Sexism in Sport
An analysis of an exercise epidemic
The effects of female early childhood on sport
A simple Google search on the benefits of exercise can easily tell you why it is vital to move your body.
No one should go without or be excluded from the joy and lifelong benefits of exercise. However, gender inequality in sport is apparent and a damning issue which is affecting females all over London.
1.9 million more Brits tuned in to watch the Men's Euro final in 2024 despite the Lionesses taking victory in 2022 in the same competition.
Which makes me question why do males dominate in sport?
To understand this it is important to go back to early childhood when sport is introduced to many of us.
Data obtained by statista.com.
Data obtained from 'Women in Sport' charity studies.
Data obtained by Youth Sports Trust.
PE teacher Mrs Austen says..
"Generally boys seem to have a natural confidence that they will be great at whatever they are doing whereas girls tend to want to watch and learn. This gap in confidence can then make the boys assume that the girls are not as good as them at sport."
Early Childhood in Sport
The average gender differences in sport and motor skills are attributed to to physical biological differences. Physical characteristics of postpubescent males predispose them to outperform females in sports that require strength, power and speed. Adult males tend to be taller with longer limbs.
Adult males have more overall muscle mass and less body fat than females. Male athletes average 4% to 12% body fat compared to 12% to 23% in female athletes. Males also develop larger skeletal muscles, as well as larger hearts and lungs and a greater number of red blood cells meaning they are at an advantage for aerobic sport due to their increased ability of oxygen absorption.
Without a doubt postpubescent males have a physical and biological advantage in sport performance. But what about gender differences that appear before puberty? In early childhood sport males and females have very little physical differences between them so why is sport so different for each gender so early on?
The answer- gender stereotyping. This is a process in which the child's biological sex determines the activities they are allowed and made to engage in and how they are treated within these activities. The majority of sports are perceived as a masculine domain. This stereotype results in males perceiving greater ability and attaching greater importance to sport than girls. This results in females not being encouraged by parents to be physically active, children being pressured into 'gender appropriate' sports as well as the sexualisation that occurs when females play sport which is constantly seen in the media.
However, more damningly, the sensitive period for learning fundamental motor skills is between the ages of two and eight years of age.
This limited time in human development is when the effects of learning experiences are particularly strong. Sensitive periods are the most fertile time to learn motor skills; although skills may acquire later on in life it is much more difficult for the person to learn.
Studies show that athletes fail to reach the same levels of proficiency as those who began learning them in their sensitive period. On average, boys are superior to girls on most fundamental motor skills, particularly object control- throwing, catching, kicking. When girls fail to learn these fundamental critical skills during their early years they are at a disadvantage when they want to participate in sport in their later years. These skills are often ones you learn from an early age at school and so it makes one wonder what is happening in those physical education lessons to put females at such a disadvantage?
An Insight
To gain a greater understanding about this injustice in sport Stephanie Austen a PE teacher in Windsor weighed in with her professional experience.
Austen states that at prep school level (age 8- 13) parental support is pretty similar for both genders at matches. However, as children progress through school this tends to drop off for girls. She explains how more mums tend to watch the girls play. Whereas, both mums and dads tend to watch the boys.
Interestingly, Austen states how when she worked at secondary schools (children aged 11- 18) very few parents would attend sporting fixtures for the girls. It was rare for a parent to turn up and support their daughter. However Austen, who has two boys of her own, shared that lots of parents would attend these matches for their sons, which typically would always be on a Saturday.
She suggested perhaps this vast difference could be linked to gender stereotypes. She explained how it is more challenging for a female PE teacher to give up Saturdays for school sport due to the expectation for them to be at home with their families.
This lack of support, involvement and encouragement from parents towards their daughters is apparent and obvious when directly compared to the males.
This was also made apparent to me when Austen gave the example that the majority of boys when playing cricket at school will attend classes with their own cricket bats supplied by parents. However, when girls play hockey only around half of them will have their own sticks.
On the topic of PE kits, Austen's school changed the cricket kits for females from white trousers to dark ones. Girls in years 6-8 (age 10- 13) were worried if they had their period they would leak directly onto the white material. Austen also explained how this was similar to white PE tops where female students would feel self conscious once starting to wear a bra that it was visible through the lightweight pale fabric.
Austen warns how when she taught in secondary schools there was a drop off for females in sport from year 9 (age 13- 14). Having been asked why this may be Austen gives numerous reasons: parental support and interests start to wane, there are more options to socialise, girls become more self conscious about their changing bodies and schools aren't offering and adapting to what females need/want.
There has also been a shift in sports that are offered to women. Whilst this is a positive thing, there are also some negative aspects as well. Cricket, football and rugby all have female teams and the media coverage of these sports has increased. Netball continues to be the biggest participation sport for girls/women but the media, which is male driven, will say it is football because the numbers have risen from a very low starting point. Female participation in traditionally male sports absorbs more air time, which is good and progressive compared to the past however, it makes one question where this leaves traditionally female sports such as netball and hockey. It is wrong that sports coverage in the media is not unanimous with female interests.
Data obtained from 'Women in Sport' charity studies.
The Outcome
To fully understand how this exercise epidemic is effecting females it is important to look at the long term effects it is having.
A third of women aged 41 to 60 are not meeting the Chief Medical Officer's guidelines of 150 minutes per week of exercise and a fifth are not even achieving 30 minutes per week. However, this age is typically linked to menopause where the desire to be active is high. Physical exercise can help women to manage and cope better with their symptoms. However, the absence of sport in their midlife is causing significant consequences and barriers.
Many women in later life have the desire, want and need to exercise. However, they struggle to due to factors such as embarrassment, shame, being self conscious, or even not knowing how to exercise.
Zoe Mott, 53 from Windsor said: "I was diagnosed with menopause in my early forties and was recommended by my doctor to exercise to help relieve symptoms."
Mott explained she hadn't really exercised much since school where she used to play hockey and she felt lost at 40 trying to figure out how to move her body.
She added: "I decided to join a local gym and I'm slightly embarrassed to admit how anxious I was the first couple of times I went. I didn't really know what I was doing and I had this idea in my head that it would be full of men lifting big heavy weights. I was really intimidated."
Mott described her gym routine as: "staying away from the machines I don't really know how to use". She also explained how she participates in classes held by gym instructors. The instructors often show you exercises that you then act out. This reflects on Austen's interpretation previously where at school girls tend to want to watch and learn.
It is clear there is a deep routed issue for females in sport. From early childhood in school to late adulthood females across the globe are being negatively impacted psychologically and physically due to the lack of movement in their lives. It is worrying that the absence of sport in childhood leads to adult females lacking the ability to engage in sport in later life. This vicious cycle is detrimental to the quality and quantity of life and so has become an exercise epidemic which needs to be addressed.
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