[2][3][4] It is impossible to locate the precise moment at which women started playing football, just as much of the history of the men's game is uncertain.

While football in the medieval era is generally believed to have been a men's game, limited evidence suggests that women were occasionally involved.

Sir Philip Sidney briefly mentioned female involvement in his 16th Century poem A Dialogue Betweene Two Shepherds; meanwhile, Mary Queen of Scots was known to have been a spectator of the sport.

A team represented England in a series of matches against Scotland, in 1881 in Edinburgh, Glasgow and the north-west of England, organised by two theatre entrepreneurs and played by members of the theatre community – Lily St. Clare scored the first goal in the first match, a 3–0 win for Scotland at Hibernian Park.

[14][15] However, women footballers in England were not entirely able to operate without prejudice, as evidenced in the way many elected to play under assumed names such as "Mrs Graham", to avoid reprisals for their participation.

In 1885, seeking to curb the more boisterous behaviour of male spectators, Preston North End began offering free admission to women in the hope that their presence would restrain the men.

Notably, a game played in 1895 at the home of Reading and featuring the British Ladies Football Club managed to draw a crowd higher than the previous highest attendance for the men's team.

[19] One of these matches, played at Goodison Park, Liverpool on Boxing Day 1920, attracted a crowd of 53,000, with another 10,000–15,000 reportedly turned away because the ground was full.

[20][21][22] In north east England, the Munitionettes Cup contest in 1917–18 was another very popular event, featuring star goal-scorer Bella Reay.

In 1920, Alfred Frankland liaised with the Federation des Societies Feminine Sportives de France to send a French team to tour England and play the Dick, Kerr's Ladies.

[23][10] In 1921, the Football Association banned all women's teams from playing on Association-affiliated grounds, arguing that the game is "not fitted for females", citing the high costs of player expenses, and alleging financial corruption.

[23][26] It would take a further two years – and an order from UEFA – to force the (men's) Football Association to remove its restrictions on the playing rights of women's teams.

[28] Although the Women's Football Association did much to advance the game, taking an English team to the European Championship Final in 1984, insufficient funds continued to stunt growth at a grassroots level.

Taking the best eight teams following sixteen applications and placing them into a no-relegation single division, the Women's Super League sought to draw greater exposure and funding into the game.

[29] The WSL faced several problems in its early stages, with the league having to be delayed a year until March 2011 due to the lingering financial instability in the aftermath of the 2007 global recession.

Following an abbreviated spring season in 2017, women's football is moving to a parallel calendar to the premier league starting in the fall of 2017.

Along the way, they beat Norway for their first knockout stage win and then host nation Canada in front of a capacity partisan crowd in Vancouver.

Following a devastating loss in the semis against defending champions, Japan, after a Laura Bassett own goal, the team rebounded to beat Germany for the first time in women's football after a 1-0 extra-time win in the third-place game.

[34] This was complemented by other developments, including the launch of the (then semi-professional) FA Women’s Super League and, from 2015, Sport England’s This Girl Can national media campaign.

The largest known English women's attendances to date were recorded at Wembley in that decade, in the 2012 Summer Olympic football final, USA–Japan (80,203) and the England–Germany 2019 friendly (77,768).

This marked the 20th match with Wiegman at the helm, of which England had won 18 and drawn 2, including winning the Arnold Clark Cup that spring.

The most successful are Gwalia United (formerly known as Cardiff City) and the now defunct Barry Town,[needs update] both of which have played in the Women's Premiership.