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There is no reason why football should not be played by women, and played well, too. — Nettie Honeyball
The above-quoted statement by Nettie precisely reflects the mindset of a woman with a rock-solid will, who didn't just introduce the game of football to women but set in motion a revolution that changed the entire course of
Victorian society, prevalent in those times in England.
It is not known when or where “Nettie Honeyball” was born. Her real name may have been Mary Hutson. “Nettie” seems to have come from a middle-class family in Pimlico, South London.
In 1894, when Nettie first began putting ads in the classifieds looking for fellow female footballers to start a team, she was doing so with one very ambitious goal: “proving to the world that women are not the ‘ornamental and useless creatures men have pictured.”
She wasn’t alone in sharing this goal; in 1895, an entire team of women had responded to Nettie’s ads. Together, they formed the British Women’s Football Club, the first of its kind in the world. They scandalized Victorian England with their attire (collared shirts! pants!! SHIN GUARDS!!!) but drew crowds to their matches, heralding the start of a new century and the dawn of changing attitudes.
What happened to Nettie, later?
Because she used a pseudonym to play, nothing is known about her after 1895.
However, her legacy is important, as she and the team she founded kept playing, even when they were heckled and told that they were a novelty.
Their existence created an opportunity for women who loved watching football to also play the game and also sparked conversations around the women’s rights movement.
Women football indeed owes its life to Nettie!
(To be continued)