Constance Cole – The Second Scorer

Gibbs, Stuart (2024) Constance Cole – The Second Scorer. The Hive Journal (2). pp. 1-10. ISSN 2977-3954

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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.