Constance Cole – The Second Scorer by Stuart Gibbs

Article Information

Published: 2024
Type: brief communication (2,000 – 5,000 words)
Author(s): Stuart Gibbs
ISSN: 2977-3954
DOI:https://doi.org/10.60844/bmwg-9v10
Download: Full Article

Abstract

This article covers the initial development of women’s association football using the biography of Constance Cole as an entry point to explore the birth of the women’s game in more detail. The first public match globally of women’s association football took place in Edinburgh in 1881 just over a decade after the sport had been established as a male bastion during the early 1870s. The impetus for the first association matches came from the entertainment industry with many of the organisers and players having a prominent role in theatre or popular entertainment. This article will focus on the relationship between popular entertainment and women’s football and the environment in which women’s sport was conducted, to gain an insight the experience of performers and managers on the periphery of popular entertainment.

Keywords

Sports Entertainment; History; Entrepreneurs; Theatre; Women’s Football

Biography

Stuart Gibbs is a PhD candidate in the Department of History, Politics and Philosophy. His research project explores how the entertainment industry has influenced the development of women’s football. Having started this project in April 2022, Stuart has made good progress in establishing the context in which women engaged in sports and sports entertainment, and in developing the biographies of prominent figures within the development of women’s association football. Before joining the PhD programme, Stuart worked as a researcher on Mapping Irish Football, Great War Theatre and Miracle Workers projects. His articles on women’s football have featured in Playing Pasts, Outside Write and Football and War online publications, and he has contributed a journal paper to Studies in Arts and Humanities, entitled When Women’s Football Came to the Island. Stuart recently wrote about his PhD research for the Man Met Doctoral Research Blog, and he has produced a chapter on early women’s football for A History of Women’s Football in Britain and Ireland, due to be published later this year. Man Met Doctoral Research Blog: Following the History of Women’s Football in Glasgow – Doctoral Studies at Manchester Met.