Women’s football was huge during World War One, drawing large crowds, raising morale, when men were away fighting on the front. On 5 December, 1921 the FA called on male based clubs, belonging to the associations, to refuse the use of their grounds for women’s football matches, citing strong opinions about football’s unsuitability for females.
2022 is an important year for Women's football as England hosts the UEFA Women's Euro AND the Lionesses celebrate their 50th Anniversary. So, we’re celebrating the England Women’s Senior team. At their hometowns there will be an unveiling of wall plaques. A Mutual Respect Flag toured the country, leading to the UEFA tournament and familiar faces appeared alongside it from place to place, to sign the flag. A £1 for every signature will go to the Mutual Respect Grants Fund. It can be signed online.
£500,000 has been invested from National Lottery to celebrate 141 years of women’s football. Southampton City Council joins UEFA Women’s EURO 2022 summer of celebration in partnership with The FA. Stories of pioneering women and girls will be recorded for the first time. A full programme of activity will be developed for young people and schools. Southampton, as one of the nine UEFA Women’s EURO 2022 host cities, is taking part in a National Lottery funded project, to uncover the hidden history of women’s football in a summer of celebration of the game, its players and communities.
The National history of the Women's game goes back a lot further than many might think. This year also marks 141 years since women’s football was first played professionally. The National Lottery funded project aims to challenge the common perception of women’s football being ‘new’ and change the nation’s understanding of ‘the English game’. In addition to the National Lottery funding, The FA and host cities have funded a total of £1,060,580. For the very first time, information about every England player, captain, goal scorer and match score since 1972 is being gathered, recorded and shared alongside the information that already exists about men’s football.
Hosted on England Football’s website, the record will continue to be updated, ensuring future female players are part of the nation’s footballing story. The project will also explore the role of the LGBTQ+ community. Southampton is one of nine UEFA Women’s EURO 2022 host cities, taking part in a fantastic range of community events and celebrations this summer.
Government Rolling (GRM) Ladies Football Team, Woolston, 1917–18 - Southampton Archives
Founded in 1970, Southampton Women’s FC, won the FA Cup an astonishing eight times between 1971 and 1982 and remain the most successful women’s team in Southampton. As part of the celebrations surrounding the tournament, SeaCity Museum will create an exhibition exploring the history of women’s football in Southampton, which goes back at least to the First World War, when teams were formed by women workers in the local factories. The museum will run an oral history project to interview ex-players, fans as well as current players and will be looking to collect artefacts relating to the women’s game for the museum’s collection*. The exhibition will open on 25 June 2022. A fun programme of activity was developed for young people and schools, which involved designing shirts, club badges and scarves.
Professor Jean Williams, led the historical research to support the programme; she said: 'This National Lottery funded programme is of enormous significance as the first nationally coordinated project of its kind firstly, to collect the history of women’s football in England and secondly to share that unique heritage with the widest possible public audience. We are finding new artefacts and stories all the time, and are excited to share how women, and girls have pioneered football in history.”
Councillor Spiros Vassiliou, Cabinet Member for Communities, Culture & Heritage, Southampton City Council, said: ‘We are very excited that Southampton is a host city for the UEFA Women’s EURO 2022 and we are proud of our rich football heritage, such as our Women’s team winning the FA Cup eight times between 1971 and 1982. The city’s ability to host large scale events and use key milestones to explore its culture and heritage, also makes it perfectly placed for our current bid to become UK City of Culture 2025." If you own any Southampton Women’s football artefacts that may be suitable to loan to the SeaCity exhibition, please contact Alexandra Lyons, Assistant Curator of Maritime & Local Collections, at Alexandra.lyons@southampton.gov.uk Its not too late.
Women's football has continued to grow in popularity nationally. In September 1991 the WFA established a National League with 24 clubs. The number of women's teams playing in Britain increased from around 500 in 1993, to about 4,500 in 2000. There are also over 6,500 women coaches in Britain. In 2002 the Football Association published figures to suggest that football has become the top sport for girls and women in Britain. For more: https://spartacus-educational.com/Fwomen.htm
The 68,871 at the opening game at Old Trafford, where England beat Austria, was a new record for the women’s game. Then Milton Keynes and Sheffield in turn set new records for women’s Euros fixtures not featuring the host nation. Yesterday, 87,192 people watched the final. Held at the same venue as last year's defeat for England’s men against Italy, but without Covid restrictions in place, it became the most-attended Euros final in history, beating a record that had stood since 1964. |
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