Cruel trolling of 16yo soccer player Skye Stout highlights problem of teen girls abandoning sport – experts dub it the ‘gender play gap’
Teenage girls abandon team sports at alarming rates, and one sickening example of trolling explains why. But a few simple changes could reverse this worrying trend.
Discounted club fees for girls, bring-a-friend days and more female changerooms are being floated to arrest the alarming dropout rates of teenage girls from team sport.
Data shows more boys play sports like football, basketball and soccer at all ages – but the so-called “gender play gap” explodes in the late teen years.
Now researchers have asked girls what would keep them on the field and suggested guidelines for clubs, parents and governments.
Concerns over the participation gap were reignited recently by the shocking trolling of a 16-year-old girl signed to a professional soccer team in the UK.
Kilmarnock Women’s Football Club, in the Scottish Women’s Premier League, announced the recruitment of Skye Stout on Facebook – but took down the photograph after it attracted vicious trolling over her appearance.
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Australian researchers have found public scrutiny and “societal pressures” affect girls’ decisions to continue – or not – with sport, as well as a lack of pathways into adult or competitive teams.
“That makes a big difference in the motivation to continue,” said Flinders University PhD candidate James Kay, who helped develop the Closing the Gender Play Gap guidelines.
Mr Kay said national data showed “up until age 11 or 12 there is not much of a gap in participation at all”, peaking around 2 per cent.
“In the late teen years that’s when the gap really starts to diverge,” he said, noting the gap widened to as much as 40 per cent.
University of Newcastle research has previously shown teenage girls participate in sport at a rate 23.5 per cent less than boys.
The university has secured $868,000 from the New South Wales government to address the gap.
Initial focus groups found reasons girls disengaged included social pressures, embarrassment or bad experiences with coaches or parents.
Research by Victoria University’s Women in Sport team has also found menstrual cycles can have an effect.
Among 330 respondents to a survey, 72 per cent were anxious about their period while playing and 68 per cent had skipped sport due to their period.
At Adelaide Olympic Football Club, in Adelaide’s northwest, team manager Cathy Antoniou said there had been “zero drop outs” from girls teams since they were introduced in 2021.
Ms Antoniou’s daughter Eva, now 12, has been training at the club since she was seven.
“I have just started high school this year, so juggling my time and commitments has been a challenge ... (but) I find soccer is a great outlet where I can just switch off,” Eva said.
Clubmate Anastasia Jovanovic, 14, said soccer was “often referred to as a boys’ sport, and as girls we often feel second-best when it comes to opportunities and equality”.
“I am now in my fifth year of playing and these things don’t bother me as much, but I can see how it might deter a young girl who is just starting,” she said.
The club has introduced a unique training kit for the girls this year and applied for funding through the state government’s $18m Power of Her program to build female facilities.
SA Sport Minister Emily Bourke said the program funded new infrastructure, equipment and initiatives including menstrual health training.
The government has also convened a Women in Sport taskforce and a youth panel to “hear directly from young women to help tear down barriers faced”.
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Originally published as Cruel trolling of 16yo soccer player Skye Stout highlights problem of teen girls abandoning sport – experts dub it the ‘gender play gap’
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