"Ladies in the football field!" proclaimed one incredulous headline in 1895. "Lady footballers?" sneered another. And the papers were filled with satirical cartoons depicting women on the pitch with restrictive bodicesThe close-fitting upper part of a dress. and flouncyLoose, material-heavy and mobile. skirts.

The 1880s and 1890s saw the first established women's football teams, as women fought to be included in the sport which had long been regarded as too rough and masculine for them. But it inspired such outrage that the audience violently charged the pitches at their earliest games in 1881 and threw projectiles at the teams.

A ban on English women's football by the FAThe Football Association is the governing body of football in England and the Channel Islands. It was founded in 1863. was in place until 1971. And England did not establish a fully professional women's football league until as late as 2018.

But yesterday, England's Lionesses did the country proud after bounding to a rousingExciting; moving; interesting. victory against Australia in the Women's World Cup semi-finals. They are on the brink of England's first World Cup win since 1966, for either the men's or women's teams.

The Lionesses have broken record after record since crashing onto the scene, with some arguing that they far outpaceOutperform; perform better. the men's team.

And yet women in football are paid much less, with a gender pay gap worse than in politics, space and medicine. The average Women' Super League player earns just £47,000 per year compared to an estimated average of £5 million for male Premier League players - meaning that men earn almost 100 times what women earn in the same profession.

But for some, the success of the Lionesses signifies a seismicOf enormous size or effect. shift which could trigger a movement towards gender equality in the sport. The match drew a record-breaking crowd, increasing on the global trend towards women's sport in recent years. They say that it is only a matter of time until women's sports become level with men's.

Yes: Women have long fought for the privilege to play sports on an equal basis with men, and we are rapidly progressing towards that goal. Today's victory showed that we need to support and uplift women's teams.

No: How could this be a historic win for gender equality when football is famed for being such an exploitative sport? Besides, it adds nothing to women's rights and opportunities on the other side of the world.

Or... Since the problem was never with women's playing, the success of women's teams will not help to dismantle the patriarchal structures that hold women's sport back. We will only have equality in sport when we have equality in every other area of life.