Teenage girls being ‘pushed out’ of sport, survey finds

[JoyousAsOtters]

www.theguardian.com/education/2022/mar/07/uk-girls-lose-interest-in-sport-as-teenagers-women-in-sport-survey?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

I know some of you don’t want to give the Guardian clicks, but this is an important issue and I think it’s highly relevant to the questions we discuss on this board.

For example,

‘The study, by Women in Sport, found that a fear of being judged and a lack of confidence were the main reasons cited for a waning interest in sport among teenage girls. Its poll of more than 4,000 teenagers found that 43% of girls felt they were sporty at primary pupils but no longer saw themselves this way. This would equate to 1.3 million girls across the UK, the survey pointed out.

Out of these girls, 68% said that a fear of feeling judged prevented them from taking part, while 61% said they lacked confidence. Just under half (47%) said they were too busy with school work to carry on with sport.

And teenage girls were much more likely to say they used to be sporty but were no longer keen on exercise than boys (24%). A report on the findings concluded that girls may need more support to engage with sport as they go through puberty.

Nearly eight in 10 (78%) of girls who said they used to be sporty admitted they avoided taking part in sport when on their period – higher than those who had never been sporty (69%) and those who were still passionately involved in sport (64%).’

I think cricket is one sport getting it right at the moment with the All-stars and Dynamos programmes. They are mixed but really encouraging girls to take part. Then leading into The Hundred where Mens and Womens trams are getting even billing. DDs went last year just for the Womens game which actually suited families better being afternoon before the more boozy Mens game.

They need to do a survey looking at the girls that continue doing sport and why they are different from those that give up. DD1 is very sporty and it is becoming a virtuous circle, because she's fit from the sport she does outside school when she does other sports she's already at an advantage, e.g. the PE teacher says all the girls in her football team have an advantage in hockey because they know how to position themselves on the pitch. Because they are used to running around a football pitch for 90 minutes when they did cross country the only girls who were faster than the football players were those who are in the running club.

I suspect it's a mix of thing that helps. Parental support to drive them about and buy decent kit and who prioritise their daughter's sport as much as their sons, lots of options for dealing with periods (and the realisation that exercise actually helps with period pain), good role models, committed coaches at out of school activities who stand up for girl's sport, a range of sports and exercise offered at school (not just competitive sport), female PE teachers, sex segregated PE classes, body confidence based on physical fitness rather than being sexually attractive to boys.

I think a lot of sports clubs prioritise the competitive angle because the sporting governing bodies prioritise the development of elite talent, schools should ideally balance that by providing access to sport at all levels. Oh, the other important thing to remember is this drop off from sport at puberty by girls is a British issue, it doesn't happen to the same extent in other countries and so we should look at why that is.

@MrsPnut my DD also loves roller derby (although she's struggling a bit right now because the training is directly after her school DofE sessions, so she's shattered by the time she gets home). She really enjoys school rugby, too. I think it's funny because all the teachers at school think if her as a quiet, delicate child, when actually she really likes rough contact sports!

@DaisyWaldron Awesome, I love hearing about other girls that like rough contact sports. My daughter is desperately hoping that the work cup takes place next year because she wasn't quite good enough to try out for team GB last time (which was eventually cancelled) but is really smashing it since they returned. There is a scrim in April in Sheffield so she can see her level against other players.

DD says that it makes her feel powerful when she's pushing an opponent back and gaining ground. She also does powerlifting at a women's gym and loves how strong she feels there.

DD was just getting into her stride when Covid hit, and then missed out on training for over a year. She might well be at Sheffield, though!

Something that irritates me a bit is the current emphasis that there seems to be on females playing traditionally male sports, to the detriment of those sports which are seen as traditionally female. Where I live there are loads of football and rugby teams for girls and women. They are in the local papers frequently and businesses seem to be falling over themselves to boost their inclusivity credentials by sponsoring them. But the one remaining hockey club in the borough recently closed because the pitch they used was replaced with a surface unsuitable for hockey in favour of yet another football pitch.
Not that I have any objection to females playing traditionally male sports if they wish but I do object to encouraging that being seen as more important than supporting traditionally female or unisex sports. And where I live at least, that is very much how things seem at present. It's promoted as equality, but really it's just another form of misogyny. Those "girly" games don't matter, but if you can play the men's sports then you're ok.

@TeenPlusCat

Changing cubicles in PE changing rooms at school. I wonder whether the 'go in wearing PE kit' due to covid will have accidentally led to more girls continuing to participate?

I also agree re non-competitive fitness activities.

I always wonder if this approach has the best results long term. My own observation is that the tendency to move towards individual cubicles in single sex changing rooms is related to an increasing discomfort people have with their bodies due to sexualization in culture and the media. The underlying message is that our bodies, even when we are only with other women, are embarrasing and something to worry about showing even in a same environment. So you have the odd young woman running around in her jog bra and bike shorts while the rest are unable to even get changed where someone might see them.

Maybe it would help but I'm not convinced.

I see your point, and I'm not bothered and prefer open changing rooms. However I think plenty of teenage girls are bothered and it is one more thing that puts them off sport at school.

@MrsAvocet

Something that irritates me a bit is the current emphasis that there seems to be on females playing traditionally male sports, to the detriment of those sports which are seen as traditionally female. Where I live there are loads of football and rugby teams for girls and women. They are in the local papers frequently and businesses seem to be falling over themselves to boost their inclusivity credentials by sponsoring them. But the one remaining hockey club in the borough recently closed because the pitch they used was replaced with a surface unsuitable for hockey in favour of yet another football pitch. Not that I have any objection to females playing traditionally male sports if they wish but I do object to encouraging that being seen as more important than supporting traditionally female or unisex sports. And where I live at least, that is very much how things seem at present. It's promoted as equality, but really it's just another form of misogyny. Those "girly" games don't matter, but if you can play the men's sports then you're ok.

This makes for some interesting dynamics for sure.

Here in Canada in the past girls did not really play hockey competitively, instead, they played ringette. Which is a great sport and very girl oriented, similar to hockey but it uses a straight stick and a ring instead of a puck, and there are some differences in the play.

Now that we encourage girls so much into hockey, ringette has really suffered. And what's funny is that it isn't a worse sport, and women's hockey is actually slightly different from men's in much the same way ringette is.

I think it's another example of the cachet of elite sport being more appealing to many.

@mudgetastic

But the time and commitment issue must ?be the same for boys yet they don't drop out at the same rate ?

It's really not.

Firstly, boys can just rock up to football pitches together. Girls sports aren't so accessible and easy. I do which more girls would be encouraged into football.

Then there's the getting ready pressure before and after for girls. You see boys kicking about in joggers and trainers, even school uniform to play football after school! Whereas girls need to change into sports bras, can't do exercise in a school skirt, etc. Much more of a faff. Worried about their make-up running from sweat, etc.

Then showering. Boys can be showered and dressed in 5 minutes. Teenage girls (feel like they) need to dry and style their hair, redo their make-up. All this pressure to look perfect again, which takes so much time.

That's without even considering all the pressure and issues periods cause.

There is the safety issue for girls too - they can't easily walk themselves to clubs the way boys can, so parents need to drive them, which is a time commitment for parents too and particularly difficult when there are other siblings.

There's also the intimidation factor for girls too. It takes quite a lot of confidence for girls to be in a mixed-sex sport environment, because when it's mixed-sex, it's male-dominated. Most girls don't have that confidence (because society systematically destroys it... I digress).

Participation sports for girls are actually pretty rare. Nearly everything involves some level of competition, not much you can go and do for fun.

That needs changing firstly.

What can parents do to help?

Encourage. I have heard so many times comments on my swimmer girls- oh you’ll get big shoulders, you won’t want to be smelling of chlorine when you get interested in boys. Same old shit I had as a kid.

Also the comments about “going to the olympics” if you mention you do a sport. It’s ok to be average, not exceptional.

Many comments about stopping sport because they should be focussing on school too. Lots of parents I know started discouraging around secondary school. Some parents lose interest once the kids become more independent and they don’t need to be with them.

Also encourage many sports. If they don’t like football any more, try cross fit, or trampolining, or martial arts.

I really liked this Janina:

‘I suspect it's a mix of thing that helps. Parental support to drive them about and buy decent kit and who prioritise their daughter's sport as much as their sons, lots of options for dealing with periods (and the realisation that exercise actually helps with period pain), good role models, committed coaches at out of school activities who stand up for girl's sport, a range of sports and exercise offered at school (not just competitive sport), female PE teachers, sex segregated PE classes, body confidence based on physical fitness rather than being sexually attractive to boys.’

@JaninaDuszejko

Parkrun have done a proper study looking at why more women sign up to parkrun but more men actually participate.

blog.parkrun.com/uk/2022/02/16/gender-balance-through-the-parkrun-journey/

I have boys but they struggle with teams sports but enjoy parkrun.

Agreed school sport should be a better mix of team sports, athletics and fitness like yoga and aerobics.

Thank you Taswama for the link, I had no idea that it is OK to walk the parkrun route (even if only a small minority of participants do it walking). I’d like to think I DGAF about ‘looking stupid’ ie doing something differently, at my age. I am not (ever?) going to be able to run it, but I could probably walk a Parkrun route. I like the idea of making a regular commitment to do that, as long as I can free up the time to do it.

My personal experience is that sporting or exercise participation is also linked to self esteem so it’s a complex issue. And making the time to do something that’s good for you, and which is not always fun to do, is something that once you hit puberty and start questioning everything, can easily fall by the wayside pretty much for good.

Then there are things you can do in private to exercise, like yoga at home with a Youtube video to tell you what to do, but you need self discipline and self esteem to set the time to do it and then actually do it even for five minutes on your own - because easily it can feel like there’s always something more important to be doing. Often it’s not self deception, there may actually be something more important to be doing.

I think there is possibly a common thread here, that at puberty as we know well from these boards, lots of girls and young women learn to essentially disassociate from our own female bodies as a practical strategy to cope with the misogyny that every post-pubescent female body attracts.

That’s going to make the experience of wearing clothes and having a female body in public, having sex with a man or a woman, childbirth, breastfeeding, and a long list of other things including, doing regular exercise or playing sport, can be emotionally complex for us as women if we have adopted that coping strategy. Consciously or not.

I wonder if that’s why we see for example yoga classes (which attract mostly women IME) and swimming outdoors (which submerge your body from view and don’t involve what feels like a parade across the poolside) are popular among adult women rather than children, say. It’s about resisting male encroachment on female physicality and women’s spaces. That issue goes far beyond individual sports and is a societal issue to solve. So it’s really important that we can get children’s and teenagers’ sports right as a way to break that cycle, because sports or doing some form of exercise are absolutely crucial for life-long health.

My DD has refused to do PE since they had to start changing at school again. She's since started self harming so that's her secondary school PE kissed goodbye. Cubicles would allow her to change.

My local parkrun celebrates its 300th anniversary next month but I only started going in 2018. Before that, I had one or other child with me at that time and had no idea that running with a buggy was an option.

Parkrun does a lot of online content but there's not a single poster at the cafe where it starts and finishes so you wouldn't know it was on there unless you happen to be there between 8.30 and 10.30 ish on a Saturday.

I agree that self esteem is important, you need to value your own health and fitness and have the time and (mental) space to do it. I believe Title X in the US is supposed to ensure male and female sports get equal funding but I'm not sure we have an equivalent in the UK.

@megletthesecond.

Have you talked to school? After ongoing bullying in the changing rooms, my DS now gets changed in their nurture centre.

Three aren't usually yoga classes and the such (mostly female spaces and non competitive etc) available to girls when they are teens though are there. My daughter is at a girls school and there's a lot of very good gym/dance/swimmers who all spend hours and hours and you couldn't compete with them anyway. Then the country level sports players who play outside of school. There isn't really a ton of teen yoga classes or gentle swim sessions or aquaerobics aimed at teens in the way there are 100s of football classes. She would want to go with other teens/young people not with me!

I think that young women's yoga, non-competitive swimming, exercise classes etc would be a great idea. When I was at school 6th formers were allowed to choose to do a "fitness video" in the small hall which was great. Noone grading them, just for its own sake and it was a fun one we enjoyed, small group of us etc.

Three aren't usually yoga classes and the such (mostly female spaces and non competitive etc) available to girls when they are teens though are there. My daughter is at a girls school and there's a lot of very good gym/dance/swimmers who all spend hours and hours and you couldn't compete with them anyway

This is part of the problem- girls “sport” is either the high level very good competitive kids, or “gentle” girly type stuff like yoga or aquarobics.

I found yoga etc phenomenally boring. And mainly full of old ladies when I went to classes as a teenager. But the sports clubs were not really an option either as I was just no where near that standard.

What if a 15 year old enjoys gymnastics but doesn’t want to train and compete the 21+ hours a week? There might be a once a week teen class but realistically you aren’t going to learn anything or progress in 1 hour a week.

I would have enjoyed stuff like Weights classes- proper ones not fannying around with a 2kg dumbell focussing on reducing bingo wings but making sure you didn’t “bulk up” or get too muscly. . Or challenging circuits. Proper swim sessions with sets and drills.

“Fitness”aimed at women and girls seems to not be goal oriented at all. There’s no progression or structure, or any sort of measurement of improvement. One of the things that keeps me motivated is trying to lift a bit more weight, or beat a pb cycling to work, or keep up with the swimmers in the next lane. If there’s no challenge I don’t push myself.

Cycling/triathlon are good options as it’s very mixed ability throughout the disciplines, and it’s easier to dip in and out of.

Some girls may want something a bit more energetic and sporty, but there’s nothing.

My point is that there isn't the "gentle" or non competitive option either though. There isn't yoga / aqauerobics for teens. I wouldn't have wanted to go to a group full of retired people at that age - the option simply isn't there. There isn't something girls can just rock up to.

Two daughters and I had to fight hard to keep them playing sports during secondary school. It was awful in school but outside of school they were in clubs with more of an emphasis on being friendly and sociable with members from many schools rather than a cliquey group. But it was a lot of effort. It all fell apart during lockdown for my youngest when she was having to transition to a ladies team at 14, coinciding with the sport being shut down for the best part of a year. I let her leave.

That's another issue, girls having to play in ladies teams, rather than age group teams at a younger age than boys. It just creates another easy point for them to give up. Whereas friends with boys had their sons playing in age group teams until they finished 6th form.

University is another issue. Sports teams at some universities are elitist and lower abilities don't get a look in. But at least they have the opportunity to try lots of new things and my older daughter at uni is doing yoga, swimming, volleyball and signed up to beginners gymnastics.

My younger daughter was put off sport in primary school when netball club had limited numbers and they had to do trials. The sports was run by 20 year old males who had completed a btec in sports and had little knowledge of child development or understanding of girls and sport. PE staff are often the least able to relate to how to keep girls doing sports/keep active, as they were the anomaly - that's why they went down the path of studying PE.

Now DD2 is higher up her school she has a few choices and actually does go along to some lunchtime clubs for which she only has to change her shoes. It's turn up and play, casual, sociable and fun and gives her brain enough of a lift to get through afternoon lessons. Seems more of that is needed.

My point is that there isn't the "gentle" or non competitive option either though. There isn't yoga / aqauerobics for teens. I wouldn't have wanted to go to a group full of retired people at that age - the option simply isn't there. There isn't something girls can just rock up to

Oh agreed- i was making the point that whenever the topic of why girls don’t do sport is raised, the suggestion is always to provide yoga or other gentle girly option as an alternative to competitive sport. No one seems to consider that some girls who aren’t super great at sport may still want something sporty rather than yoga or dance aerobics.