Unfortunately, sports has a long and controversial history of sexism and inequality. For a long time professional sporting was considered for men only. Thankfully this has become less of an issue and times are changing.
But as times change it is always still important to look back and remember the beginnings: the first women to play professionally. Or the women who had an early significant influence in women’s sporting history.
These are the sportswomen who broke early barriers and challenged the status quo.
The following article will list the five most popular sports worldwide, and with each sport we will take a look at some of the first (or earliest) women to play professionally for that sport.
Table of Contents
Soccer
Technically women have been playing soccer (or football, as half the world also calls it) since the sport was first created. And women were playing matches as part of leagues as early as the 1800’s. For example, there was a women’s match recorded by The Scottish Football Association in 1892.
But the individual sportswoman this article will be focusing on is the elusive figure known only as ‘Nettie Honeyball’. This name, ‘Nettie Honeyball’, was actually a pseudonym (as well as a pun) and the woman’s real name is still unknown.
‘Nettie Honeyball’ was the captain and a player for the British Ladies’ Football Club, which ‘Nettie’ also founded in 1895. The Club’s first game brought in over 12,000 audience members and a lot of interviews, photographs, and journalists. Unfortunately, the Club also faced its share of negative reception.
Just two months after the club’s first game ‘Nettie’ disappeared. The club still played on for a while afterward, but ‘Nettie’ never reappeared.
Cricket
Like soccer, cricket actually has a long history of women players. Women used to compete against the other women of neighboring villages in England as early as 1700’s. The White Heather Club was the first recorded women’s cricket club and was created in 1887, Yorkshire England.
One of the earliest sportswomen to have a great impact on this sport was Elizabeth “Betty” Alexandra Snowball.
Snowball played cricket internationally for the England women’s cricket team from 1934 to 1949. She also played squash and lacrosse for Scotland internationally.
In 1935, Snowball scored 189 runs in 222 minutes while playing an international game against New Zealand, in Christchurch. This number of innings set a new world record for the highest individual innings in women’s Test cricket. Snowball’s impressive record was held for nearly 50 years.
Field Hockey
Field hockey is another sport that has had another long history of women players and teams. In fact, in the US hockey is one of the few sports that was not dominated by male players – field hockey was mostly played by women.
Field hockey was actually first introduced into the US by a woman named Constance Applebee.
Constance Applebee was originally born in Essex, England. The sport was already quite popular in England, but Constance showed the sport to her classmates while she was attending women’s colleges in the US. From there the sport took off.
Applebee went on to co-create the American Field Hockey Association, and she served as its head for 20 years. She also served as the athletic director at Bryn Mawr College for 24 years. Applebee also went on to establish Sportswoman magazine.
With all these precious achievements, is it any wonder she was admitted into the International Women’s Sports Hall of Fame in 1991?
Tennis
The history of sportswomen in tennis is quite impressive in its own right. I’m sure more than one scholar has been able to write a thesis for their sports journalism masters on this very subject.
The history of tennis has had such empowering women as Billie Jean King, to Serena Williams, Venus Williams, and still many more. Each of these women have broken barriers or have helped to challenge the status quo in their own way.
But this article will be singling out Ellen Hansell.
Ellen Hansell was the first women’s singles champion of the U.S. National Women’s Singles tournament in 1887. She kept her title only a single year, and lost to her competitor Bertha Townsend the following year, 1988.
Hansell was inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame in 1965.
Ellen Hansell challenged the status quo by carving a place for women in professional sports, and contributing to their overall empowerment.
Volleyball
Similar to some of the previous sportswomen on this list, Flora Jean “Flo” Hyman is not the first professional woman for her sport. But Hyman broke barriers by being the first professional African American volleyball player.
During the height of her career Hyman was the US face of this sport, she is still ranked among some of the greatest volleyball players in the world.
In 1981 Hyman was drafted to the six-member all-World Cup team at the World Cup in Tokyo. In 1982 Hyman represented the United States in the World Volleyball Championships. Later, Hyman won a silver medal for the US at the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles
In 1988 Hyman was an advocate for the Civil Rights Restoration Act, which improved safeguards against sexual discrimination in high school and college sports programs.
Many of the sports on this list have had a long history of women players, and so in some cases it has been hard to distinguish the first professional woman for each sport. So in most cases we have tried to single out one of the earliest professional sports women for each sport. This should not lessen their achievements.
By being among the earliest influences in their sports, the women on this list were also among the first to challenge the status quo.
