World Cup viewership was proof women need to support other women

That few women have shown interest on the just concluded FIFA Women's World Cup should be a cause of concern.

For one month, our sisters have been playing their hearts out yet very few of us have turned up to support them as enthusiastically as we did their male counterparts. We may argue that women's football is not as popular but then again we have the ability to change that. It is not a secret that the population of women is far more than that of men. I may not have the correct figures but there's a verse in the bible that says seven women will go to one man pleading for him to marry them, there is also another verse where Jesus feeds 5000 thousand men but because the number of women and children surpasses that of men they decide they will not count them.

Using these statistics, it is safe to say that we can change the viewership of women's football if we wanted to. We do not have to go back to Beijing to fight for space in the sports world - we already have the ability to turn the tables through sheer numbers. Male footballers take home whooping millions as salaries yet we cannot say the same for the women. It is argued that female footballers cannot be paid more because of less viewership which translates to less revenue. Perhaps this is a chance for us to walk the talk of being a sister's keeper or rather, demystify the claim that women are their own enemies. This is a chance for females to propagate equality by intentionally supporting their own even though we may not enjoy the quality of football.

Men have long believed that our purpose for watching the much-loved game is sometimes laced with ulterior motives. Indeed there have been several occasions where we have failed to muster basic football rules simply because we focus more on the players' well-toned thighs and sweaty chests that evoke other feelings at the meeting point of our thighs. We are not ashamed to say that the men are not entirely wrong in their accusation, our presence during those football matches is also to ensure that they are not up to any mischief. We also know that those football stadiums can be good hunting grounds for us - there's always a man looking for a woman who shares his football passion.

Hunting aside, we have the ability to make women's football more popular and earn the players much more money. While players like Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo are some of the richest in the world with a collective net worth of over a billion dollars, the Brazillian star Marta Vieira de Silva, one of the highest-paid female footballers, has a net worth of about $13 million.

We are able to tell most male footballers by their legs and chest yet we have failed to give our very own female star players the honour they deserve. Our daughters should start emulating the likes of Asisat Oshoala who against all odds has worked to become one of the best footballers. While encouraging our daughters to be all-round students, we can urge them to follow the likes of Michelle Alozie who apart from having a successful football career, is also a part-time cancer research technician. It is time for us to prove to ourselves that we are keen on lifting each other up, we can start by making the female football more popular.