On International Women's Day, we sat down with Club Secretary and Head of Football Operations Ann Hough about her illustrious career in football.
Spending over 30 years at fellow Yorkshire club, Huddersfield Town, Ann has experienced all levels of the EFL and has overseen a stadium move, Premier League football and worked with numerous ownership structures.
Ann's tenure has seen her take up many different roles during her time in West Yorkshire, starting as Assistant Club Secretary and progressing to being a member of the Terriers' board. However, the footballing landscape was very different for females when Ann's career was in its junior.
"There were very few women in senior roles at Football League level," she reflected. "I was very fortunate in that the Club Secretary that I was working for at the time, Alan Sykes, he was very much for putting me out of the comfort zone and taking me to meetings with the EFL and the FA. So it was a case of learning on the job and I had to be quite strong at times.
"When I first started out I was invited to a 'gents' sporting event which was in Huddersfield. I was the only female attending the event, I went in the capacity as Club Secretary. I couldn't actually go into the bar with everybody because women weren't allowed in that bar.
"One of the first matches that I went to in the boardroom, I wasn't able to go into the boardroom, I had to go into the 'ladies' room. But that has changed. There are so many women in high-profile positions in football clubs and industry in general, now."
Catch the full interview with Ann on iFollow Barnsley!
