Since childhood, while boys are heavily oriented towards sports, girls lag behind. During adolescence, this gap accentuates the phenomenon. We wondered why it doesn’t click between sports and girls. By Chrystelle Bonnet. Read more here
The disengagement of teenage girls in sports is part of a global dynamic. The decrease in memberships also affects boys, but the gap is created from childhood, with fewer girls directed towards clubs. The challenge is more about the initial engagement than abandonment. It’s not a question of motivation, but of social and sporting environment. The barriers are numerous: academic pressure, body transformations, peer pressure, lack of female role models, and inadequate supervision. According to the MGEN/Kantar study, 45% of young girls quit “despite themselves”. The weight of social norms and images conveyed on social media exacerbates this phenomenon, in a system still very competition-oriented. In response, federations are adjusting their offerings. Developing leisure practices, mixed or more flexible formats. Volleyball illustrates this strategy with a decrease in disengagement. The economic stakes are also important: expanding and retaining the base of female participants to support the growth of women’s sports.
