‘A Man’s Game for All the Family’ – this was the advertising slogan used to promote rugby league by the Rugby Football League in the 1980s. Although the RFL considered it a clever marketing ploy to promote the sport’s toughness whilst emphasising its wholesome, family appeal, the slogan laid bare rugby league’s gendered, physically brutal, masculine nature.
It also did a disservice to the women who, before rugby’s great split in 1895, made vital contributions to rugby league and its communities. Those women, as spectators, volunteers, fundraisers, shareholders, administrators, wives, mothers, and players, helped to keep the sport afloat through war, economic depression and the deindustrialisation of the North of England.
Written by Dr Victoria Dawson, Historian of Women’s Involvement in Rugby league and an Honorary Research associate at University College London.
The Angel in the Public House: Isabella Boardman
Perhaps the earliest example of a woman in organised rugby is Isabella Boardman, who was the landlady of the Bridge Inn in Salford.The Female Gaze
For as long as rugby has been played women have been there to watch.On the Pitch and in the Street
Wherever there has been a ball you can be sure that a woman or girl will have kicked or passed it.
Interwar Supporters’ Clubs
Prior to World War One clubs organised events to raise emergency funds to clear debts, but the economic depression of the inter-war years saw rugby league follow soccer and take up the supporters’ club movement.
Teaching the Game
Women school teachers played a big role in encouraging boys to play.
Shareholders, Shirtmakers and Secretaries
Surviving financial records show several women investing in rugby league clubs in England and Wales as early as 1907.
Rugby League Queens
From 1950 some of the most prominent women in the sport were the Rugby League.
Workington’s Wonder Women
It was 1953 before women took to the pitch to play the first organised games of rugby league.
Breakthroughs & Bans
The 1960s brought cultural change to Britain, and rugby league was not immune as more women started to push their way to the fore.
The Eternal Heroines
Many other women, whether they liked it or not, contributed to the sport because they were the wives or mothers of those who played or worked in the sport.
