Carrying forward the legacy of Dick, Kerr’s Ladies FC, there’s perhaps no other club in the world that did more for women’s football than Arsenal Ladies.
It’s 1971. The world is seeing the highest world population increase in history. The Second World War and its numerous aftershocks have slowly faded from prominence, instead making themselves comfortable in a deep, unerasable layer of communal memory. The first ever one-day-international cricket match is played between England and Australia at the Melbourne Cricket Ground. Walt Disney World in central Florida opens for general public. Switzerland allows its women to vote for the first time. Arsenal Football Club achieve the first Double in their history under the management of Bertie Mee when they defeat Liverpool 2-1 to clinch the FA Cup. Oh and the FA finally lifts their 50 year ban on women’s football.
It isn’t immediately clear whether the Women’s Football Association (WFA), formed in 1969, who fought for equal right to play had any bearing, or whether it was the UEFA recommendation in 1971 that the women’s game be taken under the leadership of each country’s national association, but there you have it. It was an incredibly important, but slow and frustrating start since the WFA was a voluntary organisation with limited resources, and games were regularly cancelled or rescheduled even at the very top. It also meant that there weren’t enough resources to create female “player pathways”, like the ones which existed for the boys at the grassroots. But it was a start, and in November 1972, led by Sheila Parker, England women’s national football team played their first official match in Greenock, beating Scotland 3-2.
A century ago, almost to the day, on November 30, 1872, their menfolk had gathered in nearby Partick. Part of Glasgow, on the north bank of the River Clyde, Partaig, as it’s called in Scottish Gaelic, would forever be known as the birthplace of international football. The match, which took place between familiar foes England and Scotland at the West of Scotland Cricket Club’s ground, ended in a 0-0 draw in front of 4000 fans. Women’s football was trailing by a century – where’s the challenge in that?