Both of these weeks’ readings explored the introduction of women to football. The bunk reading shared the US perspective, and the Williams shared the UK’s perspective on women playing soccer. I thought the vastly different reactions of both places were very fascinating. The UK wanted to put an immediate stop to women post World War I, while the U.S. was intrigued by the idea of women playing soccer, especially in the schools. Women’s soccer in the U.S seemed to be heavily integrated within the college and schooling system. Therefore, drawing the famous UK women’s teams to tour the U.S in 1922. The U.S. brought opportunity and new components to women in the sport.
While the U.S were intergrating women’s soccer into schools, the UK put a full stop to women in the sport in 1921, post world one. They deemed sport “not suitable for the female body.” This example of institutional gatekeeping is really interesting to me since it is a striking contrast compared to women’s soccer in the U.S at this time. It is very clear in the UK that once men came back from war, they felt threatened by the crowds women’s soccer was bringing. I believe that the ban in the UK was strategic and was placed in order to transfer the focus back to men’s football. Post World War I, UK men had no interest in sharing the sport with women. Across the sea in the U.S, soccer was seen completely differently. The sport was refined as a “safe” or a “schoolgirl” sport for women, further supporting the claim that men’s soccer in the UK was threatened by women, therefore causing a ban on women in the sport.
Ultimately, the stark contrast between these two nations reveals the many perspectives on the introduction of women in football. With the U.S bringing curiosity to women in the sport, it was viewed as a “safe” sport and a better alternative to violent sports that were “not suitable for women” at the time. The U.S allowed women in the sport to flourish in an academic setting; on the other hand, in the UK their was a just a complete ban on women in the sport. In conclusion, it is profoundly ironic that the U.S. welcomed women into the sport because it was defined as “safe,” while in the UK, women were banned from playing specifically because the game was labeled as “unsafe” for the female body.
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