Women in Sport: Thoughts and Personal Recommendations as a Reaction to the FA's ''Promot

For those of you that did not see the FA’s recent document on promoting football amongst women, some of the highlights are included below:

Advertising sessions

Advertise in places where girls go, i.e. in coffee shops or on the back of toilet doors
Start a membership scheme with girls getting stamps for each attendance.

Equipment suggestions

Allow girls to wear casual clothing
Use colourful bibs- make sure that they’re clean and smell nice!
Some beginners are put off by large heavy footballs and the prospect of being hit by one. Have a variety of different balls in your bag and let the girls choose which one to use.

Session Content

Run conditioned games, i.e. matches that allow girls to use their hands and feet or where they must score with a part of their body other than their feet.
Allow girls to check their phone and have twitter time in the sessions.
Incorporate set social times into your session.

The full document can be found here.

Before getting too carried away here, it is worth pointing out that various good suggestions were put forward in the document, like inviting role models to sessions and taking players to watch a high-level game such as a current international. Despite this, the points above do raise questions about who put forward this document and what evidence it was based on. Perhaps understandably, there has been a media backlash to this document, including a personal letter written by Durham schoolgirls stating ‘’ We are Not Brainless Barbie Dolls’[2]’. Although I am inclined to agree with these sentiments, this article will focus on the consistent theme that is presented throughout the recommendations that involve removing the competitive element from women’s sport.

The FA’s document talks about avoiding using ‘skill development’ for the majority of the session. It even goes on to suggest that coaches should avoid using the word ‘’sport’’ due to the negative connotations. This is theme I have often found personally in women’s sport,particularly in women’s rugby where I have professional experience. Women’s rugby players have often mentioned occasions to me where coaches have taught them different forms of games for an entire session with no time spent learning skills or practicing any form of tactics needed in a real match situation. I have also encountered this attitude in referees, For example, a couple of weeks ago, I was met by a referee who suggested ‘’I am just here to help the girls have fun’’. This type of comment would be received badly at a men’s game because it undermines the element of competition and yet it seems acceptable with women. In isolation these comments and behaviours may not seem particularly significant but it is my belief that such attitudes are undermining women’s sport at the grass roots level, and by doing this, they are promoting sexism in women’s sport as a whole.

Defining Competition and Sport

Critics of this viewpoint might suggest that I am taking sport too seriously and that many people play the game less competitively and enjoy it. Whilst this is true, I feel that it also shows a misunderstanding of competition. Competition is the only thing that differentiates sport from exercise. This can be seen by the dictionary definitions of the words:

Sport

'An activity involving physical exertion and skill in which an individual or team competes against another or others for entertainment.'

Exercise

'Activity requiring physical effort, carried out to sustain or improve health and fitness'

(Oxford Dictironarys[3])

Attempting to win or at least excecute skills is the whole premise of sports performance and is part of why it is so enjoyable. It is present in any level of sports performance. A good example of this is mentioned in Alex Clapham’s recent article[4]. He describes the natural response a parent might give to their child when told they had been playing sport. This might be ‘’did you win?’’ or ‘’did you score?’’. Similarly, if you imagine the same child approaching their parents after the game in which they scored, what do you think would be the first thing they mention?

Whilst I agree that we shouldn’t put too much pressure on individuals within sport, particularly in the early stages of learning, I do believe that the competitive element of sport is what provides the enjoyment and many of the other values that are often associated with sports practice. For example, values like discipline, teamwork and resilience are all reinforced by competition.

Competition in sport is MORE important for Women

One of the most common examples of sexism in sport is centred on equal pay and opportunities. This is not just confined to sport and is a huge topic of discussion and research in sociology across the world[5][6][7]. One of the suggested explanations for pay inequality is an inherent lack of competitiveness in women[8][9]. Whether this is due to a genetic difference or not, is still contentious[10][11]. Research does suggest, however, that a lack of a competitiveness is effecting women’s potential employment prospects, even in countries where there is generally more gender equality[12]. Sport has been put forward as a potential method for encouraging competitiveness in women and therefore decreasing sexism in society as a whole.

If we look at this purely from a sports perspective, less competition in women’s sport ultimately leads to lower skill levels. For example, if we follow the FA’s recommendations: ‘’Have some element of skill development but not for the majority of the session’’, then over time the players are not going to develop as much as those who are practicing skills for the majority of their sessions, like in men's sport. Furthermore, less competition at grass roots levels of the sport means that there is a smaller chance of the best athletes taking the sport seriously and therefore, the full potential of many female athletes may not be realised.

Recommendations

I believe we should encourage women to play sport for the ‘sport’ rather than for exercise. I believe that if we take out the skill development or competition from sports practice, then we are devaluing the activity itself, undermining women’s sport and undermining women in general. From my point of view, I think that improving and practicing skills is enjoyable in its own right, and while each group you work with will be different, the sex of the group shouldn’t make you change your behaviour towards them. Thankfully, I have also met many fantastic coaches working in women’s sport and I believe that current advertising strategies such as the ‘This Girl Can’ campaign are striking the right balance of marketing at women without being patronising or devaluing the sports themselves. This strategy seems to be working, as women’s participation numbers have risen dramatically within recent years[13]. Hopefully, this will continue to be the direction of travel for women’s sport and the terrible media coverage of the FA’s document will put an end this type of archaic thinking.