Field hockey is one of the few early sports where women were allowed to engage in strenuous activity and actually compete in a team athletic situation and for some time in the second half of the 19th century, it was considered the 'only proper team sport for women'. 

A women's club was started in Surrey, England in 1887 and the first national association, the Irish Ladies Hockey Union, emerged in Dublin seven years later. The international governing body for women's hockey, the International Federation of Women's Hockey Associations (IFWHA), was formed in 1927. Despite the restrictions on sports for ladies during the Victorian era (cumbersome clothing, what kinds of activity women were supposed to partake in etc.), hockey became increasingly popular among women and by the end of the 19th century, women's hockey had spread to New Zealand, South Africa, The Netherlands, Germany, Switzerland and elsewhere in the world. 

Ironically, even though field hockey served as a liberator for women's sports, and although women's teams had played regular 'friendly' games since 1895, serious international competition did not begin until the 1970s. The first Women's World Cup was held in 1974, and women's hockey only became an Olympic event in 1980.