Celebrating International Women’s Day and Women’s History Month

Whilst 8th March is an important reopening milestone with many of our children going back to school (cue collective cheer and sigh of relief), it also marks another important day, namely International Women’s Day. Additionally, this month is also Women’s History Month. Raiders will be celebrating both these events with a focus on girls’ and women’s football throughout the month.

Women’s football has a longer, and more illustrious, history than most people realise. There were a number of women’s clubs formed in the 1890s and a match between Dick, Kerr’s Ladies and St Helen’s Ladies in 1920 pulled in a crowd of 50,000 spectators. However, in 1921, the FA banned women’s football from its clubs’ grounds as it was deemed “quite unsuitable for females,” a view which, unfortunately, persisted for another 50 years.

100 years later, the women’s game has grown considerably and the Lionesses’ performance at the 2019 FIFA World Cup in France marked a watershed moment for the popularity of the game. This growth has been mirrored within Raiders, from our first female player, Molly Beard, in 2003 until now when we are very proud to have more female youth teams than any other youth football club in England. But, our commitment to girls’ football has only just begun; our ambition is to double girls participation to 500 players by 2025, as well as having more female role models involved as Managers, Coaches, AGCs, Referees, Trustees etc.

We would like to take this opportunity to thank EVERYONE, male and female, who has been involved in promoting girls’ football at Raiders since 2003.

Over the coming weeks, we will be celebrating many of the women and girls who have been instrumental in this growth. We will be posting regularly on our social channels. So, keep an eye out on our Facebook, Instagram and Twitter pages.