Many athletes’ dream is to reach a professional league. The National Basketball Association, National Football League and Major League Baseball have offered high levels of play for male athletes since the 19th century. Conversely, there were no women’s sports leagues until the mid-20th century, when the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League (AAGBPL) was formed. 

Even before professional soccer leagues were formed, the United States Women’s National Soccer Team (USWNT) competed in international competitions. The team played its first official match against Italy in 1985. Six years later, the team won its first World Cup, making them the victors of the first ever official Women’s World Cup.

Since their initial World Cup triumph, the USWNT has won three additional World Cup titles and five Olympic gold medals, including 1996 — the first year women’s soccer was included in the games. These international successes helped establish the successful presence of women’s soccer in the United States.

Following the success of women’s soccer, the Women’s United Soccer Association (WUSA), the first professional soccer league for women, initiated play in 2001 and collapsed in 2003. Women’s Professional Soccer (WPS), another unsuccessful and short-lived league, followed the WUSA and collapsed in 2011. Despite the financial problems that caused the league to fail, the WPS built a foundation for female athletes and for a new league: the National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL). 

Formed in 2012, the NWSL continues to play now. In 2025, the NWSL added two new teams in Denver and Boston. The original eight teams located in Boston, Chicago, Kansas City, Portland, Seattle, New Jersey, Washington D.C. and Western New York expanded into 16 teams at the beginning of 2026. The number of teams doubling since the league’s founding is representative of the growth of women’s soccer in the United States. With greater playing opportunities for female soccer players, the pool of players in the United States has expanded, increasing the skill level of professional club teams and the USWNT.

The growth of the NWSL mirrors the growth of other women’s professional leagues, like the Women’s National Basketball Association and the Professional Women’s Hockey League, both of which have also added teams in recent years. The growth of women’s sports in the United States as a whole is largely connected to the 1972 passage of Title IX of the Education Amendments, which prohibited sex-based discrimination in federally funded institutions. Title IX expanded access to athletics in schools for women, which, in turn, provided more opportunities for women in athletics and beyond.

The NWSL will begin its 2026 season in March and continue until early November. The USWNT will participate in the SheBelieves Cup, the Concacaf Women’s Cup and several international friendlies. Players from the NWSL and other international women’s leagues will be called up to the national team to play in these games in hopes of qualifying for the 2027 Women’s World Cup and the 2028 Summer Olympics, further advancing the influence of women’s soccer in the United States.