A recent study that came out in 2020 illustrated the dire state we are in for girls in sports. The Rally Report stated that 1 in 3 girls are dropping out of sports. 62% of Canadian girls are not participating in any sport. This statistic is extremely concerning to me, and if you’ve been following this blog, you understand the critical role physical activity plays in one’s life and this statistic should be concerning to you too! The reasons for this statistic, found by Catherine Sabiston (author of The Rally Report) and her research team at the University of Toronto, vary. Barriers girls face when it comes to sports include issues related to race and ethnic visibility (24% of indigenous girls participate in sports, while 34% of Asian and Caucasian girls participate and 45% of black girls) there is also barriers to access when it comes to disabilities. On top of that is the economic barrier (44% of girls in households making an income of under $50,000 participate in sports). Then there is the issue of body image and confidence. 1 in 3 girls reported low confidence, negative body image, and perceived lack of skill as being factors contributing to their lack of participation in sports. An excellent article co-authored by Catherine Sabiston looks at the issue of body image from a coach’s perspective. In “What’s a Coach to do?” 13 coaches of girl sports were interviewed on the topic of body image in girl’s sport. The coaches all identified body image as a prevalent issue in their sport. The number one suggestion the coaches provided for tackling this issue was to FOSTER A CULTURE THAT FOCUSES LESS ON BODY APPEARANCE AND MORE ON RECOGNIZING AND APPRECIATING BODY FUNCTIONALITY. Too often the discussion around girls and women’s sport comes back to how a girl physically looks on the field and this is not okay. While this is a major change that needs to be made in our culture there are many more changes we can make as coaches, parents, and educators (see attached infographic)
This statistic piqued my interest about women’s sports culture in my local community, and so, I decided to conduct a series of interviews with girls in kindergarten, grade 5 and high school. The interview with kindergarten and grade 5 girls was chaotic but an excellent learning experience. I had to figure out how to make my first parent consent form in order to record the students answers to my interview questions. It was also a neat way of learning how to direct conversation and keep students engaged when asking questions like these.
I was fortunate enough to be able to interview 10 girls in total from Steeples Elementary School. Unfortunately, I was not able to include all 10 interviews on this post, but using the audio editing platform Audacity I was able to compile the interviews into the short 10 minute podcast embedded in the post above. For privacy purposes I chose to omit the raw interviews from this site, but if you are a parent of one of the students I interviewed and would like a copy of your child’s interview feel free to contact me!
In addition to the interviews I conducted at Steeples I also held a round table discussion with a group of girls from Mount Baker Highschool under supervision of the rugby coach Joyce Kendon. This was a round-table style interview where all the girls got to share their story, experience in sports, and opinions on different hot topics in the world of women’s sport.
These interviews left me feeling very uplifted about the experience of girls in sport in my community, but even in conversations with only about 20 girls there were absolutely talk of inequality and lack of support for these girls in sports. The conversations with the kindergarten girls were all very positive for the most part. The grade 5 girls all still seemed very motivated towards sports, but there was definitely a sense of those nasty gender biases creeping in. One girl in particular stated that on the soccer field at lunch the boys were quite exclusionary towards girls who wanted to play.
