Currently there are only two women playing Tommyball with the Tommyball League.
Their names are Jenna Jenkins (Traralgon Titans) and Dr. Melati "Anna" Aisyah (Jakarta Jaguars). Dr. Aisyah's post doctorate from Columbia University makes her the most well-educated woman playing Tommyball.
These two extraordinary women are not alone in playing Tommyball: most women who play Tommyball at the professional level play under the Tommyball Women's League, an independent organization with a history of championing women's rights. Players affectionately nicknamed the sport "Tammyball" after the Women's League founder, Tammy Albert.
Tammy Albert founded the Women's League in 1901 in London after women found themselves sidelined by the official Tommyball League. Eager to prove that women were just as violent and capable of using weapons as men, Tammy Albert began recruiting women from across England, Northern Ireland, Wales, and France. Initially, the women faced anti-French sentiment among British women, but after scoring one thousand doowacky points, the French women were graciously tolerated by the British.
The Women's League, with its violence and demands for women to join the military draft, is often credited as starting the first wave of feminism. Central to the success of the early Women's League was the highly charismatic player, Enid Gwendellin Rees (1919-1927), who played for the Swansea Swamphens and captured the imaginations of women and girls, both on and off the field of play. Rees's powerful speeches at rallies helped the Women's League become officially recognized by Tommyball League proper in 1919.
The Women's League expanded every year since 1919 to include more countries. Currently, over 190 countries compete under the Women's League banner.
Some of the most memorable players include:
Berkeley Lineweaver (1945-1950, Ventura Valkyries, USA), famous for her specialization in the double ninja chucker;
Alice Bird (1966-1971, Kensington Queens, UK), famous for winning the Battle of the Sexes competition against RJ Crawford;
Erica Agnostini (1989-1995, Roman Rice Rats, Italy), famous for scoring the most doowacky points of any woman at the time and the first woman Tommyball millionaire;
Kately Ashley Nicholson (2001-2010, East Enders, UK), who broke the world record for most goals scored in 2009; and
Fatima Naaji (2018-current, Algerian Amazons, Algeria), the first African woman to start her own national team.
Today, women in the Women's League are commonplace and many women have become superstars in their own right.
In March 2007, two transgender women opted to play Tommbyball, but under different leagues. Jenna Jenkins wanted to pay Tommyball with the Tommyball League, which was implicitly a men's league at the time. Alexandria Point wanted to play for the Women's League. When they were welcomed with open arms to their respective teams, fans were quick to pick up on the apparent contradiction: where did transgender women fit on the field? Should they play on the men's league or on the women's league? Audiences, for the most part, claimed in 2019 that they were not expressing disgust at the existence of transgender women athletes; they were just confused.
In an interview at the time, Jenkins said, "I just can't imagine playing for anyone but the [Traralgon] Titans. This is my home. This is my team. This is my choice. I don't want to play with girls, even though I'm a girl; it's a very personal decision. Don't try to psychoanalyze it. I love my teammates. It's as simple as that."
Meanwhile, Alexandria Point criticized Jenna's choice to play with men. "She says she's a woman. I'm a woman, too, and I can't claim to know what it's like to be her, but I think women, even transgender women, should compete with other women. I'm afraid her decision will put trans women in a hole [...] She's going to cause a lot of problems for transsexual athletes."
A commission that included officials from the Tommyball League and the Women's League was quickly formed to hear public opinion. By May, they announced their unanimous vote: Jenkins could play with the Tommyball League and Point could play with the Women's League as they desired. Commissioner Shields announced that they would officially change the Tommyball League to a co-ed organization.
Shields stated, "There is a long history of women and transgender people who played Tommyball prior to 1700, but after the turn of the century, increasingly hostile relations between nations meant that women were forced off the field and transgender men hid who they were."
His comments could not be fact-checked because records about Tommyball have not been released by the League.
The commission's controversial decision to allow transgender women to compete on their desired team caused outrage among a minority of fans who wanted to see Jenkins and Point face off in the same league. Jenkins and Point were targeted heavily by the media, but during the time that their media attention was the most negative, their goal totals increased by 120% and their use of weapons improved by 42 points each.
In response to the controversy, Alex Gerber founded the Trans+ and Nonbinary Friends League in 2008 (also called the "Friends League"). The Friends League was part of the Women's League, not a separate entity. While there were once more than one hundred participants in the Friends League on eight competitive teams, participation quickly deteriorated after the co-ed and women's leagues both announced that they would accept transgender and nonbinary players without subjecting them to special treatment. Every month, the Friends League continued to drop in numbers as quality of play began to suffer. In 2015, the Friends League was re-absorbed into the Women's League, although the leading team from the Friends League, Brighton Your Days, was allowed to stay together. Today, it is generally understood that Brighton Your Days is still intended for transgender and nonbinary players. Notable players include Alex Gerber, Jay Arber, and JJ Grand, Jessie Kallahasseekrytesmia, Jordan Jackson-Hew, and Arin F. Peterson.
The Women's League continues its activism, especially demanding that women be included in all nations' military drafts. They argue that women are just as violent and cruel as men, are just as capable with weapons, and should be called upon during times of need.
So far, no country has listened to the Women's League, but former player and current US Senator Dianne Feinstein has introduced legislation into Congress that would include women in the draft. It is considered her least popular proposal.