The Women's National League was founded in 2004 and, unlike its male counterpart, the teams were run by the different regional federations. It has a brief hiatus in 2008 before returning in 2009 and including not only the regional federations but different team New Zealand Football Development teams run by New Zealand Football. In 2021, it went through another change, moving slowly to club based like the men's competition, starting with a Northern League where four club teams will qualify and play off with the regional federations representing Central, Capital, Mainland and Southern.