Meet the women who fought to play the beautiful game
100 years ago, the FA banned women’s football and it wasn’t until the 1960s that a group of pioneering players campaigned to lift the ruling. Here, the sport’s trailblazers tell Kate Thompson how they booted their way into the history books
Ahush fell over the pitch as the Scotland and England players filed out for the first ever women’s international game. It was a freezing day in 1972, there was no slick corporate sponsorship or multi-million pound players. In fact, the Scottish team nearly didn’t make it – their transport didn’t arrive so they had to hitch a lift in a furniture van.
But the women footballers who played at Ravenscraig Stadium, Greenock, near Glasgow, that November day booted their way into the history books.
Only a few years earlier, women were prohibited from playing.
In 1921 the FA banned women’s football – the game was considered unladylike and unfair competition for the men’s game.
Concern had grown since the First World War, when a women’s team from a munitions factory in Preston drew crowds of 53,000. After 1921, women’s football was hidden in the shadows.
Then in 1968 a formidable campaign group was formed to overturn the ban.
Leading the group in Scotland was Elsie Cook, now 75, of Stewarton, East Ayrshire. In the 1970s she was secretary, then manager, of the Scotland Women’s Football team.
“When I was a wee lassie the boys never let the girls join in, but I thought bugger this, I’m going to play,” she says. “Taking a stand against chauvinism and getting girls into football was my calling. Nothing was going to stop me.”
Elsie formed a grassroots women’s football team.
“We begged and borrowed everything. My family held fundraisers and my uncle coached
us,” she says. “There was so much sexism. I ignored it.”
When her uncle quit after a brick was thrown at their van, Elsie took over as coach.
Women’s teams were forming elsewhere, including the Aberdeen Primadonnas and Cambuslang Hooverettes, fighting to play the game they loved.
“England overturned the ban in 1969, but in Scotland we were still banned by the Scottish FA,” says Elsie.
“Then in 1972, Patricia Gregory, secretary of the English Women’s FA asked me to help her organise the first ever official women’s international, Scotland v England.
“England were the better side on the day and beat us 3-2, but we made history and I’m very proud of my part in that.”
In 1974, and a mum of two young
girls, Elsie was made manager of the Scotland women’s team and used her position to lobby for change.
She was jubilant when Scotland finally lifted the ban in 1974.
Lining up to play in that historic 1972 game was Rose Reilly, now 66, also from Stewarton.
She says: “I played with the local boys’ team. I had my hair cut short and changed my name from Rose to Ross, then I heard about Elsie’s team. It was a male-dominated world but no one was stopping me.”
Unable to play football professionally in her own country, Rose moved to Europe and played for
Italian team AC Milan, where she was so successful she was granted Italian citizenship.
In 1983 she was voted best female player in the world.
“I was on cloud nine, but it was a Scottish heart beating under an Italian jersey.”
Rose was the first woman to be inducted in the Scottish football hall of fame and was awarded an MBE, but playing for her country in 1972 remains one of her proudest moments. “I was fulfilling my dreams,” she says.
Facing Rose during that historic match was Sheila Parker, now 74, from Chorley, Lancs, who worked as a receptionist by day and captained the England team at weekends.
“As a kid, I played football with the local lads in Chorley and fell in love with the game,” Sheila says.
“At 24 I was chosen to captain England. Winning that game against Scotland was one of the greatest moments of my life.”
Sheila could play in almost any outfield position – as evidenced by her 51-goal haul in just 14 games for Preston in their title-winning 1975 campaign. She would ultimately win six regional league Division One titles, before retiring in 1980.
“We weren’t in it for the money,” she says. “There wasn’t any. It was all out of pure love of the game.”
Despite their performance on the pitch during that seminal game, the press dubbed them “The Dolly Dribblers of England”.
Recalling the sexism, former England goalkeeper Sue Whyatt, now 65, from Macclesfield, Cheshire, says: “I was told teaching women to play football is like teaching a dog to walk on two legs. It can be done, but it’s not pretty.”
Sue was just 16 when she was selected to be reserve goalkeeper in the Scotland v England game.
“Standing on the pitch in that England shirt was the greatest time of my life. My dad Bert raised me to believe that anything a boy could do, so could I,” she says.
Sue had two glorious years playing for England as goalkeeper, travelling around the world, but had to leave when she joined the police.
“I hope all these women players today realise how good they have it getting paid to play – we had to dip into our pockets,” she says.
“The success of women’s football has been hard won.” Patricia Gregory, now 74, of Wanstead in East London, devoted years of her life to fighting the ban and oversaw the growth of the Women’s Football Association.
She says: “We faced so many obstacles, but you can’t put women down. If we want to do something we will. I hope the money that is being injected today is filtering down to grass roots level to benefit young girls. It’s lovely to see girls have got opportunities, like their brothers.”
Women in Football chief executive Jane Purdon agrees. “We owe so much to the women who came before us, who struggled against the worst kind of sexism to fight for their right, and ours, to be full participants in the beautiful game,” she says.
“The challenge is to keep striving to create the future of football where everyone can thrive and reach their full potential. We’re not there yet.”
We didn’t do it for the money ...there wasn’t any. It was all out of love for the game