To wonder why communal parks are so biased towards boys

[arethereanyleftatall]

Looking around our parks, it occurred to me all the normal type equipment paid for by the council is geared towards a certain type of play.
You tend to see a slide/swing type area (great for everyone) plus football goals, skate parks, and basketball hoops.
Of course either sex could play on the last 3, and do, but in general, these 3 types of equipment are occupied by boys.
Or, let's take sex out of it - these 3 types of equipment are played with by energetic/sporty/rough and tumble type children.
Where's the community stuff for the children who prefer more gentle/imaginative role play/dance games.
Where's the netball courts, the fairy houses?
I'm actually not even sure what you would build to make it more even, but at our local park yesterday.... 8 approximately 10 year old boys playing football; about 10 teenage boys on the skate park;basketball hoop unused; swing area equal girls/boys.

Also the skate parks etc have both girls and boys on them where I live. The young girls look better than the boys at it..... must be the Skye Brown effect. My DS is only 4 and he has no notion that skateboarding is for "boys" because he's only seen videos of Skye brown doing it!!

@arethereanyleftatall

Thanks *@berlinbabylon* You could use the basketball hoop for a netball hoop, but its just the single hoop. It occurred to me - I have never ever seen a full netball court marked out in a community park, and yet there's full football pitches everywhere.

In my city, the public football pitches are a big income generator for the council with the amateur leagues paying a lot of money to use the weekend. The pitches are only marked out during the season and the goalposts are removed during the summer. It’s economics, not discrimination

It's not necessarily things like fairy doors which make parks and playgrounds more relevant to girls. Before reading the research, I hadn't really thought about it much but it was interesting to read about the small changes which can be made which girls say they would like - more round seating so that friends can chat face to face rather than benches, more swings, no one high focal point which can be used as a point of dominance.

The reason girls don’t play football in the park is that boys won’t let them join in. My dd2 is a decent player (in a team) but has given up trying to join in park games as it’s either a flat out no or a refusal to notice she exists. It’s hard to find enough girls to make up a scratch park game, so just just plays at formal practices and matches.

Only exception is if she knows the boys from school, and then sometimes they will let her join in, depending who it is.

And yes, Make Space for Girls are great!

If there was a plain concrete rectangle, and a group of boys and girls were using it for making up a dance, how likely is it that they'd still be there after the football playing kids say they need the space for football?

@621CustardCream438

If you built little houses/huts around here (and this isn’t an especially awful area) they would smell of wee, be slept in, occupied by late night drinkers and drug takers, teens would take them over, the doors would be pulled off etc.

Slides and basketball hoops are more robust and don’t facilitate antisocial behaviour.

Exactly this.

I'm the first to complain about inequality but there are other factors at play here.

Exercise is not boy-specific.

And suggesting girls would like a 'fairy house' is ridiculous. The park is for outdoor exercise: climbing, jumping, sliding, swinging. When I was little I loved these things, and I am not a boy. From spending a good proportion of my DC's young life in playgrounds, I would say there were equal numbers of boys and girls - of course, exercise is enjoyed equally by all kids.

These things are not boy-specific. YABVU.

You are right, OP. I know my local councillor quite well and have often bent her ear about the fact that our council has provided some fabulous facilities - basketball pitches and skateparks - which are rarely if ever used by girls. The space and the budget are given over to boys by default.

I’m going to send her the link to MakeSpaceForGirls.

Sorry, was interrupted! So I don't really see why gender comes into it at all. At our park, we have a full size basketball courts which can be used for netball and also has inbuilt football goals, tennis courts, outdoor gym, table tennis, plenty of trees that are good for climbing and dens, play park. My bugbear was the bowling green that was never used. It's now a gorgeous wildflower garden with insect hotels etc

'Fairy house' for girls is the most gender stereotyping thing I've seen in a post about equal rights - totally bizarre. Girls don't need fairy houses, they love sliding and swinging and jumping and climbing.
OP, should the fairy house be pink?

For me personally OP we have a bigger problem with the number of girls who are reluctant to engage in rigorous energetic exercise.

I want my daughter getting her heart rate up playing football and basketball, not looking at fairy doors.

And before everyone starts chiming in about netball, I won't be encouraging netball, which was invented to basically have less movement (you can't run with the ball etc) so as to be "socially appropriate" for women. Urgh.

There are as many teenage girls as boys that hang around in the skate park.

But are the girls actively participating in the skating in an equal number to the boys?

Or are they hanging around the fringes as onlookers and accessories to a male-centred activity?

Saying that girls are free to use the football pitches and skateparks if they choose too is completely missing the point. First of all, the behaviour of many teenage boys will be hugely off-putting to many teenage girls. We know this, and cannot just say NABALT.

Secondly, why should girls have to fit their interests around those of boys? Why should only the girls that happen to enjoy football and skating (and good for them) have their needs explicitly catered for?

Lots of the ideas on that make spaces for girls website are not very active.

Seating, hammocks, bars to hang on. A focus on socialising.

These are not going to get young women running and jumping and getting a sweaty getting their heart rates up, which is what is needed.

There are some really good ideas of outdoor spaces for girls on the make space website: makespaceforgirls.co.uk/what-does-better-look-like/

No fairy houses but it does acknowledge that girls and boys often interact with one another in different ways.

Let's not pretend that doesn't happen.

Secondly, why should girls have to fit their interests around those of boys? Why should only the girls that happen to enjoy football and skating (and good for them) have their needs explicitly catered for?

Surely that applies to boys too though? I know plenty of boys who aren’t interested in either.

My nephew would love somewhere he could play cricket in the park but has no interest in playing football.

@DeepaBeesKit

Lots of the ideas on that make spaces for girls website are not very active.

Seating, hammocks, bars to hang on. A focus on socialising.

These are not going to get young women running and jumping and getting a sweaty getting their heart rates up, which is what is needed.

And what's your suggestion to get girls more active?

Why don’t more parents buy their daughters skate boards?

Girls bikes have baskets and doll child seats, not good-fast and ‘racer’ stripes. Maybe more girls would enjoy BMX?

Socialisation is so strong.

Sorry but the Make Space for Girls just reinforces gender stereotypes.

OP - fairy houses in a park?? Really? Surely this is just reinforcing the notion that boys = rough and tumble and girls = quiet and sweet.

Parks are for active play, for both boys AND girls. You don’t need special equipment for dance games.

We should be strongly encouraging active play for all.

Hello, thank you for all the praise and references to our campaign. It's so good to hear that we are getting the word out. And for all those people saying, we are going to take this to our councillors: THANK YOU. There's only two of us and although I feel like we might have spoken to every council in the country, in truth we've barely scratched the surface.

I can't say too much now because I have to go into a meeting now, about a park. But I will try and come back later or this evening to answer the points which have come up. In the meantime, though, for a basic summary of the situation, we produced this research document:

makespaceforgirls.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/Make-Space-for-Girls-Summary-of-Research-findings-December-2020-web.pdf

We are on Twitter and Instagram and have a newsletter you can sign up to - and you can find all of this on the website.

The slides, swings, climbing frames etc aren’t the problem. It’s the football pitches, basket ball things etc that are almost always used by boys. In fact I have never seen girls using them ever. Girls play these things in clubs and indoor venues. It can’t be beyond reason to ask why this is and design spaces differently to accommodate girls better.

Skate parks, tennis courts, table tennis tables, netball courts, Hopscotch type play Areas, places for skipping etc (for younger ones) etc. It’s shouldn’t be all about swings and slides or football. Where would teenage girls play? Football pitch - no I simply don’t think (and the evidence is clear) that girls aren’t interested in this in the main. It needs to be addressed.

I have never found this at all. Both my DS and DD like playgrounds and play in them in very similar ways. Neither of them use the football area (the dog poo is very bad at our local one) but they both use the hard court for ball games and cycling/scooting. I never liked the those playground houses when I was a child as they smelt of urine and always had litter in them. I preferred making dens and tents at home out of blankets and duvets.

@bendmeoverbackwards

Sorry but the Make Space for Girls just reinforces gender stereotypes.

OP - fairy houses in a park?? Really? Surely this is just reinforcing the notion that boys = rough and tumble and girls = quiet and sweet.

Parks are for active play, for both boys AND girls. You don’t need special equipment for dance games.

We should be strongly encouraging active play for all.

Exactly!

If girls are feeling intimidated out of using the space then we need to talk to them and find ways to tackle it.

But those ways shouldn’t be about reinforcing gender stereotypes nor should they be about encouraging girls to sit on pretty seats chatting!

I think people who are focusing on the needs of primary school boys vs primary school girls are missing the point somewhat. I've spent a decade in children's playgrounds and personally I feel young children's play equipment typically caters well to both sexes and children of different temperaments and interests.

It's teenage girls who are so woefully overlooked in public spaces like parks.

I understand what you are saying Op but the Parks I've noticed tend to be for everyone. Eg small swings and slides for the littlies but the older kids have more challenging and adventure equipment like the hanging balance see saw and giant spiders web to climb as well as zip wires. I take young people to parks a lot, both boys and girls from the age of 11 and they all play on the same things. There's not one piece of equipment that the boys tend to use more than the girls.

As a side I've noticed in the last few years playing football has become increasingly popular with girls with many joining local teams. Also lots are going to the gym. Its great that girls seem to be more active than say 5 years ago in general.

Clymene
Show girls lots of role models in active physical sports where there's plenty of running and energy.

Get out and exercise with our daughters ourselves, let them see women having fun, getting sweaty, not worrying if their hair is a mess.