The Women's Challenge Cup was set up in 2012[1] to run alongside the men's competition to give women's rugby teams more competitive games and to give the sport a bigger profile by attaching it to the Challenge Cup.

[2] In 2018 the competition started to receive a much higher profile, with the final being broadcast live on the BBC Sport website.

[6][7] In the 2021 competition, entry was restricted to the ten teams in the Super League.

[8] The following year the competition expanded to 16 teams (12 Super League, three Championship and one Super League South) and a group stage was introduced with the top two teams from the four groups advancing to the quarter-final stage.

[9] Between 2012 and 2019 teams that were knocked out of the cup in the early rounds went on to compete in the Challenge Shield competition.