My nana played football. Who knew?!
Remembering the women who paved the way for the Lionesses
As I write, England is due to play Spain in the Euro (men’s) football final tomorrow, Sunday 14 July 2024.
Maybe by the time you read this you will already know whether Ronaldo the psychic goat was right and England brought it home.1
To anyone assuming England have never won the Euros, they of course did in 2022, when the Lionesses beat Germany 2-1 to take the women’s trophy. Given the raw history of women’s football, that was a major achievement.
Seems the perfect time to bump up my late Nana Ada’s footballing past during WW1 from the footnote it occupied on my last piece, to the top here. I think she’d rather be remembered for this awesome photograph than for her quinine pessaries!
It was a revelation to find this photo while clearing my late parents’ house in 2022. I knew nana had been a keen swimmer, but football? I recall her out-tackling my brother when she was in her seventies and we were kids, but I had no idea where she’d developed that skill.
“Unsuitable for females”
Maybe that’s because in 1921, soon after the chaps returned from war, women’s soccer was banned by the English Football Association (FA) for the next fifty years. They pronounced it “quite unsuitable for females”.
Once it was restricted to amateur status, women’s football in England had no financial support from the FA and couldn’t use FA pitches or coaches.
During WW1, while the men were serving abroad2, factories across Britain had started their own highly popular women’s teams (it’s thought there were more than 150 of them). Ada played for Port Sunlight in Merseyside, where she worked at the factory which supplied the military with soap (now part of Unilever).
Her kit was typical of the ladies’ sides of the day, comfortable but modest: cap, long sleeved top, shorts, long socks, and just look at those boots. I wonder whether they had to borrow the men’s?
After the ban in 1921, women’s football went underground.
Sports writer Carrie Dunn’s 2022 book, “Unsuitable for Females”: The rise of the Lionesses and Women’s Football in England (published by Arena Sport) charts the history of the women’s game.
She writes:
“The FA Council reiterated their ban on women’s football in the decades to come, most notably in 1946. Geoffrey Green, who wrote a history of the FA in 1953, addressed women’s football in a few brief lines as he dismissed it as a blight on the game, saying: ‘There now remain a few subjects upon which the FA have taken a definite stand from the beginning and remained unwavering in their attitude towards them. Amongst these may be counted Women’s Football, Greyhound Racing, Betting and Rough Play.’”
But the likes of the Dick, Kerr ladies, whose team originated at the munitions factory in Preston, Lancashire, in 1917, continued against the odds until 1965. By then, amateur women’s teams were once more gaining in popularity.
According to Dunn:
“After half a century football authorities across the world had realised that their instructions to female players to put away their boots and stop their unladylike recreational activities were being ignored.”
Women were forming their own leagues and competitions – including a Women’s World Cup in 1970 – and in the end it was considered better to bring them into the FA fold.
In 1969 at my mixed junior school, a girl in my class campaigned for the girls to be allowed to play football. Initially she was ignored, but the headteacher capitulated after she started a petition. I was more interested in gymnastics and dance and I didn’t appreciate at the time just how bold and determined she was. Kudos to you, Sally.
I was struck last year by the story of the Vicky Park Rangers girls’ team in east London, who were denied a training slot at their local pitch, in favour of a men’s team. This article in iNews gives a good insight into the poor funding and lack of resources for the women’s game, compared to the men’s. “The boys are treated like little superstars. When they are at academy level they think they have made it. Girls sometimes feel there is no point,” one parent is quoted as saying.
Despite the recent successes of England’s lionesses, women’s football in Britain still faces an uphill battle.
Clicking the heart, commenting and/or sharing this piece will help other people find my writing. I love to hear your views.
Thanks for reading, and if you haven’t already subscribed, I do hope you will!
Or, if you wish, there is a Wendy’s World tip jar:
Until next time!
© Wendy Varley 2024
England lost to Spain 1–2.
My grandad Tom in his WW1 army uniform. He and nana Ada were engaged during the war and married in 1922.
Fascinating family link. I found this literally while watching the women's cup final. What a contrast with your Nana's days....a full Wembley stadium and women's soccer riding high. They have all the skill of men and much more enthusiasm!
Go Nana Ada! What a tremendous discovery. I learned about Lily Parr and the Dick, Parr Ladies team in @helenlewis book Difficult Women. An inspirational and unexpected piece of women's history.