Why is only men's sport shown in schools?

[Littlebird43]

I have no objection with a schools screening occasional major sporting events (quite a few including ours seem to have allowed kids to watch World Cup yesterday) and I think it is great to celebrate sport and international events. However I am increasingly annoyed that this only seems to apply to men's sports. My kids have never been given the option to watch women's sport.
I'm not sure whether to be a pain in the a*e and mention this to the head teacher?
Yes - we should call out this example of gender inequality!
No - it's just football and I'm over thinking it...

The world cup is by far the most popular sporting event in England. The women's WC was not on during school hours, if it was I think they would have shown the England games. Why make everything into sexism?

Luckily I don't as they both left years ago.

Dd went with school to see the women's fa cup but she did board

Media coverage as well. Look at the Times sports sections at the weekend - 16 pages, with womens' sport getting about half a page at best (usually about Radecanu). I thought after the Lionesses victory it might improve and it did for about two weeks (maybe 3-4 pages) and now it's back to normal. Women buy newspapers as well and not everyone likes football, there are other sports anyway.

Gee, how do you think we can change that? By still teaching children men’s sport is more important and hoping they’ll figure it out for themselves maybe?

There is a physical difference between males and females, as others have said. I am talking about skill. You seem very opinionated about women’s football: which Euros games did you watch and which WSL team is it that you regularly watch in order to have reached this opinion?

I think YABU, because not all schools show the football.

The only sport shown at mine was tennis during Wimbledon. Both singles tournaments (watch if you wanted during PE lessons and free periods if you were sixth form)

If it's something you think your school has got wrong - showing sport at all, or selection of which sports - then take it up with the school.

I don't think it's right to extrapolate across all schools

The skill and the pace go together. So the skills are carried out far quicker.
Male footballers as older teenager are better.

Women's football will never be as popular as men's it's just not interesting enough because it lacks the ingredients that's makes men's interesting.

As others have said OP, you need to explain exactly which women's sport should have been shown and wasn't. The Euros this summer weren't in school time. Most sport isn't, being scheduled for when the most people are able to watch. It only happens when the events are in completely different time zones.

That said, schools show events when not doing so will adversely affect their attendance figures. There's no other reason, so if people aren't interested in other sports in large numbers, there's no need for schools to show it. If it's not an event people will allow their DC to stay home to watch, schools can carry on as normal.

They mostly show it to stop absences. From males.

I voted with you, but only on principle but in reality, the reasoning for doing so would not apply.

You’re wrong on that. Womens football is a refreshing break from the diving, arrogance and rudeness of mens football. Plus womens super league tickets are actually affordable compared to the premier league and championship. I say this as a staunch Arsenal mens team fan - I take my kids to the womens matches not the mens. Many kids of this generation will grow up associating watching stadium football with women.

The only way is up for womens football given the fact that womens teams have only been a thing for the past couple decades. Give it time - no point in comparing it to mens football now, more reasonable to compare it to mens football in the 1950/60s.

Plus you could say the same about tennis but womens tennis when there’ was standout stars in their prime such as the Williams sisters, Davenport and Clisters proved to be as commercially successful as mens tennis despite the lower skill and pace.

The equivalent events I can think of, other than tennis matches at Wimbledon, all seem to have been outside of school hours.

Agree with the point the OP makes if and when in the future there are sporting events of note in school hours.

None of it should be shown.

A lot of kids hate football. What do they do?

Don't make an issue out of a non-issue. It's a football match. Who cares that it's being played by men?!

This is the first televised sport that has been shown in DC’s school, and only because of the daytime games.

I wouldn’t want it to be any more often to be honest.

I don't think the last few womens WC's will have been played during school time? Even the one in Canada had evening games in the UK?

I think you are right but I think you realistically need to wait for an event not to be shown to raise a complaint.

DH now watched a lot of womens rugby and cricket. The rugby in particular he says is a much better game, played more technically superior, as they don't rely on strength as much as the mens game. Both the womens cricket and rugby have been more successful recently than the mens teams too. Both played mostly at the weekends though, so not shown in school.

However, if you want a better emphasis on women's sport OP - girls schools are your answer. They compete in and follow all sports for women, including those traditionally male sports. You get a much better range of sporting choices for girls, in girls schools.

I think the reality is that most people (women included) prefer the men’s game. You can disagree on an individual level, but the attendance and viewership figures demonstrate this.

I agree with this, it’s really time football fans accepted not every likes their game, and interestingly other sports fans, ie rugby etc, accept not everyone is interested.