Weak Foundations: The Origins of Women’s Football in Spain, 1894–1931

Abstract

In 1914 in Spain, the first recorded football matches played by women took place, although the first media mention of Spanish women playing football dates from 1894. As in other countries, Spanish pioneer women footballers were helped by men who acted as coaches, referees and supportive journalists, and the first female footballers played for the benefit of charitable causes. The origin of women’s football in Spain is a multi-dimensional historical phenomenon that encompasses more than Spanish women playing football. Journalists working for Spanish media reported on foreign female teams practicing the sport abroad and/or touring Spain to play football, and Spanish vaudeville actresses parodied women footballers in real pitches or on theatre stages. The years 1894–1931 provided weak foundations to women’s football in Spain. Spanish women played football (if only sporadically) but only two teams are known with certainty to have existed, and no system of regular contests emerged. As time passed, women footballers faced increasingly ferocious criticism from the printed media. The Spanish case shows that after an early and promising start, the historical process of women’s inclusion into the world of football stalled. The process was not linear, as stagnation and steps backwards followed a hopeful beginning.