A timeline of PROGRESS (and regress) in women's soccer

AUGUST 1869

Harper's Bazaar publishes an ink sketch, "The Girls of the Period—Playing Ball," depicting fashionably dressed young ladies having a kick-about.

1880

1900

1920

1921

The women's game is banned in England on the grounds that it's unhealthy. The ban lasts 50 years.

JUNE 23, 1972

President Richard Nixon signs Title IX, banning sex-based discrimination in federally aided activities.

1970

1975

1980

1985

JULY 1970

Denmark wins the first (unofficial, non-FIFA-sponsored) women's world championship in a field of eight teams, beating host Italy 2--0. They repeat a year later.

OCTOBER 1984

The Dallas Sting wins the first FIFA women's world tourney, in China. No U.S. team, men's or women's, had previously won a major international event.

1985

AUGUST 1985

U.S. Soccer selects its first official women's national team.

MAY 1986

Norway's Ellen Wille, the first female to address a FIFA Congress, calls on the mostly male outfit to promote women's soccer.

JUNE 1988

Testing the idea of a women's World Cup, FIFA holds an invitational event in China. Its success sets up World Cup '91.

1990

NOVEMBER 1991

The U.S. women beat Norway 2--1 to win that World Cup, in China. The USWNT will win again in '99 and 2015.

AUGUST 1996

Women's soccer debuts at the Olympics in Atlanta, with Mia Hamm and the U.S. beating China 2-1 in the final for gold.

2000

APRIL 2001

WUSA, the first female pro soccer league in the United States, kicks off with eight teams ... and folds two years later.

2010

MAY 2013

FIFA, following a historic election, adds three women (the first ever) to its executive committee.

OCTOBER 2014

Forty-plus players file (and later drop) a lawsuit against FIFA over its decision to play the '15 Women's World Cup on artificial turf.

2015

MARCH 2019

Twenty-eight members of the USWNT file a class action suit against U.S. Soccer, alleging gender discrimination.

2020