Women’s Football in a Global, Professional Era is an important addition to discussions on sport as work for women, and an essential reference point for students, researchers and sports professionals interested in the debates around the professionalisation of women’s football internationally.

Women’s Football in a Global, Professional Era is an important addition to discussions on sport as work for women, and an essential reference point for students, researchers and sports professionals interested in the debates around the professionalisation of women’s football internationally.

This collection considers women's football in a global context and analyses its progress, and the challenges and problems it has faced.

The global increase in viewership of and participation in women’s football means that, to continue with this growth, we need to appreciate the specific scientific and health issues that determine successful performance for women. Women’s Football provides a thorough, yet straightforward and accessible, analysis of the key physiological, biomechanical and social-psychological issues that can be applied to achieve women’s footballing development. This cutting-edge text puts developing elite women footballers at the front and centre of its core aim, through the delivery of evidence-based, scientific information focusing on best practice. As such, each chapter is co-written, where possible, by a scholar and a practitioner or player (e.g., coach, footballer), meaning the scientific principles and research presented within are translated clearly into practice. Women’s Football is essential reading for anyone who is involved with the game, including footballers themselves, as well as strength and conditioning coaches, physiotherapists, medics, nutritionists, sport psychologists, sports scientists, coaches, coach developers, technical directors, general managers, governing body personnel and club owners, from grassroots to elite level. The book is also invaluable to students and academics in sport and exercise, who are studying this topic.

Can we truly call football England's 'national' game? How have we arrived at this point of such clear inequality between men's and women's football? Between 1921 and 1972, women were banned from playing in football League grounds in the UK. Yet in 1998 FIFA declared that "the future is feminine" and that football was the fastest growing sport for women globally. The result of several years of original research, the book traces the continuities in women's participation since the beginnings of the game, and highlights the significant moments that have influenced current practice. The text provides: *insight into the communities and individual experiences of players, fans, investors, administrators and coaches *examination of the attitudes and role of national and international associations *analysis of the development of the professional game *comparisons with women's football in mainland Europe, the USA and Africa. A Game for Rough Girls is the first text to properly theorize the development of the game. Examining recreational and elite levels, the author provides a thorough critique, placing women's experience in the context of broader cultural and sports studies debates on social change, gender, power and global economics.

A compelling and comprehensive history charting the rise, fall, and rise again of women's soccer Women's soccer is a game that has so often been relegated to the margins in a world fixated on gender differences above passion and talent. It is a game that could attract 50,000 fans to a stadium in the 1920s, was later banned by England's Football Association grounds for being "unsuitable for females", and has emerged as a global force in the modern era with the US Women's National Team leading the charge. A Woman's Game traces this arc of changing attitudes, increasing professionalism, and international growth. Veteran journalist Suzanne Wrack has crafted a thoroughly reported history which pushes back at centuries of boundaries while celebrating the many wonders that women's soccer has to offer. With the enormous success of the World Cup, 82 million US viewers for the USWNT against Netherlands in the 2019 World Cup Final, enlightened and outspoken players like Megan Rapinoe helping raise the profile of the game across the world, and a fully professional top-tier league going from strength to strength in both the US and the UK, the time cannot be better for this in-depth look at the beautiful game.

A complete history of women’s football in Great Britain, from its Victorian games beginning in 1881 to 2022 and planning for the Euro Finals. In The History of Women’s Football, author Jean Williams demonstrates how women’s football began as a professional sport, and has only recently returned to these professional roots in the UK. This is because there was a fifty-year Football Association ‘ban’ on women playing on pitches affiliated to the governing body in England. The other British associations followed suit. Why was women’s football banned in 1921? Why did it take until 1969 for a Women’s Football Association to form? Why did it take until 1995 for England to qualify for a Women’s World Cup? Answers to these key questions are supplemented across the chapters by personal accounts of the players who defied the ban, at home and abroad, along with the personal costs, and rewards, of being footballing pioneers. Praise for The History of Women’s Football “This book was very informed, detailed and a very good read. As a football fan, I was staggered by how much I didn’t know and how if football had been better supported at the beginning of the century there is a good chance women’s football would be on a par with the men’s game now . . . this was a very interesting read and I would happily recommend this book to fellow football fans.” —UK Historian