What you don't know about women's football

Women were playing professionally in England back in 1881. Until they were banned. Yep.

Dick, Kerr Ladies in 1921: the most successful team in the history of the women’s game

An audio version of this article is available here:

England play Australia today (Wednesday 16 August) in the semi-final of the 2023 Women’s World Cup to determine who’ll go through to challenge Spain in Sunday’s final. If you’re British and into football, sports and/or feminism, this is exciting stuff. Not only because World Cups are simply great, full stop. Or because, while they’re on, you can go into pubs with Union Jacks hanging outside without automatically being bottled by a racist. But also because ever since football “came home” last year – when the Lionesses scooped the Women’s European Championship by beating Germany 2-1 in the final (the first time England has won a major men’s or women’s tournament since 1966) – a very necessary spotlight has been shone onto the sport. 

Turns out, women’s football in Britain has an extraordinary history – and that’s not hyperbole or me just trying to entice you to read on. Okay, it’s a bit of both, but bear with me because guess what… 

Women were playing professionally – filling stadiums and making big money – one hundred and forty years ago.

Until the men’s league banned them.

I shit you not.

2022 Euro Champs: England’s Lionesses team

What – women played football before 2022?  

Yes, Keith. They did.   

The first professional women’s football match was played in 1881. Women swapped their corsets and bustles for long shorts and shirts to play in the mud – and people paid to watch them. That’s significant because professional football as a whole was in its infancy at the time, so women were actively helping the sport to become legit.  

During WWI things kicked up a gear. (*sound the weak-pun klaxon*)

With the menfolk away fighting, the women working in munitions factories started having kickabouts during breaks and on weekends. Those kickabouts turned into the formation of proper teams which, in turn, turned into leagues. And, by 1921, there were 150 national women’s football clubs playing up and down the country.

In 1920, 53,000 spectators turned up to watch the Boxing Day game between Dick, Kerr Ladies and St Helens Ladies, with 14,000 fans left outside. All proceeds went to help the war effort. (And yes, unfortunately the comma and lack of apostrophe in both names are correct there which obviously upsets me, but onwards.)

When the war ended, rather than be delighted at this success, the men’s professional football league was aghast: “THERE BE WOMEN ON OUR PITCHES!” they screamed. “THEY BE TAKING OUR MONEY!” (I paraphrase.) 

So several league clubs rallied together to put pressure on the FA to stop the madness. And it worked. On 5th December 1921, the FA effectively banned women’s football.  

“A game quite unsuitable for females”

Credit: National Football Museum

“The game of football is quite unsuitable for females and ought not to be encouraged” was the FA’s official reasoning (yes, that is a direct quote). Let’s not forget here, that those were the exact same females who’d worked in the munitions factories while simultaneously filling 50,000-capacity pitches. However, maintaining traditional gender roles was, in reality, only one of the myriad reasons behind the ban. This was a deeply complicated time. Returning soldiers had shit going on and the FA knew that booting women off its pitches would play a big role in the cultural desire for “things to go back to how they were before”. (Let’s imagine snowy-haired men shaking their fists in the air and shouting, “Sure, it’s football now – but where does it end?!”)

Then there were obviously money and resources. Clever folks knew that football meant big bucks and the FA was in the process of introducing a Tier Three division in the men’s league. Perhaps it feared that the popularity of the women’s game would detract from this new league which also needed access to clubs, pitches and resources – things currently monopolised by women. 

The FA dealt with this by prohibiting women from using all FA-affiliated pitches – which meant pretty-much EVERY pitch in the country seeing as the FA was the national governing body for football. This meant that, all at once, a lot of women lost both their jobs and their sport, and with them a sense of community and independence.    

Keeping score

Upon learning of the ban, all the women players said, “Sounds fair,” and immediately binned their boots. 

Did they bollocks. 

The ban was disputed – by both women and men, it’s important to point out – and hundreds of players found ways to pursue their passion despite the lack of support, funding and pitches. 30 teams immediately formed the English Ladies Football Association (ELFA) in 1921, playing games at rugby grounds and public parks, and teams would continue to spring up (and disappear) throughout the next FIVE decades during which the ban was in place*. 

In the 1960s, and in the context of the growing women’s rights movement, a large group of teams formed the Women’s Football Association (WFA) in London in November 1969. And, just two months later on 19th January 1970, the ban on women playing football was overturned. 

It took 50 years.

The legacy of the ban 

The damage this 50-year ban inflicted on the sport was astronomical. To this day, the women’s game still isn’t taken as seriously as the men’s with a lack of investment, facilities, and just general respect. All of which filters down to the grassroots game: only 63% of girls are offered football as a sports option at school, which not only fosters a societal attitude that football is “not for girls”, but is also making the game elitist and classist. 

Without lessons at school, girls who want to train have to join clubs – which cost money. On top of that, many women’s training facilities have been relocated (or located anew) in suburban or rural areas (as professional men’s clubs get priority over urban, city central, and more easily accessible pitches). This means players can often only get there by car (again: money) and, because of a lack of funding, there isn’t the money to subsidise either the transport or the time it takes for travel. This has in effect ‘gentrified’ the women’s game, making it predominantly white and middle class. And indeed, the ethnic makeup of the women’s 2022 England squad came under scrutiny last summer with only three players of Black or mixed heritage included in the squad (compared to the 11 players of Black or mixed heritage in the England men’s team) and an all-white starting 11. This summer, only two of the 23-member squad are Black. 

(This article by Football 365 is excellent on this subject and this interview with ex-player Rachel Yankey is very insightful.) 

All of which helps to explain why the popularity of and the national excitement about the Euro 2022 tournament mattered so much – for women, sport, visibility, society and history. And it also helps to explain why the near-broadcasting blackout for the World Cup (with broadcasters “not offering enough money” to screen the games in five European countries) was so frustrating.   

2023 World Cup Lionesses

Just One More Thing…

There is such a long way to go, but understanding the impact this history has had on the game is crucial to making meaningful change. Let’s not pretend that women have just discovered football. We had it. It was taken away. And it has taken a lot of very talented, very dedicated and very brave people to fight for what they should have had as standard. This is an all-too familiar story being played out across all sectors of society right now – history is being rewritten and people are fighting for basic rights.

Sure, it’s football now, but where does it end?

Credit: A lot of info was taken from this brilliant episode of the Stories of our Times podcast called ‘The secret history of women’s football’, which I highly recommend.

*The Manchester Corinthians Ladies FC, formed in 1949, was one of the most notable squads, winning an unofficial European club championship in Germany in 1957 (accompanied by the Manchester City men’s team goalie, Bert Trautmann, acting as interpreter), and travelling all over the world, winning more than 50 trophies and raising £275,000 for charity.