Chelsea head coach Sonia Bompastor has revealed the first question she is usually asked when she interviews for a job and it's one that a man would rarely, if ever, be asked.
The French football manager succeeded the iconic Emma Hayes at the Chelsea helm last year and has flourished in west London.
Bompastor led Chelsea to the WSL title, going the season unbeaten as they won 19 of 22 games, the FA Cup and the League Cup, beating Manchester United and Manchester City, respectively, to the latter pieces of silverware.
And Bompastor’s Chelsea side have made an impressive start to their title defence, winning their opening three matches against Manchester City, Aston Villa and Leicester ahead of their trip across the capital to West Ham on Sunday.
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The 43-year-old, who led former side Lyon to the Champions League in 2022, has revealed she’s often made to answer a question ‘a man would never be asked’.
Bompastor reveals the first question she's asked in job interviews
“Guess what was almost the first question everyone is asking me when I want to become a head coach or a manager?” Bompastor said via BBC Sport when asked about a recent survey that found 78% of women had faced discrimination while working in football.
“So I'm going to tell you - 'do you think it's possible to be a mum of four kids and being a manager for a high club?'
“I think if you have a man in front of the same people, they will never ask that question.”
Bompastor went on to quickly add: “It wasn't the case in Chelsea.”
The survey released by Women in Football earlier this week found that 63.5% of women working in football experienced sexist banter or jokes, while 56% added that no action had been taken after reporting gender-based discrimination in the workplace.
“We still have room for improvement in that area, and I'm glad the people are honest and they are brave enough to raise that,” Bompastor went on to add.
Arsenal boss Renee Slegers was asked about the survey, and said: “I think we need to stay critical, although there's been a lot of progress in that sense. It's not always in the big things, it can be in the small things as well. It's good to be aware of it.”
'Women need to be supported'
On the results of the survey, Women in Football CEO Yvonne Harrison said: “The headline data from the 2025 survey remains relatively static, and in many areas, bleak.
“They are not just numbers: they are the lived experiences of people working in the game, and they deserve better. If the industry is to change, we need to recognise these hard truths.
“We can safely assume that the real levels of discrimination are even higher, with a third of female respondents stating they had not reported incidents due to a lack of faith and trust in workforce processes, or for a fear of retribution.
“We cannot keep relying on the resilience of women. We need women to be supported, valued, and recognised. These are not questions of cost. It is a question of culture, and a commitment to ensuring psychological safety.”
Topics: Womens Football, Football
Ben McAleer