The battlefield carnage during the Great War created an urgent
need for women to move into traditionally male roles within industry,
particularly in the manufacture of munitions. The response from female
society was overwhelming, and by the latter stages of the war women formed
a majority of the workforce. For many of them this was a liberating
experience, as they pushed back the boundaries of social conventions, not
only in the workplace, but in their recreational activities too. The most
dramatic manifestation of their new-found confidence was the emergence of
the Munition Girls football teams. Nowhere was this phenomenon stronger
than in north east England, where in two short years women's football
progressed from comic kickabouts to serious and skilled play at
international level. This is the story of those pioneering women
footballers - the Munitionettes.