Last summer I was shopping for a birthday card for my football-mad 11-year-old daughter, who plays hours (and hours) of football each week for her local team. At the time, the Lionesses were heading to the Women’s World Cup final, the King was urging them to ‘roar to victory’, while Prince William was thanking them for ‘the millions you’ve inspired here and around the world.’ But faced with the birthday card aisle, the only football-themed cards I could find said ‘Birthday Boy!’ on them.
Enraging, yes. But surprising? Not when you consider the below picture which was taken this week and shows two toys in Flying Tiger. A young boy is holding a play tool kit, and above him a girl is holding a hairdresser’s set.
Despite parents pushing back against such gender stereotypes in recent years, some stubbornly remain. Flick through a toy catalogue right now and you’ll still see it's mostly little girls playing with the dolls and prams, and in high street stores you’ll find football pyjamas and hoodies in the boy’s section (I know, because I've been looking).
I thought things have moved on since the days my daughters, now 11 and 14, were young. All you could find back then were t-shirts urging them to ‘Be Kind’ and ‘Keep Smiling’, while the boy’s t-shirts urged them to ‘Break The Rules’ and told them they were a ‘Superhero’ or ‘Fearless’ (which arguably is just as problematic for little boys to live up to). Many retailers have made real progress over the years in a bid to make toys more gender neutral and to step outside the gendered stereotypes. But have they done enough? And why does it matter?
You could argue that little girls do love wearing pink, playing with baby dolls, and want to grow up to be hairdressers. Both my daughters loved dolls and dressing up. But they also loved climbing trees and playing sports (both joined their local football teams when they were six).
But even their shoes held them back. Whenever I went school shoe shopping, I would quietly rage that most of the girl’s shoes on offer were shiny black patent Mary Janes with bows, while the boys had sturdy trainer-like ones that covered their whole foot. How do you think that translates in the playground? Boys are more likely to run, climb, and football their way around it, while girls are told to be careful not to scuff their lovely shoes.
Little wonder that official figures show girls are consistently less active than boys. In 2023, data from Sport England and This Girl Can found the gender fitness gap begins in primary school when girls were found to ‘fall off a fitness cliff’, citing reasons like self-consciousness as a reason to not do sport. In 2019, their research found that just 8% of girls aged between 11 and 18 were doing the recommended hour of activity per day, compared with 16 per cent of boys.
Meanwhile, a study published last month from Youth Sport Trust found that the number of girls enjoying PE drops dramatically throughout their school life, with 86% of girls aged 7 to 8 enjoying PE, compared to only 56% of girls aged 14 to 15.
Off the playground, we see the effects too. UK women make up a mere 27% of STEM (science, technology, engineering and maths) graduates. Little wonder when you consider that earlier this year, a Teach First survey found that a 'confidence gap' exists between boys and girls when it comes to STEM subjects. Research commissioned by the charity found that 54.3% of girls don’t feel confident learning maths compared to 41.2% of boys, while 43% of girls don’t feel confident learning science compared to just 26% of boys. Despite this, girls are outperforming boys in science and engineering at GCSE level, but fewer take the subjects for A-Level leading to a lack of diversity in the STEM industry.
‘Girls are just as capable as boys when it comes to maths and science, but this confidence gap poses a huge threat to the UK’s future, with STEM skills desperately needed to boost economic growth and to help tackle the major problems we face such as climate change,’ says Amy Mitchell, the charity’s Chief Impact Officer.
Perhaps we can start by teaching little girls to run around even if their shoes get scuffed, to go into any career they want and to be fearless, rather than to simply be kind and keep smiling?