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.

Very quickly though:

*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.*

Girls don't like exercising in public because they are 'selfconscious'. Which you can roughly translate as, get so much harassment that it is not fun. They would rather exercise away from the parks.

But the simple act of getting to and from the park regularly is the kind of incidental exercise which can make a huge difference to activity levels and obesity. And if we can get them to swing, or hang off bars when they are there, all the better.

Also, if you look at a skate park, the boys are mostly sitting around smoking weed with just one or two doing stuff at any one time. But we're quite happy to spend hundreds of thousands of pounds on this...

@NC145632

'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?

Not all girls like sliding, swinging and jumping 🤨 Are you saying that children shouldn’t want to play in a fairy house? Or is it just the pink ones you object to?

YANBU, some of the London parks are better for this- lots of wooden houses in Greenwich Park and some at Brockwell park.

There’s actually a campaign on this issue, I can’t remember the name but they’re on Twitter- all about making sure playgrounds have lots of equipment that encourages safe places for girls to play, and be, without it needing to involve any kind of sporting activity, if they don’t want to do it (obvs lots of girls do).

Interestingly I’m in Sydney and netball is hugely popular here and we’ve probably got equal numbers of netball courts and basketball courts, in fact there are areas with huge numbers of netball courts (where kids often learn to ride bikes as well).
We also have lots of cricket nets in parks, as well as football and rugby pitches.

I wish when parks were revamped, disabled children were considered.
when ours was done, lovely stuff, but no wheelchair swing.

My dd plays semi pro rugby, sports aren't just for boys!!!

There's plenty of bushes etc if they want to make dens but I would say that parks are unisex for active play, implying girls aren't active is sexist

Just another thought... Is a ‘tree house’ acceptable to those of you objecting to ‘fairy houses’?

I'm also just going to namecheck two other organisations.

OPAL do great work on making school playgrounds work better - so that boys are not playing football in the middle and the girls just round the edges. In the end, this is where we need to fix things, because school is where boys learn that football gives them a divine right to take up all the space. Try and get your primary school to engage with them if you can.

outdoorplayandlearning.org.uk

Also Women in Sport do great research on how to get teenage girls involved in sport. One of the reasons that Make Space for Girls focuses on play is because they are already doing the research and work to get more girls involved in sport, and really do understand the issues and barriers involved.

www.womeninsport.org

I think if girls want a fairy house they can build one in their garden or in the woods. As for 'dance games', what's wrong with any patch of grass? It sounds like you don't even know what you're asking for!

Our play and leisure equipment is unisex. There are poles and bars that girls hang upside down from, playgrounds that are full of little ones of either sex, a basketball court that's often used by teenage boys, but could equally be used by netball playing girls, we've got outdoor gym equipment, a beach volleyball court, tennis courts, all used by DC of either sex.

I would respond to this but I have to rush out to get my 11 year old DD from the park and tell her she isn't allowed to play football there anymore because apparently it's a boys game.

I have spent a lot of time in parks over the last 11 years and playgrounds seem to be used fairly equally by both girls and boys of primary school age. I find playgrounds to be one of the few plays that aren’t gendered, similar to soft play they are there to be used for physical activity and if my dc wanted to play imaginatively(and they often did/do) then they didn’t need a designated spot for that because they used their imaginations, little areas of the playground because a shop or cafe or a bridge with a troll underneath.

The football/basketball area doesn’t bother me despite the fact that none of my dc have any interest in either. They are cheap and easy to maintain and well used.

Its a shame to read some posters sneering at fairy houses. Is that an inferior style of play then?

Good points are being made about the upkeep though.

I think if girls want a fairy house they can build one in their garden or in the woods. As for 'dance games', what's wrong with any patch of grass? It sounds like you don't even know what you're asking for!

What woods? What gardens? Why should the girls have to go somewhere else, it is a public park after all.

The issue is that most public play areas are dominated with the stock set up for boys and boys' domination of the space is reinforced often by their own parents.

No amount of MNers with "quiet boys" and "boisterous girls" alters the daily reality that makespaceforgirls.co.uk is trying to address.

@zafferana
So children who like fairy house type games have to provide it themselves, but those who like football get it provided by the community?

What about teenage girls? Interest in dens etc don’t go past puberty and doesn’t address the sports aspect. What sports do (mostly) girls want to play? Not football on a massive pitch in full view of anyone passing by that’s for sure and yet that is what the public sports facilities seem to be. Coincidentally, (mostly) boys don’t mind playing in this way so take full advantage of course. The same options should be there for (mostly) girls.

What about a running track?With maybe a small football pitch or throwing area inside?

@arethereanyleftatall

Its a shame to read some posters sneering at fairy houses. Is that an inferior style of play then?

Good points are being made about the upkeep though.

I think what people have the issue with is the reinforcement of gender stereotypes with the idea that girls want to play with fairy houses while boys play rough and tumble!

If boys or girls want to play imaginatively then they don’t need a door or something. Ds spent hours as a child in local woodland hunting for the gruffalo - no equipment needed!

Local woodland would be awesome amd great for imaginative play. Most people don't have easy access to woodland though unfortunately. But they do generally have access to a park.

@arethereanyleftatall

Its a shame to read some posters sneering at fairy houses. Is that an inferior style of play then?

Good points are being made about the upkeep though.

I think fairy houses are sweet but can be limiting. A plain house type structure would be more open to a variety of play ideas and be less stereotypically gendered but I would also argue that part of imaginary play is creating your own world. Last time we were at the park, the roundabout became a time travel portal and in the end pretty much the whole park were playing this game of time travel. That is imaginative play.

We have a wooded area in our park, although I appreciate that some parks are just a patch of grass or open space. I do think requiring 'fairy houses' in parks is a bit ridiculous though - sorry - and I used to be a girl. If fairy houses, why not superhero or Star Wars intergalactic bases? If anyone of either sex wants to play imaginary games, bring some props with you to the park and play them.

At one of our parks there is a bike track marked out in a disused tennis court. It has little zebra crossings, roads etc marked out and all the kids love riding or scooting around it. At another local park there is a little stage area marked out with toadstool seats in front.

Not a today question but is Rounders still popular these days? Growing up in the 60s/70s I lived near a massive park and yes the boys would be catered for with several pitches but impromptu games of rounders took place on the playing fields with girls in their early teens. Many carried on playing as a hobby until well into their fifties.
There was a wonderful pavilion built in the 1930s and you could borrow for free, rounders bats, balls and bases. Tennis courts too and it always seemed to be girls using them. The pavilion had a high veranda on all four sides so the person in charge could keep an eye on the games equipment.

@Angel2702

At one of our parks there is a bike track marked out in a disused tennis court. It has little zebra crossings, roads etc marked out and all the kids love riding or scooting around it. At another local park there is a little stage area marked out with toadstool seats in front.

We have one of those little tracks too, my dc love it and I think the adults quite like it too, using the little zebra crossing etc! Very cheap for the council to maintain too!

We’ve got a council run country park near us full of fairytale houses and a massIve play castle with secret tunnels. Gardens with flowers, and an adventure play park. Kids of all ages love it.

I do t think the council would own it unless it had been left to them mind.

There’s a small play park near my parents with an overgrown sensory garden. Kids love that too.

The problem is council funding is very stretched. Most play parks locally have fallen to disrepair and it’s only when the local community fundraisers and get lottery grants that it gets properly replaced.

My daughter used her imagination at the park when she was younger, now she plays football, rides her bike and hangs out with her friends. She also dances to a high level but not in the park because the ground isn't right and I don't want her to hurt herself. Why are the girls self conscious? That is the problem not the equipment

Why would goady auto correct to today?!