’You throw like a girl’, ‘girls are delicate’ or ‘sport isn’t for girly girls’ - the way we talk to little girls about sport is doing lasting damage and new research, unveiled today, lays bear just how excluded they feel compared to boys.
Despite teams of female athletes enjoying more visibility than ever thanks to the Lionesses’ Euros victory and the England Red Roses women’s rugby team reaching their World Cup final last summer, girls are still being pigeonholed as fragile, weak and less able to compete, leaving them feeling that they don’t belong in sport, according to British charity Women in Sport.
Their new research reveals that almost 60 per cent of parents with girls as young as five said their daughters had felt excluded from sport or physical activity. One quarter said it was because she’d been told sport ‘wasn’t for girls’.
The data-packed report is called ‘Sport, stereotypes and stolen dreams: Why girls still feel they don’t belong in sport’ and concludes that the way that we still talk to girls - from parents and teachers to coaches, adverts and the media - is crushing confidence and self belief and limiting both their enjoyment of and participation in sport.
Almost 2,000 parents of 5-11 year old girls and boys were surveyed. Little over a quarter described their daughters as ‘sporty’, compared to more than one third of those raising boys. Forty per cent instead described daughters, aged five, six and seven, as a ‘girly girl’ and one third called them a ‘princess.’
It seems a serious re-examination of the way we speak to our daughters and the girls in our care is due if society is to raise courageous, powerful and fearless women.
Stephanie Hilborne OBE, CEO of Women in Sport, said girls were bombarded with daily messages that cause them to internalise gender stereotypes making them believe that they cannot compete.
She said: “Currently girls are competing in the race of life from a staggered start point.
“Girls aren’t born under-confident, they are being held back by gender stereotyping.
“Rather than girls being encouraged to achieve whatever they set their mind to, they’re surrounded by messages telling them they’re fragile, weak and don’t like competition.
“We know that sport can teach pivotal life skills like resilience, courage and self-belief but far too many girls are missing out as they’re being pigeonholed into what society expects of them.”
According to the research, less than a quarter of parents said they’d prefer their daughters to take part in team sports, compared to half of those raising boys.
Instead they are steered towards individual ‘prettier’ sports like dance and gymnastics which, while wonderful, have a long-standing, typically female, association with body image, perfectionism and appearance alongside the athletic skills they hone. Sports where you get your knees dirty are still a no go place for too many little girls who are led to believe there is limited value in them taking part.
As a result, by 17-18, little over a quarter of girls describe themselves as ‘sporty’, compared to over half of boys and less than half of parents describe their daughters as confident (43%), determined (38%), strong (35%) or resilient (23%), Women in Sport have previously found.
Changing the language we use impacts girls’ ambitions in and outside sport, past teenage hood and into adulthood.
Hilborne said: “We want to inspire more women into leadership positions within government, business and sport and see them celebrated for their achievements.
“If we are to give girls an equal chance to thrive we must unburden them from gender stereotypes, lift the labels and surround them with the expectation they will succeed.”