Equal Access
Making it happen for all girls
By John Engh
Photos: Nays
At a recent annual Youth Sports Congress, which the National Alliance for Youth Sports held virtually to adjust to these challenging times, Kim Turner, who works with the Fair Play for Girls in Sports Project, held an educational session that encouraged park and recreation departments to treat girls equally on and off the field. Sports played a huge role in Turner’s growth and development, as she played on the volleyball team at Brown University.
As someone who is lucky enough (and old enough) to have a daughter who graduated from college and went out into the real world and was hired by a company she loves, I can’t help but look back and appreciate the role that sports played in her development as a motivated and ambitious young adult. In particular, I am glad that girls have the opportunities they now have, though work still needs to be done to ensure all girls have access to and can benefit from the amazing power of sports.
My daughter’s first sport was soccer. She loved playing games but, more importantly to me, she loved practicing. When a child asks to go out in the yard and work on skills, I know she really loves a sport. The other thing I noticed was her natural love of competition. She was a natural defender, and when she’d get beat, I saw her competitive nature take hold and lead her to do better. She was always one of the better players on the team, but never had aspirations beyond having fun on her high school team.
Because she spent many vacations with her cousins from Maryland, she was fortunate to be exposed to lacrosse. At that time, only private schools had lacrosse teams. I felt so lucky when her high school started a varsity girls program in her freshman year. The administration paid attention to many of the same issues that Turner presented, and it made the decision to fund the programs. After finishing the fall season of soccer, my daughter decided to try out for the lacrosse team. Little did she know she would be one of the most experienced players in that first season. So, many of the girls in the county basically learned the sport together, not to mention the parents in the stands!
In four years, the team went from hardly being able to field a team to having more than 30 players sign up. The team won half of the games that year and even made the district playoffs by finishing fourth out of 10 teams.
People know that girls who play sports have higher self-esteem and greater physical fitness than those who don’t participate. The former are more likely to make healthier decisions when it comes to steering clear of drugs and alcohol; they also enjoy stronger and healthier relationships, and they secure better paying jobs.
For many years, it was known about the advantages of boys playing sports, so what were people thinking when it came to girls?
Do Something
As noted above, while it is great to see progress has been made, work remains to be done.
And it’s up to us professionals to make it happen.
“Gender equity in sports is something we can fix in our lifetime,” Turner says.
Check out these ways Turner suggests recreation professionals can work to ensure that girls are treated equally when it comes to sports programs in their communities:
Facility inspection. Turner says, “When you walk around your facility, ask yourself how many girls are really playing, and what is the quality of that experience? Think about where you can make improvements.”
Ask girls. Check with participants in the program to learn what sports they are interested in. You may be surprised what the girls share, and adding a particular program may spark girls who have never been a part of your department’s programs before.
Signage. Review the posters and signs at your facility that announce registrations for upcoming seasons. If the advertisements feature all or mostly boys, chances are girls aren’t going to be interested in participating. But if you feature action shots of girls competing and having fun, you’re likely to see an increase in female participation.
My daughter was fortunate, and I am forever grateful for the opportunities she had and how they shaped her life. And it’s my hope that we can do the same for all girls everywhere.
John Engh is executive director of the National Alliance for Youth Sports (NAYS) in West Palm Beach, Fla. He can be reached via email at jengh@nays.org. To join more than 3,000 communities by starting a NAYS Member Organization, visit www.nays.org, email nays@nays.org or call (800) 729-2057.