With sports being such an integral part of a student’s proper development, both mentally and physically, it is important that all students are at least provided the opportunity to participate in sports. But, with such a divided social system and with so many minority groups, many students don’t get equal opportunities. The group of students that are largest affected by this is female students. Even after being 49.6 percent (a little less than half) of the global population, most of them still suffer extreme disadvantages.
Sports are an essential piece of a student’s development and improvement. They help in the advancement of psychological well-being and physical wellness of the body as well. Through attending sports, a student acquires different abilities, experiences, and builds confidence. This helps in developing their personality.
We all have heard about gender discrimination; about girls not being considered equal in society. But this always feels like a distanced problem for the well off people, and because of this discrimination being so cleverly and finely integrated into our daily lives, we often fail to notice it. What was the last time you rooted and cheered for a female sports team? Did you ever feel that the girls’ sports team in your school got less training, attention, or simply worse equipment than the boys’ team? Did you ever notice the fact that girls drop out of sports as they grow up? Did you ever feel that the girls you see every day don’t play sports just because they would rather talk with their friends? These are just a few signs of the sports -playing disproportion in our society. But today, I will write about a different, less- observed component of this discrimination: about the girls who aren’t allowed to play sports.
After seeing progress in discrimination, most of us feel that girls aren’t actively stopped from playing sports; instead, the problem is that they don’t actively step up and participate because of society’s rigid modal of what a perfect girl is and because of coercion. While that stands true, it has also led to a hidden perspective in our minds that girls aren’t actively stopped at all nowadays.
This isn’t true.
Many girls face this discrimination. I personally have a close friend living in my society whose similar situation often intrigues me. I have always been encouraged to take part in sports and I feel that my parents are very supportive. However, in her case, it’s the opposite. She’s an only child, with a very protective mother. Her dream is to become a professional football player but between low support at school and close to none assent from her family, she’s stuck. At school, there isn’t any girls’ football team and none of her friends want to play football; they’d rather paint or sing. At home, her mom won’t let her take any classes, play in society, or join any team at school either, because she thinks “football isn’t for girls”.
This perception truly shocked me. Even though my friend was from a very well off and progressive-minded family, she was actively being stopped from following her dreams. Even after there are so many girls who have succeeded in the field of football, many people still think football isn’t for girls.
This is worse comparatively in Indian society. With so much emphasis on studies in high school and afterward, girls of that age are additionally considered as wasting their time if they opt to spend time playing football. They aren’t given the choice to pursue their dreams of being in the sports sector.
It's time to take action. To tell everyone out there that girls are just as good as boys; to show everyone that equality matters; to make participation in sports possible for all kids. Together, we can make the world a better place!
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