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.

There was nothing worse as a child than going to a playpark that was just Wendy houses

I would say fairy's is a niche interest. It doesn't really spark any kind of imagination or play. The whole point of imaginative play is that you use your imagination, providing a fairy House is just 'here's a fairy house'.

I would say a lot of playparks have housing type things built in don't they? My local one has a big pirate ship with lots of climbing on it, but also a hold you can sit in and is like a house if you want it to be. Lots of play equipment has different sections and bits so you can use your imagination to make it whatever you like. You can use any of equipment really as a house/shop/fairy castle/army den and I used to do this all the time as a child. Plus the slides/ladders/poles etc enable some active play which is the point of a park.

A big green space should be provided to play things like rounders/frisbee/catch type games/handstand/cartwheel games/it - all active games that the girls used to play when I was a child. The whole space shouldn't be taken up with football, and yeah some round seating areas is good regardless.

I think the problem is much much deeper than being no fairy houses. The problem is a lot of girls don't feel comfortable using facilities and are intimidated or chased out by boys. I used to use the skateboarding ramps all the time until the boys came along and we'd leave. A lot of girls lose their interest in playing active games wjen they become a teenager and no netball net, which let's be honest would be used by teenage boys again, is going to change that.

And tbh if you go to the park or the beach or somewhere you will often see the mums chatting and the dads playing football or active games with the children. Girls are actively encouraged to not enjoy active games from a young age

OP The reason you see football pitches marked is because they are used by football teams who mark them and pay for use of them.
Netball courts tend to be at schools or sport centres to be hired out
Most local councils don't mark a football pitch just so local kids can play on a marked pitch its because its used and paid for by clubs
The marking out on the other pitches ( hard kind) grubber are combined and just marked out as rough/ football / basket ball.

But if girls mainly like seats and swings, that's not really getting them active. Might be getting them outside.
Although you can clock up some miles walking round a shopping mall

Admittedly the pirate ship seems to play loud music at night times and develops a certain aroma

@arethereanyleftatall I don’t go in the evenings when the older children are there often, but the older girls tend to sit on top of the ramp and chat. I’m currently setting up a graffiti project with a local graffiti artist which a lot of the girls have expressed interest in but this sort of thing costs thousands and thousands of pounds.

I haven’t seen any girls playing hockey but are building it into a new MUGA on a new build estate as we’ve had a request from a group that would like to set one up.

As somebody who is directly managing public open spaces for a very large parish, the problem with big seating banks is that it attracts huge amounts of ASB. I shouldn’t, but spend hours a week when I should be doing something else scrubbing off graffiti, picking up broken glass, nappies, dog waste and cleaning up fires. It’s a nice enough area in semi rural Wiltshire but the ASB is astonishing.

I also don’t think when we receive funding for LEAPS, NEAPS and MUGAs, large seating banks would meet the requirements.

@elbea

There are just as many young girls on their scooters as boys at the skatepark

If you have data about this, we'd love to see it - as far as we know it hasn't been collected yet, so it would be really helpful.

Surely an equally validate question is why can't boys sit and socialise and talk face to face, why do they always have to be "doing" something to be socialising?

It is. And if this post was about that I'd have asked that question too. In fact, I'd be all for anything that encourages boys to sit and chat face to face more.

And out muga pitches full of boys and girls around here , girls play footie with the boys or hang around the seating part of it , some on the skate ramp
At night like most parks mix of teenagers boys and girls , daytime more little kids out playing
I see equal mix at our parks of boys and girls doing various things
The only thing is a lot of our parks are just sand , hate sand

Cross post.

I also don’t think when we receive funding for LEAPS, NEAPS and MUGAs, large seating banks would meet the requirements.

Yes, the whole set up is institutionally designed to produce play equipment which is predominantly used by boys. See my comments about MUGAs above...

@makespaceforgirls do you have the data to prove otherwise

Yes, the whole set up is institutionally designed to produce play equipment which is predominantly used by boys.

It is designed to produce play equipment that all kids can use if they choose to.

@arethereanyleftatall are you aware that the football pitches marked out are usually marked out by the teams that rent the pitches from the local council / parish etc
Football is open to both boys and girls and girls can play in a boys team or an all girls team so have two options.
My ds played football and always several girls in the teams and also we have all girls teams in the area as well
So the pitches are there as they are paid for , but when not in use you can run, dance do what you like on them

totally agree about inclusive parks, but although the situation is still terrible, there are more facilities for disabled children than there are for teenage girls

What? What kind of facilities for disabled children? Excellent if that is the case (certainly isn't around here), of course disabled children should be able to play in a park, comparing it to facilities for teenage girls, of which many have zero interest in a park for children is odd.

The pertinent question doesn't seem to be about parks, but more a) what provision is most effective for teens, what more could be provided by communities that is accessible by all b) is there a way to improve funding and thus accessibility for structured sports and activities c) overall around the safety of girls and young women, but obviously that's under a much larger umbrella.

@BoredZelda

Surely an equally validate question is why can't boys sit and socialise and talk face to face, why do they always have to be "doing" something to be socialising?

It is. And if this post was about that I'd have asked that question too. In fact, I'd be all for anything that encourages boys to sit and chat face to face more.

I'm not sure what point you are making here? That we should remove spaces for young men to do activities together because they are socialising in the wrong way?

Activities are a great way to get young men talking to each other and be exposed to positive male role models. What we need to do is ensure that these spaces give us that. As another thread on here shows, football has along way to go to be that kind of space.

Yes, I linked to our research document above, but if you want the facts about skateboarding specifically they are that:

As a sport, it's 85% male, (and under 8% of all teenagers skateboard and only 2.3% of girls). There are no figures for open air skate parks in this country (as yet, we are working on a data collection project right now) but research in Australia and America and Sweden shows that almost no girls use open air skate parks (whereas far more use indoor, staffed parks). The Swedish research described skate parks as 'coded male' while the American research notes that they never saw a female actually skating on the park while they were there.

In the UK, a park in York has been talking to teenage skateboarders, and they overwhelmingly find the skate park intimidating (I can find their stats if you want but it's about 90%), while when we talk to girl skaters they tell us stories about name calling, racism and having stones thrown at them.

As an aside, the skatepark here was only built following many, many years of campaigning and fundraising by local teens, it didn't just magically appear. Can girls who feel strongly that they would like something outdoors (although no one seems to know what) band together and petition for it, like boys have?

@makespaceforgirls what do you want put in for teenage girls ? There isn't much for teenage boys either
Mostly teenagers hang around the park in mixed groups at best chatting , but later it gets more in an anti social way
My teenage ds don't really go to a park , they outgrow parks

@makespaceforgirls oh one park says it all , do you think no boys have that happen
Around here many avoid one of the skate parks even adults after a certain time

@makespaceforgirls what do teenage girls want from a park then ? Do teenagers really after a certain age even want to go to a park , wouldn't it be more like youth clubs they want after a certain age
My teenage ds rarely go to a park

[quote worriedatthemoment]@arethereanyleftatall are you aware that the football pitches marked out are usually marked out by the teams that rent the pitches from the local council / parish etc
Football is open to both boys and girls and girls can play in a boys team or an all girls team so have two options.
My ds played football and always several girls in the teams and also we have all girls teams in the area as well
So the pitches are there as they are paid for , but when not in use you can run, dance do what you like on them [/quote]
I didn't know that, no.
But then - they have been allowed to paint the lines by the council.

Have you ever seen a group of only teenage girls playing footie in your local park? I haven't. For sure, organised events, adults around. Local park - nope, never.

Also, your 'when not in use' is telling. So, girls, if the boys don't want to use the grass, then, and only then, you may use it.

we don't have to "fix" the girls. We have to "fix" a society that leads girls to make choices about their health based on a fear of body shaming or exercising in public.

This. The parks really arent the problem. Intimidation/dominance by boys, and disinclination to be active, are.

@BoredZelda agree & felt that comment was a bit off colour, but thought maybe parks in your country are different somehow.

@BoredZelda @smoko Apologies, I got the phrasing of that wrong. More effort has been put into providing disabled facilities is perhaps a better way of saying it. Because although teenage girls can use the facilities, they are very often designed out in ways which do exclude them quite comprehensively.

I'm not sure what point you are making here? That we should remove spaces for young men to do activities together because they are socialising in the wrong way?

No, that we should encourage boys to talk more. That's all.

I don’t find this at all.

My local park has the usual swings/zip wire/slide/adventure house. But also a fairy trail and bars (for somersaults, ballet etc). No football or basketball courts.

The village one just has slide, swings and trampoline.