Over the years, women have had many struggles in sports, such as less pay, less recognition, minimal media coverage, lack of funding, and controversy around uniforms. Women have been discriminated against in sports for a long time, including when FIFA held the first world championship for women, in 1991, when they shortened the game down to 80 minutes instead of 90 minutes. Then in 1995 they changed the rules and held the first ever official FIFA-sponsored Women’s World Cup. Over the years women's soccer has grown, but there are still many things that are unfair in the women's sports industry.

At Rowland Hall, we didn’t get a girls soccer team until 1996, which is only 30 years ago. The school jerseys have developed very similarly to the national team's jerseys, with their first jersey looking baggy and oversized on players. The first uniforms for the Women’s World Cup included similar-looking jerseys that were white with red and blue stripes on both the right shoulder and the left side of the shorts. All the players had their jersey tucked into their shorts, their shorts cut off right above the knee, and their socks ended right below the knee. The sleeves were long and baggy, which compared to today's jerseys with short, tight sleeves are very different.

Over the years, women's uniforms in all sports have changed immensely, which has caused many controversies over why athletes want certain changes to uniforms. Some jerseys have sleeves that are too tight for the athlete, restricting their movement. Of the RH. uniforms, freshman Peyton Beck said, “I wish the sleeves were a little bit looser because it was really hard to roll them, and it cut off my circulation sometimes.” Another problem is shorts being too long and loose so the athlete has to roll their shorts, but with that people assume they are trying to sexualize the sport. Then some athletes want to wear shorts instead of a skirt in some sports, but they weren’t allowed to for a long time, Women's Health argues, “the conversations about dress codes make it clear that women’s uniforms have never been about only basic comfort and performance.” Then a struggle all female athletes know is white uniforms, specifically white shorts. According to Women in Sport, “78 percent of girls avoid participating in sports while on their period.” The important question in all of this is, why do we care what women wear when they are the ones competing? 

Women have been judged for what they wear when they are performing in sports ever since they started playing, even at the national level. There are so many controversies about women's uniforms and jerseys in every sport. Beach volleyball and gymnastics have had some of the biggest controversy with athletes wanting to wear shorts instead of bikini bottoms or athletes wanting to wear full-length leotards instead of regular ones, and some track and field athletes get judged for wanting to wear less restrictive uniforms. There is truly no answer that people are happy with for women's jerseys, and there will always be controversy no matter what the sport.