Google opens a museum to document women’s place in soccer history

It’s no news that women’s place in history has long gone unrecognized. But in recent years, many have attempted to set the record straight. Publishing, for example, has gone into overdrive with girl power books. The New York Times is addressing its own failure to highlight famous females of the past with its “Overlooked” obituary initiative and Goodby, Silverstein & Partners CCO Margaret Johnson developed the "Herstory" AR app to help give women a place in history textbooks. Now, ahead of Women’s World Cup, Google wants to recognize women’s role in soccer with The Offside Museum, a digital museum that aims to compile a history of females in the sport through crowdsourcing. Starting today, Google is asking users to submit stories, photo and information related to women’s soccer to the digital archive. On June 24th, in time for FIFA Women’s World Cup, Google will debutThe Offside Museum to the public as part of its Arts & Culture platform. To promote the museum, Google has created a film highlighting women’s soccer pioneer Lea Campos. She was the first female soccer referee and was arrested 15 times when women’s soccer was prohibited around the world. Between 1921-1979, the Football Association, at the time, the world’s governing body of the sport, banned females from playing the sport, saying it was “quite unsuitable for females and ought not to be encouraged.” Nevertheless, women continued to play, but much of that history has gone undocumented. Google’s not the only brand looking to raise female soccer players’ profile ahead of the big event. Brazilian soda brand Guarana Antarctica recently created an image bank of women football players so that other brands could feature them in their own ads.

Google opens a museum to document women’s place in soccer history

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