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Women in Football, Part 2:
Leith Ladies

Leith Ladies Football Team, from Leith, Edinburgh. The picture was taken at an away game at Kirkcaldy, Fife in 1938. Peggy Fox is third from the left in the back row.

Women have played football since the early days of the game in the nineteenth century. They did not always have the approval of the Scottish Football Association, formed in 1873. This did not stop them, although it did mean that they were not able to play with men's teams or, from 1921, on pitches that were owned by Association men's teams.

In the early part of the twentieth century women were inferior citizens, with no voting rights until 1918 and lower pay for years longer. Their inferiority was often called 'femininity', and was encouraged. Some sports, like football, were not regarded as 'feminine', and were discouraged.

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