April 25 (Reuters) – Women’s soccer teams are ditching white shorts as part of a growing trend to combat period anxiety in the sport, and new research shows women’s teams who play in white perform worse.
Alex Krumer, a sports economist and professor at Molde University College in Norway, studied the results of World Cups and European Championships between 2002 and 2023 and found that women’s teams wearing white shorts scored an average of 1.27 points per game, compared to 1.57 points for dark-colored teams. The men’s teams in white shorts showed no decline in performance.
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“That’s one of the simplest conclusions I can give in policy advice: Nothing to do with budgets, nothing to do with money. Don’t play in white shorts, period,” Krumer said in an interview with Reuters. “So easy to implement. And then women will feel good. And you’ll increase your chances of winning. It’s a win-win. So simple.”
Krumer, whose paper “On the Cost of Wearing White Shorts in Women’s Sports” was published recently in the Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics, was curious whether women’s anxieties about leaking affected their performance.
“There’s no effect for men…they don’t care because they don’t have that menstrual anxiety or leak anxiety,” he said.
The issue made headlines ahead of last year’s Women’s World Cup, when several countries, including England and New Zealand, ditched white.
“Anything that relieves mental stress on players is a good thing. If it’s one less thing to worry about, then why not?” England defender Lucy Parker said when the change was announced, while teammate and forward Lauren Hemp called it a “massive step in the right direction”.
Manchester City, West Bromwich Albion and Orlando Pride have also scrapped their white shorts, while complaints from tennis players about Wimbledon’s all-white dress code prompted Grand Slam organizers to relax the rules to allow women to wear dark under-shorts.
The English rugby team the Red Roses, on the other hand, have spoken out against change, arguing that menstruation should not be a taboo subject and that women should not have to change to make others feel comfortable.
Nineteen of the 32 teams at last year’s Women’s World Cup played at least one clean sheet match, Krumer said.
Krumer used regression analysis and controlled for other factors such as team ranking and home field advantage. When he unveiled his working document in October, the Denmark women’s team announced they were ditching their white shorts shortly after.
The problem of period anxiety extends beyond international and professional sport. Numerous studies around the world show that girls drop out of sport at a much higher rate than boys.
“And if you force them to play in white shorts, especially at 14 or 15 years old, when they really care about what people are going to think…it’s a shame,” Krumer said. “And it’s taboo,” he added. “People don’t want to talk about it, but 50% of the population has it. What’s the problem?
“Sport can (also) effectively promote awareness of social issues in general, including those regarding the menstrual cycle.”
Part of Krumer’s interest in the topic stems from what he says is a lack of research on women’s sports compared to men’s.
“We really have some social responsibility as scientists to investigate women’s sports, because women’s sports are largely understudied,” he said.
Reporting by Lori Ewing, editing by Toby Davis
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