A Woman's Game

A Woman's Game
AuthorSuzanne Wrack
Original titleA Woman's Game: The Rise, Fall, and Rise Again of Women's Football
LanguageEnglish
SubjectHistory of women's association football
Publication date16 June 2022
Publication placeUnited Kingdom
Pages256
ISBN9781783352159

A Woman's Game: The Rise, Fall, and Rise Again of Women's Football is a 2022 book by the journalist Suzanne Wrack. It is a history of women's association football in Britain from the Victorian era to the present, and was Wrack's first book.

Reception

Reviewing the book for The Times Literary Supplement, Fiona Skillen wrote that it draws more than 140 years of scattered history into a single narrative. She also wrote that Wrack places the sport within a wider social frame. The boon connects the experiences of women footballers to changes in female employment, legislation protecting women's rights, and access to contraception. Skillen described the history of the women's game as long overlooked.

Writing in The Spectator, Simon Kuper said the decline of women's football can be dated precisely to Boxing Day 1920. When Dick, Kerr Ladies beat St Helens 4–0 at Goodison Park before a sell-out crowd of 53,000. A success he described as intolerable to the The Football Association, which banned the game the following year.

Awards

The book won the Vikki Orvice Award for Women's Sports Writing at the Sports Book Awards in 2023.

References

  1. ↑ Cocozza, Paula (2022-06-22). "A Woman's Game by Suzanne Wrack review – taking back the pitch". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2026-08-15.
  2. ↑ Reid, Melanie. "A Woman's Game by Suzanne Wrack review — the rise, fall and rise again of women's football". Retrieved 2026-08-15.
  3. ↑ "A Woman's Game". Faber. Retrieved 2026-08-07.
  4. ↑ Wrack, Suzanne (2023-06-22). A Woman's Game: The Rise, Fall, and Rise Again of Women's Football. Faber & Faber, Limited. ISBN 978-1-78335-216-6.
  5. ↑ "The overlooked history of women's football". TLS. Retrieved 2026-08-07.
  6. ↑ Kuper, Simon (2022-06-29). "The conspiracy against women's football". The Spectator. Retrieved 2026-08-07.
  7. ↑ "A Woman's Game". Sports Book Awards. Retrieved 2026-08-07.