Challenging gender stereotypes: Girls are allowed to enjoy sports

Gender inequality doesn’t wait until girls become women to cause harm. Gender roles, stereotypes and biases start influencing the child’s life long before they’re even born. While gender bias hurts everyone, they especially limit girls, leaving them doubting themselves, their likes and interests.  

From February to March 2023, the GFS Programme and Impact Team travelled up and down the country holding focus groups and asking girls what they thought and felt on key questions.  

In it, girls discussed everything from lessons and learning to friendship and bullying, treatment from boys came up often under all subjects.  

While girls talked negatives, they also told us the things they liked and the things they’d gotten better at since joining GFS. This included skills, but more importantly their ability to be themselves.  

Gender stereotypes and the limitations they bring were always present, hiding behind the barriers girls discussed. While girls expressed improvements thanks to GFS, we still saw girls as young as six telling us they feel unable to be themselves. 

Where do girls feel the most limitations 

PE came up frequently as something girls both liked and disliked – it’s something girls’ really look forward to at school, as well as something they feel frustrated and anxious about. But their reasons for frustration aren’t just because they dislike PE and exercise (though some do).  

Often, girls felt they weren’t equally allowed to enjoy sports.  

While we know girls and women are allowed to enjoy sports gender roles manifest real-world barriers. Girls have significantly less opportunities to take part in sport and exercise, and when they are able to access opportunities, they’re less likely to receive support to pursue their interests.

Girls and women are allowed to enjoy sport, but that doesn’t stop gender stereotypes and those who believe them as truth from turning girls away from something they may love and enjoy. And in this case, something that’s good for their overall health and wellbeing too.  

“I think people should change their attitude about girls being able to play sports and respect what we want to do,” – GFS girl, 2021-22 Girls’ Voice Report 

Gender stereotypes force girls to take on personality traits that direct them away from being sporty. A report from Women in Sport found that just 4 in 10 girls define themselves as ‘sporty’ compared to more than 6 out of 10 boys.  

This results in girls feeling pressured to abandon their interests for fear of judgment and other ill-treatment. In our recent focus groups, girls interested in sports reported negative behaviour from boys, re-enforcing gender stereotypes and adding blocks to the barriers that will prevent them from accessing sport later in life.  

“I like PE – football, rugby and tennis – they’re fun, but people (boys) say I’m bad at them.” – GFS focus groups.  

Constant criticism chips away at girls’ confidence and belief in their abilities.

By the time they reach their teenage years, girls are more self-conscious than ever.

In fact, Women in Sport found 4 in 10 girls used to love sport and exercise but have disengaged since primary school.  

Our mostly primary school aged girls have already noticed the judgement and unfairness girls experience when it comes to playing sports.

Even girls who don’t love them, point out the unfairness they see for girls who do.  

“All the boys who do football club take over and say, ‘give it to me, give it to me’ and they’re really annoying. I don’t like football but it’s not fair for the girls that do.” -GFS focus groups.  

Over time, the feelings of judgment, criticism and limited opportunities build up and turn girls away from sport. Women in Sport’s Reframing Sport for Teenage Girls report found 68% of girls feel others are judging them, 61% don’t feel confident, 56% don’t feel good enough to take part, and 47% feel they don’t belong.  

Meanwhile, twice as many boys in years 9-11 feel confident when exercising or playing sport compared to just 19% of girls. 

Our girls are already speaking about feeling excluded from certain sports – particularly football – and want more access to opportunities for themselves or other girls. 

In our 21-22 Girls’ Voice Report, the Group Coordinator for GFS Leytonstone said, “They were particularly indignant about the fact that girls didn’t have the same opportunities as the boys to play football at school, so they were especially keen for this to change.” 

Mental health and barriers 

While we do have many sport-loving girls, we also see that uneasiness in our girls who don’t see themselves as sporty.

Girls with conditions like Autism and anxiety may feel even more anxious when put into a situation they’re told isn’t ‘for them’, while others may struggle with sensory issues from sweating and increased temperature.  

Because girls face more criticism and less encouragement on their ability in sport, they may feel less confident in their ability to try new things when doing sports or exercise.  

Not knowing how to do something creates its own set of anxieties, but girls with anxiety disorders can find it particularly overwhelming. This is even more true in spaces like PE where girls may face teasing and criticism from boys or more athletic children. 

“PE is hard because I can’t do the stretches.” -GFS focus groups   

We know puberty causes girls to feel even more vulnerable and exposed. Teenage girls become more self-conscious as their self-esteem and confidence drops drastically from childhood, with a tremendous drop in wellbeing around age 14, which is not commonly seen in boys (Education Policy Institute 2021).  

In 2018, Sport England found that teenage girls are much less active than teenage boys, with only 10% of girls aged 13-16 meeting the recommended amount of daily physical activity.  

The reasons why girls fall out of love with sports are complicated, but they begin with the discomfort caused by gender roles in childhood and the surrounding pressures.  

“PE makes me feel sweaty because I’m scared and sad when I’m doing it.” -GFS focus groups 

Challenges in teen years

In Women in Sport’s 2022 report, Tackling Teenage Disengagement, 78% have avoided sport when on their period, 73% don’t like other people watching them, 56% don’t like getting hot and sweaty, and 43% don’t feel safe exercising outdoors in their area.  

Of course, there will always be people of every gender who simply do not enjoy sports, but girls’ choice on the matter is restricted. Not only are girls being told that they’re not allowed to enjoy sport and exercise, but in many cases, it becomes unsafe or uncomfortable for them to do so as they get older.  

Sport not only isn’t growing with them, but their self-confidence in their athletic ability is being directly attacked too.

And while puberty brings its own set of challenges, ongoing stigma about periods leaves conversations about working sports around your menstrual cycle off the table.  

While many professional sportswomen have clearly found a way to do so, that information is not reaching sporty teen girls enough.

So, it comes as no big surprise that over time girls turn away from sport.  

In fact, by the age of 13, one in two teenage girls will drop out of sport. That means they’re three times more likely to drop out than boys (Sports Joe). 

Girls don’t start off disinterested

The turn away from sport and exercise isn’t driven by disinterest. In fact, in our recent focus groups we asked girls what they liked about school, and PE was mentioned quite a few times.  

“At school I like Football, I’m a beginner.” – GFS focus groups 

They feel excited trying something new, fun and active. And while they’re already hearing ‘football isn’t for girls’ and other similar comments, it hasn’t built up enough to turn them away from doing what they enjoy yet.  

In the safe spaces GFS provides, we encourage them even further to do what makes them happy and enforce the resilience they need to keep doing it for as long as they wish to.  

“PE and kingball, I’m very competitive. I like tennis because it’s chill and basketball because I’m good at it, it’s easy for me because I’m in a wheelchair.” – GFS focus groups 

But the older they get, the less opportunities they will have to play sports, even if they enjoy them. On top of the limited access rising social pressure will try to convince them that they don’t enjoy sport or exercise.  

As girls’ access to sport and exercise lessens, it continues to grow for boys. In fact, boys get 1.13 million more sport opportunities than girls yearly (Women’s Sports Foundation). Nationwide, 43% of girls who felt they were sporty in primary school, no longer see themselves this way. That’s 1.3 million girls across the UK (Women in Sport).  

What happens when girls are supported to go beyond stereotypes?

At our groups, many girls love active play and exercise. In our recent focus groups, girls shared that they’ve grown more confidence in sport and exercise since joining GFS: 

• “I am more brave when I get hurt at hockey, I can cope better with my feelings.” 
• “I’ve got better at games and not hating active stuff as much, I join in more.” 
• “I’ve got more courage, I can jump off the high pole now when I used to be scared.” 
• “It’s exciting when you’re running around and being with friends.” 
• “At GFS my friends make me happy, and I like doing sports.” 
• “I love Molly’s running around games!” 
• “I’ve got better at helping girls know that it’s okay to be a girl and you can do what you want.”

There are many barriers to sporty girls becoming sporty young women, with safe access and opportunity ranking high. But by re-enforcing their confidence and giving girls the self-esteem to challenge gender roles and the barriers that come with them, we’re giving them the ability to stand up and demand the chances and space they deserve. 

Building confidence and resilience with girls in childhood helps them weather the difficulties of the confidence crisis facing teen girls. Girls are allowed to be sporty (or not). What matters is that we give them the tools and opportunities to choose what they’re ‘allowed’ to do themselves.  

Additional data on the backgrounds of the girls involved