One In Three Girls Say They Don’t Have The Same Sporting Opportunities As Boys
[Photo: Getty]
We’re about to see some incredible female athletes and sports players take to the world stage at Rio 2016 but, unfortunately, not every girl is being given the opportunity to follow in their footsteps.
According to a study of 1600 girls by Girlguiding, a third of female pupils aged 11 to 16 felt they didn’t have the same access to sports at school as their male counterparts.
Many girls pointed to sports like cricket, football and contact rugby, which they said the boys had been taught while they hadn’t.
The research suggested that the gap emerges once girls move from primary to secondary school. Nine out of ten girls aged 7-10 said that they were given the same opportunities as boys but thirty four per cent of girls aged 11-16 reported being treated differently.
[Photo: Getty]
Eight out of ten girls aged 11 and over said they viewed female Olympians and Paralympians as positive role models.
Girlguiding wants to do something about these findings. They’ve partnered with some awesome sporting women including Judy Murray, Kelly Holmes, Lizzy Yarnold and Beth Tweddle in a bid to highlight the inequalities young girls can face in trying to access sport.
The stars are encouraging schools to give girls more options.
Victoria Jenkinson, from GirlGuiding’s Advocate Panel, said some girls who took part in the study admitted feeling “too intimidated” to try certain sports if they weren’t offered to them upfront by their school.
She said: “No girl should be made to feel that a certain sport isn’t for them.”
Too right.
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