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SALT LAKE CITY — Girls don't play sports.
At least, that is what gender stereotypes have historically lead people to believe. That is the sentiment behind playground bullies' taunts and even some parents' beliefs, and it is even beginning to show up in statistics: after 14, girls are twice as likely to drop out of sports as their male counterparts.
The Women's Sports Foundation aims to change that, though, with its "Keep Her in the Game" campaign.
The campaign aims, through social media and advertising campaigns, to combat the disadvantages females face in the sports world that may keep them from continued participation in athletics — disadvantages such as lack of access and cost.
Title IX was passed in 1972 in order to prevent sexual discrimination in education. Still, females have 1.3 million fewer opportunities to play high school sports than males have. And even when opportunities are available, the women's facilities are often lacking, compared to men's, and their playing times inconvenient.
In addition, a social stigma surrounds female athletes that males never have to deal with: they can be discriminated against based on others' perceptions of their sexual orientation or gender identity.
"Girls in sports may experience bullying, social isolation, negative performance evaluations, or the loss of their starting position," the foundation notes. "During socially fragile adolescence, the fear of being tagged ‘gay' is strong enough to push many girls out of the game."
These are in addition to problems facing both genders in sports such as safety and transportation issue and high costs in a struggling economy.
- Lack of access
- Safety and transportation issues
- Social stigma
- Decreased quality of experiment
- Cost
- Lack of positive role models
The foundation also draws attention to what it says is a lack of positive female role models in society today.
"Today's girls are bombarded with images of external beauty, not those of confident, strong female athletic role models," it notes. "To some girls, fitting within the mold that they are constantly told to stay in is more important than standing out."
That perception may lead girls to avoid sports, but the opposite should be the case, since research has shown that female athletes actually have more positive body images than non- athletes, and the effects are the same in later life: three-quarters of working women said participation in sports enhances their self-image.
Young women with fragile self-esteem may be given a boost, though, as women in sports have reached multiple milestones in recent weeks. For the first time, women outnumber men on the U.S. Olympic team. And Saudi Arabia, notorious for its ultraconservative views of women, decided under pressure from the International Olympic Committee to allow two female athletes to compete in the Olympics for the first time in the nation's history.
It's a start, for a gender that has routinely seen discrimination in athletics. and it is exactly what the "Keep Her in the Game" campaign is trying to promote.
