By DPA
Buenos Aires : "If I were a man I would be a millionaire." Rosana Gomez, 26, has long accepted this fact. She is the star midfielder of Argentine football giant Boca Juniors and has played in the national team for more than five years.
In spite of that she has to work in a telephone shop to scrape by. Argentines are crazy about football. Some sign their children up for membership of their favourite club even before they have an identity card.
Many ignore any security precautions to watch their team and almost one in two of the naked, sweaty fan torsos shows a tattoo that refers to their club.
However, this passion does not apply to women's football at all.
"We invest our time and strength in football and still are simply ignored," Gomez said angrily.
Without attention there is no space in the media, and without space in the media there are no sponsors. While their male colleagues earn millions, female players earn some 150 pesos (around 50 dollars) a month. Just peanuts, not even enough to pay half the rent.
Argentine women are often sidelined not only on the football pitch but also in normal life. On average they earn 30 percent less than their male colleagues for similar tasks.
"Macho culture is to blame for this inequality," says political scientist Gimena de Leon, who specializes in this field.
Education and society teach girls to play typical female roles and lead them to take up typically female professions, like social worker or teacher, which are not well paid.
And even when they choose "male" trades, they only seldom rise up to positions of leadership. Those who dare step onto male turf, like football, have a tough time.
"Earlier, male fans used to shout at us that we should go back to the sink and the stove," recalls Karina Ribodino, president and former player of Boca's women's football section.
Even today, they have to hear comments like, "You can't play football in a skirt," says Gomez.
The midfielder, however, warns that such macho talk does not stop at men. "Women do it just the same," Gomez protests.