The museum will be launching its new exhibition about women’s football in Bradford prior to the Dagenham and Redbridge match. A presentation about the history of the women’s game will take place at 1.30pm.
Although women’s football dates back to at least 1895, it was the Preston based Dick Kerr’s Ladies team who popularised the women’s game. They began playing matches to raise money for charities at the end of the First World War. They became a national institution and their success lead to the formation of hundreds of clubs.
In April 1921 Manningham Ladies, made up of workers from Lister’s Mill, was formed to play Dick Kerr’s in a charity match at Valley Parade. Despite only being formed six weeks before the match, the Manningham Ladies gave a good account of themselves, but the visitors ran out comfortable winners. More importantly, the ten thousand crowd raised £900 for Bradford hospitals and the Earl Haigh Fund.
The match inspired the formation of another Bradford team, Hey’s Ladies who were based at a Lumb Lane brewery. They also lost to Dick Kerr’s at Valley Parade, but helped raise £184 for the lifeboat fund. However, Hey’s went onto establish themselves as the leading team in Yorkshire.
The rising popularity of women’s football was viewed with unease at the Football Association. When Dick Kerr’s played several matches to aid striking miners, the FA decided to act. In December 1921 they banned women from playing on Football League grounds. The FA statement said: “The game of football is quite unsuitable for females and ought not to be encouraged." In reality, it was a combination of sexism and politics that lead to the banning of the women’s game.
The games moved to rugby and athletic grounds. Hey’s played several games at Greenfield Stadium at Dudley Hill. The highlight was a match against Olympique de Paris, which was played in aid of Reims Cathedral Restoration Fund and the Bradford Hospital Fund. There was even a cup competition played against teams from all over Yorkshire.
However, the FA ban slowly stifled the women’s game. It remained in place for fifty long years. Even after it was lifted in 1971, it was a decade before the game really began to recover. The 1980s saw an explosion of interest with many clubs, including Bradford City WFC, being formed.
The Women’s World Cup of 1999 in the USA, followed by the 2005 tournament in England, re-established the women’s game in the public mind. Today, football is the most popular participation sport among girls and women in Britain.
