England goalkeeper Mary Earps has insisted there is "still a long way to go" before women footballers have equality with their male counterparts despite the furore which sparked Luis Rubiales' demise.
Rubiales has belatedly resigned as president of the Spanish football federation amid an outcry after he kissed midfielder Jenni Hermoso on the lips during the trophy presentation after Spain had beaten the Lionesses in the World Cup final last month.
Asked if that had been a victory for women’s football, Golden Glove winner Earps told ITV News: "I think there’s still a long way to go."
She added: "I think there’s still things that need to change, more things to improve in a fight for equality.
"The conversation around equality always sort of centres around equal pay, and I don’t think that that’s even part of the discussion.
"Really, I think it’s in other areas that that we’re focusing on, quality of treatment, quality of facilities, things like that, so hopefully we can use our success and use our voice.
"The positive thing about having success is there’s an opportunity for you to be heard, whereas when you’re not successful, the doors are very much closed and it’s sort of like, 'OK, come back when you’re worthy of being listened to’."
Sarina Wiegman and her players headed to Australia and New Zealand for this summer’s tournament engaged in negotiations over bonus payments, and ultimately put the matter on hold to prevent it from becoming a distraction, and Earps is hopeful that agreement over pay structures can be reached.
She said: "Nobody wants to fight with anyone. Everyone’s here to all sing off the same hymn sheet and push the game in in the right direction, and I’m sure if we all want that, we’ll all have a positive conclusion."
Earps was thrust into the limelight for several reasons during the tournament with video of her celebrating her penalty save from Hermoso in the final with some industrial language going viral on social media, while her campaign to persuade kit manufacturer Nike to issue replica goalkeeper shirts eventually paid dividends.
Asked about the former, she said: "People who don’t know me and maybe you’ve only watched football once in their lifetime…would maybe have this perception that I’m not a very nice person and that I’m some sort of ogre.
"But yeah, it’s just, it’s hard to apologise for being myself and hard to apologise for such an emotionally-charged moment."
