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This could turn into other stuff, could be just a WNBA. Funny we don't have this yet! Anyway, this article got me thinking
DROPOUT RATE FOR GIRLS IN MINOR SPORTS IS ALARMING
Canada won 22 medals at the last Summer Olympics, 16 of those were won by women. By that number, you might surmise what a great country this happens to be for female athletes.
Then consider this, some of the most famous athletes in the country are women: Brooke Henderson, Bianca Andreescu, Christine Sinclair and, before that, Hayley Wickenheiser.
And all that makes the release this week of something called The Rally Report all the more discouraging. For those who care about women’s sport, the results were somewhat heartbreaking.
The number of girls participating in sport in Canada is rather low and the dropout rate is particularly high. One out of every three girls in sports drops out in their adolescent years, according to the study. On the same scale, just one out of every 10 boys drops out.
The notion of gender equity in sports has always been a noble one, but it’s also unrealistic when 62% of all girls don’t participate in any kind of sport. How does this get changed? How do you change socialization? Maybe you can’t. But you have to try.
It starts with parents. It starts with local programs and school programs. It starts by removing stigmas, real or imagined, that playing sports can bring.
Sports can be life-changing for kids, for adults, for families. We need to do more in this country to make sports accessible and available and cool enough for young women to participate.
I should add: I have 2 younger sisters, both who have dropped out of multiple sports they did growing up. I nvr left mine. We can argue about nature/nurture 4ever but both had experiences w negative coaches who didn't treat them too well/poor coaches being chosen 4 girl's youth teams at least contributing to/turning them off the sports completely (including basketball 4 my lights out shooting sister :'( )
DROPOUT RATE FOR GIRLS IN MINOR SPORTS IS ALARMING
Canada won 22 medals at the last Summer Olympics, 16 of those were won by women. By that number, you might surmise what a great country this happens to be for female athletes.
Then consider this, some of the most famous athletes in the country are women: Brooke Henderson, Bianca Andreescu, Christine Sinclair and, before that, Hayley Wickenheiser.
And all that makes the release this week of something called The Rally Report all the more discouraging. For those who care about women’s sport, the results were somewhat heartbreaking.
The number of girls participating in sport in Canada is rather low and the dropout rate is particularly high. One out of every three girls in sports drops out in their adolescent years, according to the study. On the same scale, just one out of every 10 boys drops out.
The notion of gender equity in sports has always been a noble one, but it’s also unrealistic when 62% of all girls don’t participate in any kind of sport. How does this get changed? How do you change socialization? Maybe you can’t. But you have to try.
It starts with parents. It starts with local programs and school programs. It starts by removing stigmas, real or imagined, that playing sports can bring.
Sports can be life-changing for kids, for adults, for families. We need to do more in this country to make sports accessible and available and cool enough for young women to participate.