Guest post: “All women and girls should be able to experience the joy, fulfilment, and lifelong benefits of sport”

[JuliaMumsnet]

"When someone says the word "sport" what’s the first thing you think of?

For me, it is gazing longingly out of the window at the netball courts during French class. But our charity Women in Sport knows that for many women the opposite is true. "Sport" brings back horrible memories of school. Whether it was being forced to wear “gym knickers” or a leotard when you were on a period or never getting picked for the team because you weren’t “sporty”.

And yet the word sport means “being carried away from stress and responsibility”. It’s about having fun. I don’t know many women who would reject the idea of less responsibility and more freedom.

Now think about exercise. What do you first think about when someone says the word “exercise”? Many women we talk to wince because they think they should be doing more of it. For others, serious exercise conjures up pain and suffering. But when we actually get around to going out for a brisk walk or even a run, we feel great. Our bodies release endorphins when we exercise, which is the healthiest way to get high.

Women in Sport has been looking into the lives of teenage girls and women during the last year and finding out how lockdown has affected women’s experiences of, and views on, exercise and sport. Before the pandemic, Sport England statistics showed that the gap was closing but women were still slightly less active than men overall.

The biggest gender gap was in team sport – with 25% fewer girls than boys involved in teams and paltry opportunities for girls at school. That’s why the closure of schools affected boys’ sports the worst.

Why should we care about team sport? Because being in joint endeavour, in a team, trying to win while having fun brings lifelong benefits. If more girls had positive experiences of team sport at school, more women would enter the workplace and wider society trained to lead, to take risks, and to be resilient if they lose.

So, what did we find out about girls in lockdown? During the pandemic, the Government put exercise front and centre as one of the few ways we were able to leave our homes. This opportunity has released some girls into new worlds. We talked to teenage girls going for walks outside with friends for the first time, and 82% of girls said they would put more effort into being active when life returned to normal. Teenage girls we spoke to recognised the value of exercise for their physical and mental health, some for the very first time. They may not know that research shows a positive impact of outdoor sport on body image, but they are feeling it.

Then we spoke to the women. We know that women have borne the brunt of pandemic redundancies and that home-schooling has exposed ongoing stereotypes and gender inequalities in the home. The women we spoke to were time deprived. 32% of women said they could not prioritise exercise during lockdown as they had too much to do for others. But on the positive side, the crisis has led people to reappraise. People have been resetting their priorities and there is more motivation to exercise than there used to be. 85% of women in our research said they would either put more effort into being fit and active or would keep up being active after lockdown.

Our recent new research into women around the menopause showed that this too can prompt reappraisal. So, the double whammy of an unprecedented pandemic and an unprecedented change in hormones seems to be triggering a bit of a revolution amongst midlife women.

One of the most fascinating insights we gleaned even before the pandemic was how much teenage girls cherished time alone with their mum or mother figures in their lives. They saw such relationships as ‘safe spaces’ without fear of judgement. Lockdown has exaggerated this feeling and girls have appreciated time being active outside, in nature, in a safe context without toxic commentary from peers.

Last year we launched our #TimeTogether campaign based on our understanding that midlife women and teenage girls both face unique physical challenges and pressures, and that they want to support one another. Women and girls also know they ought to be more active, but many find it hard to act on that. So, we’re inspiring women and girls to team up, to get active and have fun together outside. As we go back to some normality post lockdown, this special relationship may well help overcome shared concerns about loss of fitness or being in large groups.

The pandemic has led to a growing intolerance of inequality, whether racial, economic, or gender inequality. At Women in Sport, we’ve been intolerant of this for a long time. We know that less wealthy women from certain diverse backgrounds are the least active of all. How wrong is this, that society is denying these girls and women joy and health?

The pandemic exposed underlying inequalities in society across the board, and elite sport was no exception. In August 2020 a BBC survey of elite British sportswomen showed 86% earnt less than £30k from sport, and 60% less than £10k and one in five believed they may have to give up their sport due to the crisis to focus on having a normal job. At the same time women’s sport all but disappeared from our screens. The women’s football Euros were pushed back to 2022 to make way for the men’s Euros to be played in 2021. The Women’s Six Nations was never completed, the 2020 Netball Super League, Football Women’s Super League and Championship were all cancelled. In contrast, the top three tiers of men’s football continued their 2019-20 season; the men’s Premiership Rugby 2019-20 season restarted in August, the men’s Six Nations was completed.

So it is hardly surprising that half as many girls as boys dreamt about reaching the top of sport (30% cf 60%) in a survey we ran with Sports Direct in March 2021. We should not be denying our girls the chance to dream.

We want to redefine the relationship that many girls and women have with sport and exercise. This should be about fun, and we have a right to fun at every time in our lives. Yes, we could be drawing joy from sport, even as teenagers when everywhere you look people are commenting on your appearance; and even in mid-life when that pressure cooker of responsibility means our own needs come last. We want the legacy of the pandemic to be a break down in negative gender stereotypes and the emergence of a new normal in which all women and girls can experience the joy, fulfilment, and lifelong benefits of sport."

EDIT: Stephanie will be coming back onto the thread at 11am on Thursday 17th June to answer your questions.

I know - but 6 days later I’d have thought there would have been some response. Maybe not.

Like most on here it was netball and hockey in secondary for me. Crap at both. Then rounders, basketball, volleyball for mixed sex. Balls, balls and even more balls!! I can just about catch a ball. Can't hit one, can't throw one into a hoop, can't whack one over a net.

Oh, and also cross country, the joy!

I was also fairly unpopular, and a bit chubby compared to the sporty Kate Moss A Likes in my year (this was the 90s). Nearly always picked last and just never bothered. My group of mates used to get out on purpose in rounders so we could chill and chat on the grass instead. PE teachers couldn't be arsed with us and towards the end when any enthusiasm for sport had long gone that's just the way we liked it.

Now I'm 41, and sport for me is Les Mills on demand, and the occasional run with DH. Les Mills wise, I like combat and pump and I think I would have enjoyed these had they been available at school. No competitiveness, everyone too busy watching the instructor instead of judging -and no balls! I also like the Barre class, which is a workout based on ballet moves, but you work on flexibility and strength instead of dancing.

I would have also enjoyed trampolining too.

Now I have DD, in a few years I want to take her to a climbing wall, they look like fun and it's something perhaps we could do together. She does a little dance class, but completely for fun, she's only 3. She also has swimming but that's a life skill at her age.

Also when she's older I'd like to have her learn a martial art, and I wouldn't mind it too. Like a few pp I think martial arts classes for girls at school would be much better than running around after a hockey ball. But strictly female only sessions. If they had it when I was at school and boys were involved they'd dominate, show off and take the piss when the girls were doing it.

Speaking of males dominating sports, I'd also like to know your views on males who identify otherwise in female sports, and how you feel about those women and girls shunted down the podium, off of teams, or put off altogether. Although you may not want to touch that topic with a bargepole, it'll need addressing sooner or later.

@MNHQ - any news when the OP might be coming back to engage with the people who engaged with her?

I've just read the full thread, and am genuinely interested in how the OP will react.

I suspect she thought her role would be about lobbying for equal access to the school football field for girls, and for better pay and coverage for sportswomen.

Instead she will have to deal with an ingrained culture of bullying and exclusion from PE teachers and coaches downwards, widespread failure in teaching and focus, and fundamental problems with the activities themselves before she even scrapes the surface.

Also a significant percentage of women so alienated from sport by their awful school experiences that they will support their own kids in avoiding the same misery.

In other words, a 30 year job to break down the anger, bitterness and barriers built over generations. Not easy!

I do what I can as a mother to model daily fitness and a healthy lifestyle for my DCs but they have an automatic pass to miss sports day if it was anything like mine - the traditional fully competative sports day.
It would have meant so much to me if my parents could have done so.

I honestly think it has a lot to do with budgets. Schools can’t afford climbing walls, bicycles, weights, swimming pools, or any of the other stuff we choose to exercise with as adults. They play netball and hockey because it’s cheap as chips. And they can probably only afford to operate one netball team, which means only the best 7 girls get a chance to play while the rest are excluded. They also have the difficulty of mixed sex classes - so obviously they default to doing what the boys enjoy, which is competitive sport. God forbid the boys should have to do something “girly” like Pilates or Zumba.

My friend went to an expensive private school and she said they had the option of competitive sports such as netball and hockey etc, but they also had swimming, rowing, dance, aerobics and gym facilities, as well as skiing, shooting, horse riding, fencing and running. So there was something for everyone and no pressure to do things you didn’t enjoy - the class would split and each pupil went to their preferred activity. Unlike state schools where you’re forced to do activities as a class because there’s only one teacher, and if you don’t like that activity it’s tough.

She also said it was a minimum of 5hrs of activity per week plus additional coaching in small groups was available every morning and evening. Unlike state schools where you got one PE lesson per week and then the box was ticked so that was all you got. So you were able to pick something you enjoyed and then actually access regular coaching to improve your skills.

In summary, exercise isn’t adequately funded at state schools so we end up being bullied through once-per-week full-class activities that we dislike simply in order to tick a box. The problem is lack of funding and varied opportunities, not lack of desire to exercise.

Hi everyone - Stephanie is coming on now to answer your questions. Bit of a tech issue at the moment but it's now been sorted out and she'll be with you shortly.

Hello everyone, thanks for all the responses to my guest post which I've read through and its great to get such a response.

I am going to spend some time now reflecting back on some of the key issues you raised.

Women in Sport was founded in 1984 and its purpose is to break down all the complex barriers that contribute to women and girls feeling negative about sport and ending up walking away from it and sometimes from exercise altogether.

The largest number of comments were about hating school sport and particularly teamsport at school. Thanks for sharing your experiences and some of those of your daughters. It was mostly pretty grim reading although not unexpected, and I can relate to more aspects of your posts that you may imagine. We know that early experiences of sport can have a powerful and long-lasting influence on how active girls will be in adulthood. Our charity aims to tackle these barriers and reframe sport to broaden its appeal for all school age girls so that it can have a meaningful role in their lives.

Every year we hear from hundreds of girls and women from across the UK who share their experiences, often bravely and courageously, and many of the challenges and barriers they raise have are reflected in your comments. Only 4 in 10 girls define themselves as ‘sporty’. This is often based on limited experiences of school PE. Just over half of girls like school PE, yet we know that for around a third it is the only exercise they do. A few thoughts now on how we might change this.

One of the issues many of you raised was around clothing and facilities and at Women in Sport we certainly want girls to be allowed to wear more comfortable and less embarrassing clothes for PE and to have time to change and wash. Our research with teenage girls shows that girls need much better support from the right people in managing their periods and so they can the right sports bra. 42% of teenage girls avoid sport and exercise during their period, and around 50% of girls feel paralysed by the fear of failure at puberty which stops them trying new things. Being physically uncomfortable in what you’re wearing and how you feel about your body is clearly a major issue. We’re currently working on a project with teenage girls to tackle some of these issues.

As one of you said state school sport provision is just not right at the moment. The whole culture of school sport needs to shift, and the reports a few of you gave about bullying and abuse in the school sport context being condoned by teachers was appalling. At the moment it is really tough for mainstream schools to build that new culture, given the lack of PE teachers and time in the timetable. This is why we’re supporting the Youth Sport Trust’s work to make more space for the right type of sport and exercise provision at school.
It’s great that Sport England are trying to tackle this by investing in training secondary school teachers and encouraging fun, exercise-led programmes. But we need the whole system to change. For example if OFSTED measured progress with physical literacy in children, there would be more PE teachers and more time which would allow for more varied opportunities for girls at school. I totally agree that sports teachers should, as one of you said, be like good Maths teachers. And that they should be sensitive to individual needs and teaching physical literacy and the wider benefits of being active, not just win matches for the school. There need to be far less judgement but also room for some healthy competition.

Dear Stephanie,

Thank you for coming back to address these points - must have been pretty heavy going.
While it is essential to work with girls, how is this going to address the broader context of how PE is taught in schools and how it disproportionally disadvantages girls and women?

Are you also working with PE teachers, coaches and those who train them?
What I have found shocking is although some steps have been made, PE is still not very inclusive of SEND people, those with disabilities and those who have lifelong conditions like EDS or arthritis.

Money is a significant issue but to me the main on is a PE curriculum that apparently is still focused on training men for war not teaching the need for fitness in everyday life.

Between the contributors you mentioned a whole host of alternative options to team sport including dance, gym and trampolining, aerobics, running, yoga, and swimming, weight training and martial arts. Also, kayaking and abseiling, which are probably marginally less readily available for many. Women in Sport absolutely endorses all these forms of exercise as does wider society - this year the Tokyo Olympics will see skateboarding for the first time. Sport and exercise has to be fun and joyful.

Whilst we totally support a much greater diversity of options that meet the needs of all girls, not just the ‘sporty’ few and that include girls with disabilities and long term health conditions, we also challenge how much these current preferences are being influenced by the expectations and stereotyping girls face in wider society and from the commentary and negative reactions of others.

@sharksarecool made some good points as to why we feel team sport is an important area to address as well. In an ideal world there would be so many teams at school that most girls would be included, rather than excluded and it would be, as many of you said, less about pets and cherry picking, and more about teaching, including girls of all abilities like any other subject. And yes there is a great sense of teamwork in a choir or an orchestra – that is a fantastic joint endeavour too, it's just that our charity is focused on sport and exercise. Leadership too can come through alternative routes. I am not saying sport is the only way to learn these skills but many girls who do want to take part in team sports tell us they feel excluded, as many of you have, and we want to change that.

@SamusIsAGirl

Dear Stephanie,

Thank you for coming back to address these points - must have been pretty heavy going.
While it is essential to work with girls, how is this going to address the broader context of how PE is taught in schools and how it disproportionally disadvantages girls and women?

Are you also working with PE teachers, coaches and those who train them?
What I have found shocking is although some steps have been made, PE is still not very inclusive of SEND people, those with disabilities and those who have lifelong conditions like EDS or arthritis.

Money is a significant issue but to me the main on is a PE curriculum that apparently is still focused on training men for war not teaching the need for fitness in everyday life.

Thanks for joining the conversation. There have been lots of comments but that's great because people are engaged.

You're absolutely right that sport as a whole, as well school sport, has generally been designed by and for men and boys, although the preparation for war element is a new angle for me! This has meant that any provision there is has not been well managed for girls to date. Nor, as you say, has it often managed to include the whole diversity of students.

We don't work directly with PE teachers as we're a small charity but we feed in the voices of women and girls to bodies like Youth Sport Trust, National Governing Bodies and Active Partnerships who will have more direct contact. And we also seek to influence decisions about investment and policy through our contact with Government.

Playing a game and learning to bounce back from failure is an important life skill. I totally agree you can learn to do this in other ways. But I challenge the idea that girls are innately uncompetitive. Our insight shows that around half of teenage girls enjoy competitive sport and this could well be more if girls were able to take part in a more inclusive and supportive environment. But we are working to ensure all girls can find joy and moments of pride to be their own best in whatever sport or physical activity they choose.

A number of you mentioned that community sport has an aggressive culture with coaches shouting at participants, bystanders and people on the street heckling and intimidating and really awful facilities to change in. All that should and must change. Through our work with girls and women, we know these barriers cause real problems at the grassroots level and even at elite level. Even professional athletes have to change in pretty grim spaces. We have previously worked on projects that enable girls and young women to support local community groups in calling out these conditions and shaping and reframing the ways that it can change. The system needs changing from the top down as well as the bottom up. We can all help by refusing to accept these conditions and this culture and calling them out when we see them. Society needs to see this an unacceptable.

The school sport point is interesting. In other subjects the teachers usually spend a lot of effort getting the lower performers up to a basic standard. In my experience in sport the teachers only seem to be interested in those individuals with talent. The lower performers get no support. And can you imagine the lower performers in maths having to show their skill level in front of all peers and parents like lower performers in sport are forced to do?

Do you think that part of the reason why facilities are so poor is because women's sport is fundamentally less valued? Look at what impact Covid had? The first casualties were women's elite sports.

@eurochick

The school sport point is interesting. In other subjects the teachers usually spend a lot of effort getting the lower performers up to a basic standard. In my experience in sport the teachers only seem to be interested in those individuals with talent. The lower performers get no support. And can you imagine the lower performers in maths having to show their skill level in front of all peers and parents like lower performers in sport are forced to do?

Agree - and someone else said this in the earlier responses - if we had much better and better funded provision then this ought to be possible; and whilst PE is likely to be more visible by its nature, there must be better ways to manage this.

@Beamur

Do you think that part of the reason why facilities are so poor is because women's sport is fundamentally less valued? Look at what impact Covid had? The first casualties were women's elite sports.

Completely agree and we are doing our best to highlight this and secure change

As an observation, I do voluntary work with girls aged 10-18. They do want to be active and do enjoy healthy competition and I agree, learning to fail well is an essential life skill. But we work hard to foster those attitudes and create opportunities for those girls. However, it's also true to say that these girls attend by choice so we're not persuading too hard! We do virtually no activity or game that has a winner/loser, although some will be better than others.
My other observation would be that success in sports/activities is incredibly important for girls who maybe don't excel academically.