a poll of more than 3,000 boys and girls between the ages of seven and 17 found the seeds for these stereotypes are sown early by the 32 per cent of parents who do not believe girls are as good at sports as boys. it found these attitudes are further fostered by the absence of women coaches as role models for young athletes. “the average age that kids enter sports is six, which requires heavy parental involvement,” veliz said. “if you believe that boys are better than girls, you may be taking girls to a different activity or not doing sports at all.”
the study found girls were more likely to have never played sports than boys (43 per cent to 35 per cent), a discrepancy that prevents many from starting down the road to a healthy life full of physical activity. “sport is the most popular extracurricular activity in the united states for both boys and girls,” said veliz. “yet, we see this gender gap in participation persist and parents may be driving some of this.”
african american and low-income youth — but particularly girls — were least likely to currently be engaged in youth sports and most likely to have never participated or dropped out. of the survey’s respondents, just 58 per cent of girls reported having had a female coach, compared to 88 per cent of boys with a male coach. “we’re seeing a big gender disparity between who’s coaching boys and girls,” veliz said. “we need to ask why we don’t have more female coaches. we should have 88 per cent of girls saying they have a female coach. however, we still see females being underrepresented in coaching at the youth level and beyond.”