Part of the #WhatIf campaign for change, groundbreaking initiatives on Merseyside and in Catalonia are helping to create a more level playing field

Groundbreaking initiatives at Everton and Barcelona have seen women’s football take two significant steps towards a brave new world of growing commercial opportunities and increased equality with the men’s game.

On Thursday, Everton became the first professional English club to use their ladies team to front a kit launch while, in Catalonia, Barcelona announced that, also for the first time, their women’s side will shortly join Ernesto Valverde’s male all‑stars on a foreign pre-season tour.

As Barça’s England forward Toni Duggan and Netherlands winger Lieke Martens pack for the trip to the United States, a wider, quietly revolutionary, recalibration of the relationship between the sexes in football is under way.

Alex Greenwood the jewel in Casey Stoney’s Manchester United crown Read more

The pioneering developments at Goodison Park and Camp Nou represent key staging posts on a long journey towards greater equality which has been rapidly accelerated by Women in Football’s #WhatIf campaign.

In May the pressure group brought influential figures from across the sports and media industries together at Twitter’s London headquarters and asked them to identify, and then start implementing, the changes organisations, clubs, brands and individuals could make to help transform their world into a less forbidding, more friendly and equal, habitat for females.

Social media was harnessed with the hashtag #WhatIf looming large and each tweet concluding with the challenge: “What’s Your #WhatIf?”

As the first club to have, among other things, worn numbered shirts, presented medals to league champions, installed undersoil heating and won a European Cup penalty shootout, Everton are well used to being at the vanguard of modernisation. The Merseysiders certainly had no qualms about their role in “moving the dial” courtesy of Thursday’s inaugural launch of the club’s new 2018‑19 away kit in conjunction with Umbro.

Danielle Turner, the Everton Ladies captain, was happy to model a strip which will also be worn by both Marco Silva’s men’s side and the club’s junior sides.

“I’m delighted to be part of this ground-breaking and inspirational campaign,” said Turner, after making a special promotional video in which she and assorted teammates including Chloe Kelly, Megan Finnigan and Kirsty Levell show off some of the well‑honed training‑ground footwork soon to be on display in the newly all professional English Super League.

“To be the first women’s team to be given this opportunity is a real reflection of Everton’s one club philosophy and their commitment to the growing profile of the women’s game.”

As Aaron Little, the general manager of Turner’s Everton team, puts it: “This shows just how far the women’s game has come.”

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Lieke Martens and her Barcelona teammates will join the men’s side on tour this summer. Photograph: Albert Gea/Reuters

It is booming in North America where Duggan, Martens, their Barcelona Femeni teammates and Valverde’s men will find themselves next week. The two squads’ historic journey is scheduled to transport them to a training camp near Nike’s Oregon headquarters where they are to participate in joint commercial activities before travelling on to Los Angeles together.

Martens, whose annual club salary of close to £200,000 a year ranks her among the world’s best‑paid female footballers, has already been deployed to commercial advantage by Nike. Last season she helped front the launch of the sportswear manufacturer’s new Mercurial boot and Nike also produced a range of special, limited edition, ‘Lieke’ footwear for women inspired by Martens’s catalytic role in Holland’s Euro 2017 triumph.

Anna Kessel, chair of Women in Football, is thrilled by her organisation’s ability to influence the current social climate. “When Women in Football launched the #WhatIf campaign we were blown away by the positive response from the football world and sports industry, both on a national and global level,” said Kessel. “Increasing the visibility of women’s involvement in football is key and we’re delighted that Everton, a club steeped in tradition – and who hosted a women’s game featuring Dick, Kerr Ladies FC on Boxing Day 1920 watched by a crowd of 53,000 – were one of the first Premier League teams to pledge their support.”

Matildas' groundswell of support to fuel 2023 Women's World Cup bid | Lisa Portolan Read more

By mid‑June the campaign had achieved 40 million impressions on Twitter worldwide with the Women in Football emoji appearing across the planet. The numerous #WhatIf pledges include Judy Murray’s offer of a tennis coaching masterclass to female football coaches, the BBC facilitating work experience during the World Cup in Russia and Sky Sports promising to include a woman pundit on its coverage of live midweek games. Meanwhile assorted new initiatives to be implemented by Fifa and individual Premier League clubs are in the pipeline.

“With women taking on pioneering roles at the recent World Cup – Vicki Sparks the first woman to commentate on the men’s tournament for British TV, Emma Saunders the first female stadium announcer, Eniola Aluko and Alex Scott the first female (British) pundits on a men’s World Cup and psychologist Dr Pippa Grange playing a crucial role in England’s success – there’s a significant shift going on,” said Kessel.

“More clubs are promoting their women’s teams. We’re still playing catch up when it comes to equality but tangible changes are happening. We’re delighted to see female talent finally being recognised and given the platform on which to flourish.”