{"id":8096,"date":"2026-07-24T10:36:52","date_gmt":"2026-07-24T10:36:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/movinginsiderusa.com\/?p=8096"},"modified":"2026-07-24T10:36:52","modified_gmt":"2026-07-24T10:36:52","slug":"a-female-world-cup-ref-on-how-to-navigate-male-dominant-fields-take-up-space","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/movinginsiderusa.com\/?p=8096","title":{"rendered":"A female World Cup ref on how to navigate male-dominant fields: \u2018Take up space\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\u201cWhen we walked out on that field, it felt different. It didn\u2019t feel like a normal game,\u201d Tori Penso, center, said this week. (Jose Hernandez\/Anadolu\/Getty Images)<\/figcaption>\n<\/figure>\n

The stadium seemed bigger, Tori Penso thought as she walked onto the field in Atlanta last month. It was taller, somehow. Grander.<\/p>

Read more Congress isn\u2019t working. Literally.<\/a><\/p>\n

Penso knew, logically, that Mercedes-Benz Stadium, renamed Atlanta Stadium for the men\u2019s World Cup, hadn\u2019t changed an inch from when she\u2019d previously attended matches there. But when she stepped onto the grass ahead of a group-stage game between the Czech Republic and South Africa, minutes from becoming the first American woman to serve as head referee for a men\u2019s World Cup game, Penso felt the gravity of the moment.<\/p>\n

\u201cEvery fan was on their feet, just enjoying the moment and celebrating soccer,\u201d Penso said in an interview this week. \u201cIt was just incredible. When we walked out on that field, it felt different. It didn\u2019t feel like a normal game. It felt like something of significance and magnitude. Every time we walk out, I always try and take a moment to look around and embrace the moment.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s really the only time I do that. Once the whistle starts, it\u2019s back to work.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Penso, center right, at a World Cup match in New Jersey. (Tom Weller\/DPA\/Picture Alliance\/Getty Images)<\/figcaption>\n<\/figure>\n

Six women were chosen among the 170 officials selected by FIFA to work at the World Cup. Penso was the head official on a crew of three American women, including assistants Brooke Mayo and Kathryn Nesbitt<\/a>, who worked two games during the tournament. Katia Itzel Garc\u00eda, who hails from Mexico, was the center referee for the Tunisia-vs.-Netherlands game in the group stage. Sandra Ram\u00edrez, also from Mexico, and Tatiana Guzm\u00e1n of Nicaragua rounded out the group of six and worked matches as assistant referees and VARs.<\/p>\n

At the 2022 men\u2019s World Cup in Qatar, St\u00e9phanie Frappart of France, Neuza Back of Brazil and Karen D\u00edaz of Mexico officiated one group-stage match as a crew and became the first women to referee at the men\u2019s World Cup. Four years later, Penso built on their accomplishment.<\/p>\n

Now a 40-year-old mother of three, Penso began refereeing when she was 14. There were numerous times, she said, when she was ready to hang up her whistle and cleats. The intense criticism, most often from angry parents, made her work and effort seem not worth it.<\/p>\n

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Penso, 40, is a mother of three who has been refereeing since she was a teenager. (Ulrik Pedersen\/NurPhoto\/Getty Images)<\/figcaption>\n<\/figure>\n

\u201cI remember [my mentors] telling me, you can let that parent run you out of the field, but don\u2019t let him run you out of the park. Don\u2019t let him make you hang up the boots,\u201d Penso said. \u201cIn life, you\u2019re going to have criticism. You\u2019re going to have tough moments. And if you can learn how to kind of break and grind through that difficulty, you\u2019re going to be better for it on the other side.\u201d<\/p>\n

Penso stuck with it, eventually rising to become the first female full-time referee in MLS. (Her husband, Chris Penso, also is an MLS referee.) Internationally, Penso worked at the 2023 women\u2019s World Cup, including the final, and the 2024 Olympics.<\/p>\n

All of those experiences built the well of confidence from which Penso drew at the recently concluded men\u2019s World Cup. Technically, it was no different of an assignment than what she\u2019d done hundreds of times before. Practically, it was a new level of scrutiny and pressure.<\/p>

Read more Knives are out for Vance in the GOP. His allies say it\u2019s a coordinated \u2018op.\u2019<\/a><\/p>\n

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Penso is often the only woman on a pitch with dozens of men. (Vincent Carchietta\/Imagn Images\/Reuters)<\/figcaption>\n<\/figure>\n

\u201cYou kind of learn how to take up space,\u201d Penso said. \u201cThat\u2019s the example I use when I talk to my 12-year-old daughter today, because I see her at that age [where] she\u2019s starting to shrink. Her shoulders are starting to fall. She\u2019s starting to look and evaluate people and feel evaluated herself by her peers and society as a whole. And so I keep telling her, \u2018Put your shoulders up. Take up space. Own the moment.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

A moment of Penso doing just that in the Czech Republic-South Africa game quickly went viral on Instagram<\/a>. When she called two players together to clear the air after physical contact between them, one of them began to walk away from the conversation while Penso was speaking.<\/p>\n

Penso, who said that \u201cwe certainly can\u2019t allow that level of disrespect to a match official or the game in general,\u201d quickly called him back to the discussion.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s nothing buzzier than watching a woman ref tell off these man babies,\u201d sports content creator Coach Jackie J wrote in a comment accompanying the video she posted of Penso commanding the player\u2019s attention.<\/p>\n

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Penso engages with South Africa’s Teboho Mokoena and Thapelo Maseko during the match with the Czech Republic. (Claudia Greco\/Reuters)<\/figcaption>\n<\/figure>\n

\u201cIt was an important moment, I think, looking back on it now,\u201d Penso said. \u201cSo many people have celebrated that in different ways. Some people say it\u2019s mom energy. But for me, it was just me sitting in that moment, taking up space with the confidence to do that because of the experiences that I lean on and [knowing] that that moment demanded a referee to show up.\u201d<\/p>\n

She chuckled at the idea of going viral for her work as an official, which wasn\u2019t ever something she anticipated. But the reach of that video and the number of viewers watching the tournament served as a reminder for her of the impact she can have on girls and women who watched her work.<\/p>\n

\u201cResearch shows that one in two girls leave sport because of self-confidence issues,\u201d Penso said. \u201cI hope that seeing a woman strong and confident, excelling at the highest level of the game on the biggest stage in the world, is an image that sits with them.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s something that they can rely on in moments when they feel small or they feel inferior. [They can] know that they are capable of more than maybe they think because they once saw someone do something that seemed impossible to them at the time.\u201d<\/p>

Read more Justice Department agrees to withdraw subpoenas to New York Times reporters<\/a><\/p>\n

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(Jose Breton\/Pics Action\/NurPhoto\/Getty Images)<\/figcaption>\n<\/figure>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Tori Penso, a 40-year-old mom of three, became the first American woman to serve as head referee at a men\u2019s World Cup.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8089,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8096","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-interesting"],"yoast_head":"\nA female World Cup ref on how to navigate male-dominant fields: \u2018Take up space\u2019 - Moving Insider USA<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/movinginsiderusa.com\/?p=8096\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"A female World Cup ref on how to navigate male-dominant fields: \u2018Take up space\u2019 - Moving Insider USA\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Tori Penso, a 40-year-old mom of three, became the first American woman to serve as head referee at a men\u2019s World Cup.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/movinginsiderusa.com\/?p=8096\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Moving Insider USA\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-07-24T10:36:52+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/movinginsiderusa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/a98a14f23437b95fd96bf880e93b19c2-scaled.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"2560\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1707\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/?p=8096#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/?p=8096\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"admin\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/22d40ab81790f6a361021763bb56ef03\"},\"headline\":\"A female World Cup ref on how to navigate male-dominant fields: \u2018Take up space\u2019\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-07-24T10:36:52+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/?p=8096\"},\"wordCount\":1110,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/?p=8096#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/07\\\/d48a280b21d93053a718c36d299d2be1.jpg\",\"articleSection\":[\"Interesting\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/?p=8096#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/?p=8096\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/?p=8096\",\"name\":\"A female World Cup ref on how to navigate male-dominant fields: \u2018Take up space\u2019 - Moving Insider USA\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/?p=8096#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/?p=8096#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/07\\\/d48a280b21d93053a718c36d299d2be1.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-07-24T10:36:52+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/22d40ab81790f6a361021763bb56ef03\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/?p=8096#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/?p=8096\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/?p=8096#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/07\\\/d48a280b21d93053a718c36d299d2be1.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/07\\\/d48a280b21d93053a718c36d299d2be1.jpg\",\"width\":2384,\"height\":1808,\"caption\":\"Tori Penso (USA) gestures during Group I FIFA World Cup 2026, Ecuador and Germany, Met Life Stadium, New jersey, USA on June 25 2026. 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