The Truth About Why Girls are Dropping Out of Sports at Such an Early Age
By Kate Krause
It is pretty evident the neglect women’s sports have faced since the display of athletic talent garnered an audience. Women’s sports have never been, as a whole, treated equally to men’s in a variety of aspects.
Women’s matches have not been broadcasted to the same length as men’s, and even when they are it is often with a pay wall, insufficient filming equipment, or many other conditions that create a boring game for viewers.
Women do not receive the same level of compensation as men do in the same sports, and this is increasingly evident when you look at the percentages.
Yes, men’s sports generate more revenue than women's. However, according to Renata Simril from Forbes, the NBA pays around 50% of the revenue from the league, including merchandise, ticket sales, and more, to their players.
On the other hand, the WNBA is paying their players less than 25% of the league’s revenue (Simril). However, the lack of a large pool of women athletes is potentially the most alarming aspect for the future of women's sports.
We have realized that girls are dropping out of athletics at a young age, but why? Well, there are many reasons to break down.
Society’s Pressure of Femininity
A large aspect that is constantly affecting young girls and their participation in sports is the pressure to appear feminine.
Femininity has been used as a weapon of sort, forcing girls into a box where appearing strong and muscular for their desired sport is looked down upon and labelled as masculine.
Some sports, such as soccer and basketball, also have a level of physical contact between players, including pushing, grabbing, and more, that overall makes the game more interesting and competitive.
This physicality between people has always been a “guy thing”, therefore girls achieving that level of strength and ability causes many to be shunned in their respective environments, such as school, and deemed unattractive or undesirable due to this masculinity they supposedly evoke in their sport.
This is also why sports considered more feminine, such as figure skating or dance, usually tend to have a lower dropout rate compared to male dominated sports, as they don’t carry the label of a masculine activity.
This entire category of what is feminine versus masculine is incredibly outdated, and simply pushes people, who potentially don’t want to be pushed, into acting or doing certain things based off of their gender and how society wishes they appear.
In addition, sports that involve a large amount of vocality also tend to be labelled as “unfeminine”, and are not favoured in our society where femininity and attractiveness are so closely connected to the male gaze.
Therefore, because of this masculine drape that is covering so many sports girls love, they tend to drop out and stop playing, from a fear of appearing “too masculine” for society.
They become scared of how the world will perceive them due to the nature of their sport, and how it is constantly viewed as not elegant or not feminine to so many people.
Strength vs. Physical appearance
Another characteristic that is impacting young girls’ involvement in sports is how they appear physically due to the nature of their sports.
All sports require a level of strength and physical aptitude to play at a high level and to simply advance competitively within the ranks.
However, developing one’s strength also leads to a change in physical appearance with the increase in muscle mass. This is contradictory to what the world deems the desirable body for women, which is often a thinner build.
The gain of muscle takes women away from this socially favoured body type and towards a more masculine presenting — in society’s eyes — build.
Physical appearance has always been something our world has tackled women with since the beginning of history.
Women are constantly showed the “ideal” body type they are supposed to have, which many athletic intensive sports do not support due to their large amounts of exercise.
Because of this, there is a perpetual battle in the minds of young girls between wether they want to continue to push themselves physically to help with their progression in their sport, or try to squeeze into the almost impossible beauty standards for women and understanding they will be treated differently if they do not.
I have been told countless times how my fellow peers in my sport do not want to train with heavier weights out of fear they will “bulk up”. I do not blame them one bit.
Our world has had a streak of treating females differently because of their body types, so it’s no wonder many girls are worried this maltreatment will happen to them.
So, this is yet another reason many girls leave competitive athletics at a young age, because society is telling them their bodies don’t look like how they “should”. They are stronger, more powerful than a woman who doesn't play high level sports, and that can be intimidating.
Especially when throughout history women have been portrayed as weak, a muscular woman breaks those stereotypes, which many are not prepared for, despite how normalized it should be.
Lack of Importance and Time
The last point I want to make in regards to girls and sports is that for young women, sports are not seen as a priority like they are for young men.
When I was young, my class was asked the question what we wanted to be when we grew up.
The boys in my class said things like lawyer, soccer player, basketball player, doctor, etc, while the girls in my class stated occupations like lawyer, marine biologist, architect, doctor, etc.
Now that I am older, I have come to realize that that is because as girls, we have been taught not to see sports as a viable or possible option for our future career paths. We haven’t been pushed to excel professionally in athletics like boys are, and athletics have not been represented as something we can or should pursue.
We have been taught that the sports in our lives are not as important and shouldn’t be considered as such as other ventures we participate in on the daily, such as school.
That’s also why girls have been incredibly stereotypically seen as more intelligent or more schoolwork focused than boys, because the girls who do have athletics in their lives are not showed that they can be important or even significant enough to create a career around. Girls are told to focus on other things, and to keep sports on the back burner as a way to “escape” from the life they are carefully curating.
The result of this is that they begin to put less time into their chosen sports, and turn their attention towards things they are told they should care more about, like their families or school.
Not that there is anything wrong with prioritizing certain things such as family over others, it is just insight on why young girls tend to not be interested in continuing a sport in the long run.
Sports are not prioritized for girls in the same way they are for boys, which turns into a dance of time management where girls need to divide their days around different activities, and with sports being low on the importance list, there often doesn't seem to be enough time in the day to accommodate for long practices or the mental exertion of a sport consistently.
So, girls begin filling up their days with school work, friends, family, and hobbies, as sports were never put on the same pedestal as they are for boys.
What can we do?
It is true, the mindset around girl’s and women’s sports is changing, but there are still many ways we can help bridge the gap between men and women in an athletic setting.
For one, releasing the intense pressure of femininity, and dismantling what femininity means in our society can be a big step to promoting and encouraging young girls to stay consistent in sports.
Getting rid of the importance of physical appearance on young girls and improving the importance of sports in their lives is also vital. This can be done by changing our thoughts surrounding girls in athletics and vocabulary we use when talking about sports.
Overall, sports for young girls have evolved greatly over the years. There are still many things that are halting the advancement of it, but also many opportunities to start changing the narrative surrounding females in athletics.
