Kate Osborne MP: Women’s football is inspiring a generation of girls into the game

I spent time at Whitemere Primary School in Wardley for their International Women’s Day Let Girls Play event as part of the Football Association campaign and to talk to them about their wall of wonderful women!

Although I wasn’t able to take part in any strenuous physical activity following my recent surgery, it was lovely to speak to the Year Six’s about their favourite women with answers ranging from Dame Kelly Holmes, Jill Scott, Anne Frank, to their mam! Nationwide, 42% of schools took part in the FA’s campaign with 300,000 girls playing football – I'd like to see even more local schools take part next year and will be working with the FA to ensure we get even more involved.

It was also great to see our local football clubs get right behind International Women’s Day and the FA’s Let Girls Play campaign.

Football is a great unifier, it helps break down barriers, tackle racism and sexism, it goes beyond classes, borders and languages. It unites people locally and globally, bringing a sense of community and social cohesion that is really needed right now – and we are seeing women’s football take up that challenge and change the world for women and girls.

We have come a long way in the last five years and an even longer way since women's football was banned because kicking a ball was bad for women's health…

The damage that 50 year ban on women's football inflicted on societal attitudes and women's health cannot be underestimated and as a constituency with such a rich heritage we shouldn’t ever forget that it was the wives of miners in Wigan back in 1921 who organised a match against the next door village of Abram – the first wave of so called “pea soup” matches played and organised by women to raise money for the soup kitchens. These matches were played across the North East – yet in the same year football's governing body banned women's football as it was “quite unsuitable for females.”

Although there is still some push back (just recently I was told women and girls won’t play football in the rain... a ridiculous statement that you would have expected to have heard back in 1921) most local teams and communities are embracing women's football.

Hebburn Town FC is an excellent example, they have a significant women’s presence at all levels of the club with 151 women and girls players, 12 junior sides and a senior women’s team. There are also 10 women volunteer coaches and a whole host of women volunteers who provide valuable service on matchdays and beyond.

Hebburn Town, like so many of our local clubs, do great work in our community and it made me proud to see how invested they are in the local area and find out about what they are doing to promote inclusivity, including women and girls attending the match for free on Saturday.

Women's and girls’ football continues to grow and develop, fuelled by the success of the Lionesses who have become European champions and World Cup finalists in recent years – and of course it is not just on the pitch we see more women behind the scenes and in front of the camera working in football and across all sports from presenters, commentators to trainers and production.

So much progress has been made to develop the women’s game, with the FA Women’s Super League going from strength to strength as it increases its exposure, and the Euros and World Cup finals playing in front of capacity crowds.

We have some brilliant clubs that are invested in the local community, including South Shields FC, Jarrow FC, Gateshead, Boldon Colts, Boldon Girls and more, and I look forward to continuing my support for grassroots football locally and nationally as the Chair of the APPG for Women’s football.

We in the North East love our football and we saw the brilliant impact of England hosting the Women’s Euros in 2022, bringing communities together and showing the very best of our country to the world, inspiring a generation of girls into the game, all whilst boosting the economy.

Last week we saw the announcement that England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have expressed an interest to host the Women’s World Cup in 2035, this is amazing news and if successful it would be the first Women’s World Cup held in the UK.

I hope that you will also pop down and watch one of the wonderful local teams – we’ve got so much to be proud of and they deserve our support!