Wimbledon does not intend to change the name of its ladies’ tournament to “women’s” despite the positive reaction garnered by Chelsea football club rebranding its women’s team.
The ladies’ singles has run concurrently to the gentlemen’s at the championships since 1884, but the gentlemen’s tournament is more commonly referred to as the men’s by the players themselves and on TV commentary.
A spokeswoman for the All England Lawn Tennis Club, which runs Wimbledon, confirmed there were no plans afoot to change the names of either the gentlemen’s or ladies’. But it and other sporting institutions are facing calls to modernise their language and reflect the growing popularity of women’s sport.
It follows the announcement made by Chelsea this week that they will change from Chelsea Ladies to Chelsea Football Club Women as of next season. The club said the decision was made after consulting with the board and players and is intended to reflect the “ever-growing status” of the women’s game and move away from referring to the men’s side as the “first” team.
Their manager, Emma Hayes, who is currently on maternity leave, said: “This name change demonstrates the club’s desire to put women’s football at the front and centre of everything we do. Chelsea’s commitment to the women’s game is unwavering and this decision is something I fully support.”
Chelsea are not the first football team to change their name. Last year Arsenal dropped the “ladies” from their name and became Arsenal Women although they only use the second part of their name when necessary to distinguish from the men. Manchester City did the same in 2014.
In the Women’s Super League, the top tier of football in England, nine teams now have “ladies” in their names, while seven have “women”. The decision was greeted enthusiastically by current Chelsea squad members, who spoke to media around the world about the change.
They dominated the domestic league this season, lifting the title without losing a game and beating Man City to win the FA Cup, in front of a record domestic crowd of 45,000 at Wembley. They also reached the semi-final of the Champion’s League.
The team’s Swedish goalkeeper, Hedvig Lindahl, said: “I’m very happy that the club has decided to take this important step. It’s actually something that will go down in history, that we are now spoken about in an equal manner. This is something that the club wants to reach, equality, and you have to have the language to represent that as well.”
But Deborah Cameron, professor of language and communication at the University of Oxford, said she thought the bottom line, rather than a commitment to gender equality, was probably the driving force.
“I think language makes a big difference in perception,” she said, “but this is basically a branding decision, modernising in the light of women’s football achieving a much higher profile lately. I think it’s probably down to the commercial people rather than the football people trying to bring this into the 20th century.
“As a linguist and a feminist it’s a very significant difference in sociocultural terms but I doubt that’s what they were thinking. I think they were probably thinking it sounds Ye Olde England and it doesn’t really fit with football and the skill and physicality of the women’s game.”
Prof Cameron said she doubted whether Wimbledon, steeped in history, would ever follow suit. It is understood that the All England Club does not feel it needs to alter the name of the tournaments as ladies’ and gentlemen’s are comparable terms. The male and female winners of the singles tournaments have been awarded the same prize money since 2007.
“With Wimbledon, one difference is nobody ever says gentlemen’s whereas you do hear that with ladies,” Cameron added, “but I think Wimbledon probably will keep it because it fits with the nostalgia and snobbery, if you like, of their brand.”