Banned: How English Football Outlawed Women for 50 Years

On Boxing Day 1920, 53,000 people packed into Goodison Park to watch Dick, Kerr Ladies play St Helens Ladies. It's reported that 10,000 more were stuck outside.

Less than a year later, the FA banned women from its members' grounds.

This is the story of that ban: how big women's football had become, why the FA shut the gates, what was lost, and how women kept playing anyway.

Inside:

• Before the ban: the munitionettes, wartime crowds, and the money they raised for charity

• Shutting the gates: the changing mood, and the FA's 1921 resolution in full

• What was lost: the records, the players, and the girls who never got the chance

• Play on: park pitches, dog tracks, unofficial tournaments in Europe and Mexico, and the road to the ban being lifted

Written by Clare McEwen, women's football historian and author of She Can Kick It. The history of women's football across the world.



11 pages · A4 PDF · instant download