Fortaleza will host the II National Meeting of Women in the Stands.

Ceará 247 - The cases of harassment reported at the World Cup in Russia ended up drawing attention to the sexism that still prevails in football, keeping many female fans away from stadiums.

Some women, frequent victims of harassment at football matches and fans of teams from various states in Brazil, created the Facebook group "Women in the Stands - Resistance and Empowerment".

In August of this year, the movement will hold the II National Meeting of Women in the Stands in Fortaleza, at the Olympic Training Center. The event is expected to bring together around 500 female fans. Registration for the event closed on June 12th. The meeting is aimed at a female audience, mainly fans of all clubs in Brazil, with the objective of trying to define strategies to change the offensive attitude towards women in stadiums.

One of the group's members, Elise Oliveira, who also manages the Facebook page "Lugar delas é na Bancada" (Their Place is in the Stands), said in an interview with Agência Brasil that "the idea to create the movement came from female fans who, in a chat, got together and started talking about prejudice in general against women in the stands, the excess of sexism, the harassment. Those attacks like 'women don't understand football,' and 'a woman's place is behind the stove.' The movement arose to show the strength that women also have in the stands throughout Brazil."

The 1st National Meeting of Women in the Stands was held in June 2017 in São Paulo, bringing together 350 women representing 50 fan groups from 11 Brazilian states.