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Title: Histories of Women’s Football in Britain and Ireland

Histories of Women’s Football in Britain and Ireland

by Fiona Skillen (Volume editor) Helena Byrne (Volume editor) Gary James (Volume editor)
©2025 Edited Collection XII, 320 Pages
History & Political Science
Series: Sport, History and Culture, Volume 15

Summary

This book brings together a range of researchers to explore the growth and development of the women’s game in Britain and Ireland. They are active across a diverse range of fields, from historians and heritage practitioners, to those from the arts such as playwrights and documentary directors. This edited collection draws together both regional and national studies to provide a more nuanced understanding of the history of the women’s game in Britain and Ireland than has been possible before. Chapters in this book explore new findings around the development of key teams, players, and organisations, and in doing so enrich the historiography of the game.
Often books on the history of football have taken a narrative approach focusing only on the research findings or ‘story’. This is of course important, but in this book the editors also wanted to reflect the ways in which research into the history of women’s football has been shared and explored within a range of spaces and communities. There is a huge untapped audience who want to engage with the history of the sport. By reflecting on previous arts/heritage-based projects we can explore new avenues regarding how academic research can be made accessible to the general public and in turn how arts/ heritage-based projects can inform academic research.

Table Of Contents

  • Cover
  • Half Title
  • Sport, History and Culture
  • Title
  • Copyright
  • Table of Contents
  • Tables
  • Figures
  • A History of the Growth and Development of Women’s Football in Britain and Ireland
  • Introduction
  • Why is a Book Like This Needed?
  • Conclusion
  • Acknowledgements
  • Pre-1900
  • Setting the Scene: The Origins Story of Women’s Football in Scotland
  • Introduction
  • The Historiography of the Origins of Women’s Football in Scotland
  • Football Activity Prior to the Nineteenth Century
  • Evidence of Participation in the Nineteenth Century
  • Examples of Mixed and Concurrent Games
  • Examples of Separate Female Games
  • Examples Relating to the Upper Classes
  • Evidence of Female Spectators at Football Games
  • Conclusion
  • Selected Bibliography
  • The First Tour of Women’s Association Football – 1881
  • Introduction
  • Literature Review
  • Women and Sports, Amateur and Professional
  • Sports Entertainment and the Birth of Women’s Football
  • The First Match
  • The Debacle at Shawfield
  • The Accidental Tour
  • The 1881 Tour’s Conclusion and Aftermath
  • The Sports Entertainment Influence Continues
  • Conclusion
  • Selected Bibliography
  • Women’s Football in Wales, 1890–1950
  • Women Playing Football in Wales in the Nineteenth Century
  • Women’s Football During the First World War and the FAW’s Ban – 1917–22
  • Women’s Football Between the Wars
  • The Second World War and After
  • Conclusion
  • Selected Bibliography
  • First World War
  • ‘Testimonial to Mrs Walter Scott’: A Brief History of Diana Scott
  • Introduction
  • Discovering Mrs Scott
  • Diana Scott and Women’s Football
  • Conclusion
  • Acknowledgements
  • Selected Bibliography
  • Excommunicating the Women’s Game: The English FA’s 1921 Ban Revisited
  • Introduction
  • Historiography
  • ‘Banned’
  • Conclusion
  • Selected Bibliography
  • The Media Framing of Women’s Football in Wales During the English FA’s 1921–1970 Ban
  • Introduction
  • Literature Review
  • Women’s Football Ban
  • Media Framing
  • Methodology
  • Design
  • Data
  • Data Analysis
  • Results
  • 1921–1930: Women’s Football as the Prowess of the Footballers but the Infantilising of the Women (10 articles)
  • 1931–1940: Women’s Football as Frivolous but Good for Publicity (41 articles)
  • 1941–1950: Women’s Football as Defiant but Skilful and Supported (19 articles)
  • 1951–1960: Women’s Football as Deserving of a Voice? (7 articles)
  • 1961–1971: Women’s Football as Robust but Inferior (16 articles)
  • Conclusion
  • Selected Bibliography
  • ‘Proving themselves no mean experts at the game’: Women’s Football in Scotland, 1914–1921
  • Introduction
  • Women’s Football in Scotland Pre-First World War
  • The First World War
  • Football Teams
  • ‘International’ Matches?
  • Conclusion
  • Acknowledgements
  • Selected Bibliography
  • Post Second World War
  • The Development of Women’s Football in Trafford
  • Introduction
  • Trafford
  • Prior to 1921
  • Activity Between 1921 and 1969
  • From the Ban to the Present
  • Conclusion
  • Acknowledgements
  • Selected Bibliography
  • A Hollow Victory: Exploring the Impact of the Removal of Formal Restrictions on the Development of the Women’s Game in Scotland in the 1970s and 1980s
  • Introduction
  • Writing and Research on Women’s Football in Scotland
  • Women’s Football in Scotland, 1970 to 1990
  • Catalyst for Action
  • 1975–1990
  • Scottish Women’s National Team (SWNT)
  • ‘Unofficial’ Women’s Football
  • Two-way Resistance
  • Institutional Legislation
  • Socio-Cultural ‘Norms’
  • Economic Barriers
  • Conclusion
  • Selected Bibliography
  • Surviving or Thriving? Women’s Football in 1970s Northern Ireland
  • Creating a Women’s League
  • Rolling Out a Domestic League
  • The International Scene
  • Conclusion
  • Selected Bibliography
  • The Development of Women’s Soccer in Dublin
  • Initial Attempts to Develop Women’s Soccer in Dublin
  • Women’s Soccer in Dublin in the Latter Decades of the Twentieth Century
  • Conclusion
  • Selected Bibliography
  • International Perspectives
  • The Trailblazers – Organised Women’s Football in the Interwar Period
  • Introduction
  • State of Research
  • Organised vs. Unorganised Women’s Football
  • Federally Organised Women’s Football
  • ‘Propaganda’
  • International Matches
  • The Extent
  • How it was Played
  • Bans
  • Media
  • Conclusion
  • Selected Bibliography
  • The Dick, Kerr Ladies from Paris and Sydney: Globalisation the Image and Influence of British Women’s Football Overseas
  • Introduction
  • Australia and the Colonial Connection
  • A French Parallel?
  • Conclusions
  • Selected Bibliography
  • Game Changer: Looking Back on the First UEFA Competition for Women
  • Introduction
  • Literature Review
  • Discussion
  • Women’s Football and UEFA 1970–1980
  • First UEFA Competition
  • Planning Stages
  • Costs Involved
  • Economic Situation in Ireland and the UK 1980s
  • The Northern Ireland Troubles
  • Rules of the First Competition
  • The Competition
  • First Competition Review
  • Changes Moving Forward
  • Conclusion
  • Acknowledgements
  • Selected Bibliography
  • Representing the History of Women’s Football in Culture
  • Winning Working Women – the Story of Sweet F.A.
  • Background
  • A War of Two Halves
  • Sweet F.A.
  • Challenges to Staging Sweet F.A.
  • Sweet F.A. Premiere
  • Selected Bibliography
  • The Representation of Women Within the Scottish Football Museum
  • Introduction
  • The Formation of the Museum
  • Collections Development Policy
  • Object Selection
  • Gaps in our Collection
  • Present Display Approach
  • Hall of Fame and the Roll of Honour
  • Building Relationships
  • How Have We Engaged?
  • Conclusion
  • Selected Bibliography
  • UEFA Women’s EURO 2022 Heritage Programme: A Case Study
  • Introduction: Programme Development
  • ‘Everyone Wants More History’
  • Programme Delivery: Outdoor and Indoor Exhibitions
  • Programme Delivery: Online Resources and Campaigns
  • Outreach and Engagement
  • Lioness Legacy
  • Lessons Learned
  • Selected Bibliography
  • From Pitch to Screen: purpleTV’s Documentary Films on Women in Scottish Football
  • Introduction
  • Honeyballers, purpleTV for BBC ALBA, September 2013
  • Rose Reilly, purpleTV for BBC ALBA, September 2019
  • The Women Who Built Glasgow City, purpleTV for BBC ALBA, April 2020
  • Sadie Smith, purpleTV for BBC ALBA, April 2022
  • Julie Fleeting, purpleTV for BBC ALBA, April 2022
  • Conclusion
  • Selected Bibliography
  • Notes on Contributors
  • Index

Sport, History and Culture

Edited by

Richard Holt

Matthew Taylor

Fiona Skillen

International Centre for Sports History and Culture

De Montfort University, Leicester

Vol. 15

Table of Contents

  1. List of Tables

  2. List of Figures

  3. Introduction

    Fiona Skillen, Helena Byrne and Gary James

  4. Pre-1900

    1. Setting the Scene: The Origins Story of Women’s Football in Scotland

      Richard McBrearty

    2. The First Tour of Women’s Association Football – 1881

      Stuart Gibbs

    3. Women’s Football in Wales, 1890–1950

      Craig Owen Jones

  5. First World War

    1. ‘Testimonial to Mrs Walter Scott’: A Brief History of Diana Scott

      Alexander Jackson

    2. Excommunicating the Women’s Game: The English FA’s 1921 Ban Revisited

      Dilwyn Porter

    3. The Media Framing of Women’s Football in Wales During the English FA’s 1921–1970 Ban

      Beth G. Clarkson, Keith D. Parry, Rafaelle Nicholson and Alice Hunter

    4. ‘Proving themselves no mean experts at the game’: Women’s Football in Scotland, 1914–1921

      Fiona Skillen

  6. Post Second World War

    1. The Development of Women’s Football in Trafford

      Gary James

    2. A Hollow Victory: Exploring the Limited Impact of the Removal of Formal Restrictions on Women’s Football in Scotland on the Development of the Women’s Game in the 1970s and 1980s

      Karen Fraser

    3. Surviving or Thriving? Women’s Football in 1970s Northern Ireland

      Conor Heffernan

    4. The Development of Women’s Soccer in Dublin

      Conor Curran

  7. International Perspectives

    1. The Trailblazers – Organised Women’s Football in the Interwar Period

      Helge Faller

    2. The Dick, Kerr Ladies from Paris and Sydney: Globalisation the Image and Influence of British Women’s Football Overseas

      Keith Rathbone

    3. Game Changer: Looking Back on the First UEFA Competition for Women

      Helena Byrne

  8. Representing the History of Women’s Football in Culture

    1. Winning Working Women – the Story of Sweet F.A.

      Paul Beeson

    2. The Representation of Women Within the Scottish Football Museum

      Demi Boyd

    3. UEFA Women’s EURO 2022 Heritage Programme: A Case Study

      Caterina Loriggio

    4. From Pitch to Screen - PurpleTV’s Documentary Films on Women in Scottish Football

      Margot McCuaig

  9. Notes on Contributors

  10. Index

Tables

  1. Table 7:1 Newspapers Reviewed

  2. Table 11:1 Reported Teams from the Inaugural Football Season

  3. Table 11:2 First XI for the International Side

  4. Table 13:1 Women’s Football Federations

  5. Table 13:2 Known Women’s Football Bans in Europe

  6. Table 15:1 Group breakdown

  7. Table 15:2 Group Two Table of Results

  8. Table 15:3 Semi-finals

  9. Table 15:4 Semi-finals

Figures

  1. Figure 3:1 Constance Louisa Cole second goal scorer in the debut women’s association football match 7 May 1881 (image by Stuart Gibbs)

  2. Figure 3:2 Players in action during the 1881 women’s football association tour (image Stuart Gibbs)

  3. Figure 3:3 Players from the 1881 tour The Yorkshireman 18 June 1881

  4. Figure 3:4 Louise Symthson centre Dundee Courier 20 October 1910 p 7

  5. Figure 3:5 Mrs Smythson Morning Leader 19 October 1910 p 7

  6. Figure 7:1 6 September 1921 in Western Mail

  7. Figure 7:2 Wednesday 22 March 1922 in Western Mail

  8. Figure 7:3 Friday 18 June 1937 in Western Mail

  9. Figure 7:4 Women’s ‘socker’ Friday 12 September 1950 in South Wales Echo

  10. Figure 7:5 Thursday 3 October 1968 in North Wales Weekly News

  11. Figure 7:6 Thursday 13 August 1970 in Neath Guardian

  12. Figure 17:1 1980s match report notebook, Scottish Football Museum

  13. Figure 17:2 Referee’s uniform, Scottish Football Museum

A History of the Growth and Development of Women’s Football in Britain and Ireland

Fiona Skillen, Helena Byrne and Gary James

Introduction

Over the last few years, there have been a number of landmark anniversaries in women’s football especially at national level. In 2019 we celebrated the fiftieth anniversary of the formation of the Women’s Football Association (WFA), 2020 was fifty years since the Football Association (FA) rescinded its ban on women’s teams using FA affiliated grounds. The year 2021 marked one hundred years since the FA implemented its ban on women’s football, as well as fifty years since UEFA directed its members to recognise women’s football. While 2022 marked fifty years since the formation of the Scottish Women’s Football Association (SWFA) as well as the Northern Ireland Women’s Football Association (NIWFA) and the Irish Ladies Football Association (ILFA), it was forty years since the first UEFA competition for international women’s teams and 2023 marked fifty years of a national governing body for women’s football affiliated to the Football Association of Ireland (FAI). There are various landmark anniversaries for the governance of women’s football in Wales as there were a number of independent bodies that governed for a short period before merging with the Football Association of Wales (FAW) in the early 1990s.1 There are club anniversaries as well as national landmarks to remember. For example, 2024 marks the seventy-fifth anniversary of the birth of the Manchester Corinthians, whose history was commemorated in 2023 with the erection of a blue plaque and other tributes following a four-year campaign established by Gary James. It is important that pioneering national teams, clubs, individual players, coaching staff as well as administrators of the women’s game are recognised through public tributes such as plaques so that their legacy can be built on by future generations.

In the summer of 2022, England hosted the UEFA Women’s EURO 2022 tournament and went on to win it for the first time.2 There are many milestones to be celebrated in this edition of the competition, such as Northern Ireland qualifying for the competition for the first time. Demand for tickets for the competition-exceeded expectations, reflecting the growing popularity of the sport. Hosting such a significant international competition has drawn focus to the women’s game in Britain and Ireland from grassroots up. Media coverage of matches, teams and individual players was extensive within both specialist and mainstream publications and channels. The coverage has raised many questions, such as why are we only celebrating forty years of UEFA competitions for women, when they recognised the sport over fifty years ago? This question is tackled directly in the chapter by Helena Byrne but all the chapters help shape our understanding of why this was the case. Chapters from Caterina Loriggio and Dr Gary James also give insights into what impact this tournament had in raising awareness of the history of women’s football and helped to shape policies around the importance of preserving its heritage in England. The growing momentum around researching the history of the game combined with a growth in public interest meant that this felt like the right time to stop and reflect on the progress of the game within Britain and Ireland.

This book brings together a range of researchers who are active across a diverse range of fields, from historians and heritage practitioners to those from the arts such as playwrights and documentary directors, their contributions explore the history of the growth and development of the women’s game in Britain and Ireland. Alongside this rich research, we also explore how women’s football history can be broadcast to and engage the public in new ways. This edited collection draws together both regional and national studies to provide a more nuanced understanding of the history of the women’s game in Britain and Ireland than has been possible before. Chapters in the first three sections of this book explore new findings around the development of key teams, players, and organisations, and in doing so enrich the historiography of the game. While, as highlighted in the chapters by Caterina Loriggio, Margot McCuaig, Paul Beeson and Gary James, there is a huge untapped audience who want to engage with the history of the sport. By reflecting on previous arts/heritage-based projects we can explore new avenues regarding how academic research can be made accessible to the general public and in turn how arts/heritage-based projects can inform academic research. Often books on the history of football have taken an academic or at the very least narrative approach to retelling the history. In this book the editors wanted to look beyond this, to explore the ways in which research into the history of women’s football has been shared and explored within a range of spaces and communities. This collection therefore has a mix of chapters in varying lengths and styles from academics, independent researchers as well as arts and museum-based practitioners.

Why is a Book Like This Needed?

The existing historiography of the women’s game has been dominated by English narratives, and specifically a focus on northern English experiences and a handful of teams. Recent research has highlighted that there are regional variations across Britain and Ireland which are vital if we are to have a nuanced understanding of the development of the game. By looking at case studies of particular teams or regions, as several authors do in this book, it is possible to see the parallels and differences in experience which have been overlooked, often in favour of simplistic grand narratives or worse, assumptions. We argue that a book like this is needed to ensure more comprehensive representation within the historiography as not all countries or regions within Britain and Ireland had the same experiences or timelines.

Chapters in this book challenge long-held views about key events within the women’s game. For example, it is often stated that the Scottish FA imposed a ‘ban’ in 1921 following on from the FA, however, there was no formal action taken in Scotland until after the Second World War. Similarly, it has been widely misreported that the FA ban was lifted in 1971. 1971 was when UEFA mandated its members to recognise women’s football. The Women’s Football Association was established in November 1969. The first thing they did was write to the FA to remove the ban. Because of the way the meetings were scheduled it was not until January 1970 that the use of FA affiliated grounds was officially minuted as lifted in FA records.3 While the ban on using affiliated grounds was lifted, some other restrictions remained, nonetheless, the attitudes towards women’s football did not change much, and despite the ban being lifted it was still difficult for women’s football to access affiliated grounds.

Conclusion

Drawing this book together has highlighted what we had long suspected, that there is a thriving body of researchers and arts practitioners who are uncovering, exploring and sharing the history of women’s football. It has been a joy to work with a group of authors who have approached the subject from a variety of perspectives. In doing so the contributors have, we believe, created a rich and engaging collection which reflects the work currently being undertaken across Britain and Ireland. Historical research is correcting errors, however, they are often compounded by other factors, such as the media repeating myths or challenges around source material. The collection of chapters in this book we hope will go far in correcting and challenging some of the early concepts and myths.

We recently wrote in an article about the 1921 FA ‘Ban’ that it was ‘only a starting point for more detailed regional analysis across the five countries’.4 We hope that by bringing together chapters which explore in detail regional developments across Britain and Ireland that we are helping to push forward understandings of the women’s game and with it highlighting the complexities of developments across and between regions. It should be noted however that further regional research is vital to identify what activity and experiences occurred within all communities.

The evidence presented by contributors around the regional histories deepen our understanding of the evolution of the women’s game and demonstrate that this is a vibrant, developing area of research with much still to be explored. The authors recognise that this book represents an incomplete but nevertheless an important history of women’s football in Britain and Ireland. The chapters exploring the arts and media productions highlight that there is significant public appetite for the stories and histories of the women’s game. While the chapter by Boyd highlights the importance of the inclusion in museums of underrepresented narratives and experiences such as women’s involvement in football. Together these contributions show us that the forums of museums, theatres, television, radio and community spaces can provide opportunities to share this history in a powerful, deeply meaningful and impactful way.

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank the many people that helped to make this book happen. They include but are not limited to the series editors, the contributing authors, the former players and administrators that have shared their personal collections. We would like to acknowledge the important contribution behind the scenes made by Dr Sharon Healy in bringing all the chapters together.

  1. 1 The History of Women’s Football in England’, The FA, <https://www.thefa.com/womens-girls-football/history>, accessed 25 August 2022; Helena Byrne, ‘Explore Women’s Football in the UK Web Archive’, British Library, <https://blogs.bl.uk/webarchive/2022/01/explore-womens-football-in-the-uk-web-archive.html>, accessed 25 August 2022; Fiona Skillen, Helena Byrne, John Carrier, and Gary James, ‘“The Game of Football Is Quite Unsuitable for Females and Ought Not to Be Encouraged”: A Comparative Analysis of the 1921 English Football Association Ban on Women’s Football in Britain and Ireland’, Sport in History, 42/1 (2022), 49–75; ‘1984 European Competition for Women’s Football qualifying’, Wikipedia, <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1984_European_Competition_for_Women%27s_Football>, accessed 12 October 2023.

  2. 2 ‘UEFA Women Euro England 2022’, The FA, <https://www.thefa.com/competitions/uefa-womens-euro-2022>, accessed 25 August 2022.

  3. 3 A photo of the minute book lifting the ban was included in the outdoor exhibition panels at the host cities during WEURO2022.

Details

Pages
XII, 320
Publication Year
2025
ISBN (PDF)
9781800799479
ISBN (ePUB)
9781800799486
ISBN (Softcover)
9781800799462
DOI
10.3726/b19922
Language
English
Publication date
2025 (September)
Keywords
Football Women History Gender Northern Ireland Ireland England Scotland Wales
Published
Oxford, Berlin, Bruxelles, Chennai, Lausanne, New York, 2025. xii, 320 pp., 13 fig. b/w, 9 tables.
Product Safety
Peter Lang Group AG

Biographical notes

Fiona Skillen (Volume editor) Helena Byrne (Volume editor) Gary James (Volume editor)

Fiona Skillen is a Professor of history in the Department of Social Sciences, in the School for Business & Society at Glasgow Caledonian University. Her research concerns women’s sport during the late 19th & 20th centuries, she has published extensively in this subject area. She regularly contributes to radio and television programmes on the history of sport. She has recently completed a project on the history of women’s football in Scotland 1850-1939. Helena Byrne is a librarian who specialises in web archiving and is an independent researcher focusing on the history of women’s football in Ireland. Her previous publications cover both web archives and sports history. She has contributed history segments to the FAI Women’s National Team match programmes, news publications and exhibitions. Gary James is a Visiting Research Professor at New York University and Honorary Research Fellow at De Montfort University. His current project is documenting the history of female involvement & participation in football within the Manchester region. James is the founder of the international Football History Conference.

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Title: Histories of Women’s Football in Britain and Ireland