been the case only two years ago.

Back in 2021, women made-up only 1.4% of qualified trade workers in the turf management industry. With significant barriers to entry in trades for women and with limited awareness of turf management as a viable career option, there was a shortage in skilled and trade qualified female turf managers and a disproportionately low number of women undertaking an apprenticeship in sports turf management. Fast forward 24 months and a team of nine female groundskeepers took the field to prepare the Melbourne Rectangular Stadium pitch for Australia’s crucial victory over Canada: an impressive milestone in the industry’s attempts to make itself more accessible to women. Of course, a transformation does not happen overnight and there is still work to do, but a two-fold approach with FIFA, the Australian Sports Turf Managers Association (ASTMA), and the host cities in Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand have helped expedite the process.

FIFA’s Women in Turf Legacy Initiative combined with ASTMA’s Women in Turf Strategy has seen a combined effort to provide opportunities for more women to enter the pitch and turf management industry. The FIFA programme trains, develops and encourages women to become qualified pitch management experts and provides an opportunity for female groundkeepers to work on pitches at training venues and stadiums. ASTMA’s strategy has established the framework to develop a long-term approach to support female sports turf managers, the establishment of a pathways initiative to increase the number of females in the industry and a programme of sustainable support and skills development to drive diversity and inclusion in the industry.

One of the women working the match was Sports Turf Manager, Eden Zanker, who said the programme inspired women to excel no matter what their career path. “We see all the banners around the stadium saying, ‘Football Unites the World’ and that’s not just on the field, but off the field too. The Women in Turf Initiative is bringing a lot of women together and showing that women can do anything we want to,” said Zanker. “It’s such an awesome program for women to be involved in because it gives them opportunities such as tonight where we get to work at such an empowering and amazing event. “We outnumbered the boys tonight, girl power all the way!”

Fellow Sports Turf Manager, Sammy Butler, had a special connection to the team when preparing the pitch. “It’s been good to see so many girls come together: it shows we’re starting to evolve in the sense that we’re getting more and more girls into the industry,” said Butler. “To work at this tournament is super special for me as I used to play with some of the current Matildas in youth representative teams. “I’ve always wanted to participate at a Women’s World Cup™ and while I was never fortunate enough to be able to play with the girls in a Matildas jersey, to be able to work and present a field for them on this stage is quite special.”

Senior Pitch Management Manager at FIFA, Alan Ferguson, said that the positive changes are a welcome sign. “One of our objectives is to deliver educational opportunities to groundskeepers across the world around our tournaments. “The sports turf industry is a great industry to get into and for too long was seen as a male dominated industry, it’s only right that it now acts as an equal opportunities industry.” While there is still more work to be done and barriers to overcome until women see an equal split in the turf industry, initiatives such as these will help pave the way for more and more women to change the turf industry, just like Steph Catley and the Matildas have done on the field.