England Women's Football:
A Pioneering Past
"Quite Unsuitable For Females"
When Women Dominated Football....
It is a bitter boxing day afternoon in 1920, 53,000 fans are crammed into Goodison Park while a further 14,000 hovers outside the gate in hope of catching a glimpse of the action. Anticipation lingers amongst the spectators as they turn their attention toward the biggest match of the year. It is a head-to-head between the star-studded Dick, Kerr Ladies and St Helens Ladies. The crowd erupts into a dissonance of cheers and chants; this is no ordinary fixture. This match, as well as being a charity event to raise money for wounded British soldiers, would remain the largest crowd ever to attend a women’s football game in Britain for 91 years. It would also go on to signify the tipping point for the game of women’s football.
Action shot from the Boxing Day match at Goodison park in 1920
The following year saw an upsurge in the popularity of Dick, Kerr Ladies who received over 180 match requests. Only fulfilling 67 of them, the dominating team attracted an aggregate crowd of over 900,000. In sustaining such an immense following, Dick, Kerr Ladies were able to gain a significant foothold in national sporting spectatorship. Such success ought to presume a vital growth of the sport, yet it seemingly had the adverse effect, ultimately proving detrimental to its existence. On the 5th of December 1921, the FA banned women from playing at any of their affiliated grounds. This came not only as a shock to the players but to the fans as well. Supposedly, the ban stemmed from claims of financial scandal, but the official resolution suggests a more general aversion toward the women’s game:
“Complaints having been made as to football being played by women, Council feel impelled to express their strong opinion that the game of football is quite unsuitable for females and should not be encouraged.”
FA Council minutes, 1921, from the FA Archive held at the National Football Museum, Manchester.
So, what actually served as the impetus to the FA’s ban? The evolving discourse around prevailing gender roles at the time connect this ban to a broader divergence between traditional gender norms and the ascent of female emancipation due to the First World War. During the war, women were mobilised into factories to fill the gaps left by men who were summoned into the conflict. Therefore, when the Armistice was signed on the 11th of November 1918, it did not see an easy return to the pre-war normality of the British economy. There simply were not enough jobs for ex-soldiers to walk into. As a result, women were targeted as demobilised servicemen demanded ‘their’ jobs back in ‘their’ factories. It was believed that married women should return to their previous occupations of mother and housewife and over time these demands proved too strong. In 1919, the government passed the Restoration of Pre-War Practices Act which bluntly demanded women to vacate their wartime jobs for returning soldiers. Such events are reflective of the circumstances which led to the FA’s ban as after the war neither the Football League nor the FA could fully revive professional football. The FA was under pressure as questions surrounding wages and competitions proved relentless. It took a year for both the men’s league and cup to relaunch after the war ended. As a result, the ban on women’s football was principally down to prejudice and the worry that the men’s game was in danger of being overshadowed.
A photograph of Dick, Kerr's Ladies (Left) and St Helens Ladies (Right) before kick-off at Goodison Park on Boxing Day 1920 - National Football Museum
Although women were not prohibited from playing football, their exclusion from football facilities significantly hindered the development of the sport. Many women’s teams continued to play on non-FA pitches, but the lack of visibility inevitably hindered its attraction. Women continued to play throughout the ban yet so little of those years are known or recorded. What could have been one of the earliest and most successful women’s leagues in the world was shattered. The 50-year ban on English women’s football severely damaged the sport, the likes of which is still being unpicked today.