Attitude’s Active Award: England women’s national football team

Stereotyping and prejudice are two of the greatest barriers faced by the LGBT community, but of course they rear their heads in other walks of life too. We know all too well the stereotype that football is a sport for boys, and the prejudice that women just won’t be very good at it.

All of this was blown out of the water this year by the England Women’s National Football Team when they competed at the 2015 FIFA Women’s World Cup in Canada. Suddenly these girls had got further than any England team at a World Cup for 25 years, proving their mettle on the world stage, and we all had the feel-good story of the summer to throw our support behind.

Finishing third may have been somewhat bittersweet – so close and yet so far – but the message their success sent back home to Britain was a powerful one which stripped away the expectations and restrictions of gender. The girls can do football, and dare we say it, they do it better than the boys. We’re thrilled to present the England women’s national football team with the Attitude Active Award 2015, supported by USN.

You can find out more about the World Cup ladies – and the rest of winners from the 2015 Attitude Awards, presented in association with Virgin Holidays – in our special Attitude Awards issue, available to download from 11pm tonight at attitudedigital.co.uk and in shops tomorrow (Thursday October 15).