CEO blog: changing the narrative on girls in sport

There was a plethora of powerful examples of amazing women during the International Women’s Day celebrations last week.

It was uplifting to see cross-sector support and championing of women in sport, women in enterprise, women in leadership, women who are changing the world.

There were also some stark reminders on television last week about the huge issue of violence against women and girls, with documentaries being aired about Sarah Everard (Sarah Everard: The Search for Justice) and Fawziyah Javed (The Push) on BBC1 and Channel 4 respectively. Their truly shocking stories reminded me that we sadly have so far to go to ensure that women and girls are viewed and treated on an equal footing with men across society.

This was reinforced in the Women in Sport publication last week ‘Boys will be boys: Creating a new generation of male allies for girls in sport’.

Creating male allies for girls in sport is absolutely critical if we are to succeed in changing the narrative around girls in sport. The report highlights how ‘sportiness’ is still seen as a fundamental part of a boy’s identity from a young age, and states that such stereotyping not only creates a negative environment for those boys who don’t like, or are not good at, sport, but critically it excludes girls from sport.

Whilst parents have a critical influencing role to play on young children, there is also a significant opportunity within Early Years (pre-school and Reception) settings to support and encourage all children to enjoy learning through movement and physical activity. This can lead on to supporting children to continue a love of physical activity into later Primary school years and beyond, which gives girls a greater chance of enjoying sport, and which supports boys to understand the value of sport for girls as well as boys.

We are therefore delighted to be holding our annual Early Years Conference this week. This fantastic sold-out event, organised by our hugely passionate children and young people’s team at Rise, provides Early Years professionals with skills, knowledge and awareness about supporting all children in their care, regardless of gender or ability, to learn through movement and enjoy a variety of ways to be physically active.

We believe that these are the fundamental building blocks to ensuring that all children, boys and girls, both enjoy being active and can be allies for one another in how important movement, physical activity and sport is for everyone.