--- title: Women's World Cup: English Football Association Sends Sexist Tweet description: The tweet has since been deleted canonical: https://time.com/3946682/english-football-association-sexist-tweet/ author: Sarah Begley article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-07-06T16:42:44.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:21:47.887Z og:title: Women's World Cup: English Football Association Sends Sexist Tweet og:description: The tweet has since been deleted og:url: https://time.com/3946682/english-football-association-sexist-tweet/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Women's World Cup: English Football Association Sends Sexist Tweet twitter:description: The tweet has since been deleted twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # Football Association Slammed Over 'Sexist' Tweet About England's Women's Team by [Sarah Begley](https://time.com/author/sarah-begley/) ## Sarah Begley Jul 6, 2015 4:42 PM UTC by [Sarah Begley](https://time.com/author/sarah-begley/) ## Sarah Begley Jul 6, 2015 4:42 PM UTC When men return home from sporting competitions, they’re lauded as heroes, plain and simple. But a tweet from England’s Football Association sums up exactly how female athletes are treated differently. The tweet, since deleted, came after the England team returned home after placing in third at the Women’s World Cup, noting, “Our #Lionesses go back to being mothers, partners and daughters today, but they have taken on another title — heroes.” While the FA maintained that it was a well-meaning message and part of a larger story on the team’s homecoming, fans pointed out that the men’s team would not be described as “fathers, partners and sons” in the wake of a third place victory, but simply as athletes. > [](https://twitter.com/Lee%5FT%5FJenkins/status/618040909276393472) > [](https://twitter.com/TheStacemeister/status/618085767248748544) With or without the sexist tweets, the women of Team England have plenty to celebrate: as at least [one person tweeted](https://twitter.com/monaeltahawy/status/618083868571234304), they progressed farther in the competition than their nation’s mens team has since 1966. \[[_The Guardian_](https://twitter.com/monaeltahawy/status/618083868571234304)\] ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3946682/english-football-association-sexist-tweet/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3946682/english-football-association-sexist-tweet/"},"headline":"Football Association Slammed Over 'Sexist' Tweet About England's Women's Team","datePublished":"2015-07-06T16:42:44.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:21:47.887Z","description":"The tweet has since been deleted","url":"https://time.com/3946682/english-football-association-sexist-tweet/","keywords":["Newsfeed","Living","Sports topic"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Sarah Begley","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/sarah-begley/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3946682/english-football-association-sexist-tweet/","name":"Football Association Slammed Over 'Sexist' Tweet About England's Women's Team"}}]}] ```