Teenage Girls Participation In Australia

The summary of Chapter 6 is that community sports and youth in North America are somewhat offered a variety of settings such as private sports clubs, schools, and recreation center across the globe. There are several types of sport structures that create many management challenges including conflicts over the goal of an organization, accessibility, the management of volunteers, and financial likelihood. Even though the sport participation continues to grow both in the U.S. and Canada, the opportunities are widely based on topography and gender meaning places like rural areas or gender types such as females are still lagging in access to the sport participation. Families, societies, and individuals benefit from physical activity and sport. The

Across the world, society holds men and women to different standards. There are precise gender roles and stereotypes that are well established. In the western world, women are supposed to be nurturers, cleaners, and the chef. Whereas men are perceived as strong, independent, and athletic. When these social norms are broken, it is not uncommon for specific labels to be given, such as being called a lesbian. Over the past few centuries, these stereotypes and gender roles have been challenged by many women and feminists. An area where these stereotypes and gender roles have been under scrutiny and analyzed is in the world of sport and physical activities. However, traditional female stereotypes continue to conquer. Gender inequality has accomplished small victories but is still an enormous part of sports which is evident through the little recognition received for competitions along with the difference between men’s and women’s professional level of sport, being looked at as attractive instead of being talented, and the very few female coaches. Eventually, there is hope that the sports world will not be considered the masculine domain, and there will no longer be a legacy of bias against the female athlete.

Types and contexts of activities are variable and change with age during childhood and adolescence. Activities of children aged 6 to 9 years are largely anaerobic (as in non-sustained activities or games such as ‘‘tag’’), and they help the child learn basic and more specialized motor skills. As youth move into the pubertal transition (about age 10-14 years, earlier in girls than in boys), these skills are incorporated into a variety of individual and group activities and many organized sports. Mature structure and function are approached or attained in late adolescence (age 15-18 years), so that physical activity programs can be more structured.

Chalabaev, A., Sarrazin, P., Fontayne, P., Boiché, J., & Clément-Guillotin, C. (2013). The influence of sex stereotypes and gender roles on participation and performance in sport and exercise: Review and future directions. Psychology of Sport and Exercise, 14(2), 136-144.

Within sport, as throughout society, gender differences exist. The socially constructed phenomenon of gender dictates a dichotomous system whereby females are feminine and males are masculine. Focusing on females specifically, society determines the feminine traits and roles ascribed to this gender. Being domesticated, slender, passive and heterosexual are a part of the desirable appearance that society has formed surrounding femininity (Wolf, 1991). On the other side of the dichotomy is the masculine realm that sport plays into. Sport is fuelled by muscle, power and aggressiveness, which are behaviours and images associated to masculinity. Sport therefore, defies all existing female gender ideals. It would be assumed that females have no place within this institution due to the gender clash. However, female athletes do exist, and many are very successful. For this to work, sport has established and reinforced the social constructions of gender that exist in society. Female athletes are viewed as inferior and are pushed into gender appropriate sports. Furthermore, they are often labeled as masculine until they can prove otherwise, and so great attempts are made to reassert femininity. The stigma associated to being masculine or homosexual for female athletes is so great that many have become irrationally fearful of this label. The sexualisation of the female body and overt displays of heterosexuality are used in

Often different genders experience this factor differently as often males are influenced by their peers into contact sports such as soccer or rugby whereas females are highly influenced into more famine sports such as netball or dancing (Raising Children Network, 2017) although as females develop and become older, the level of participation dramatically decrease (Statistics). A research conducted by the Australian Bureau of Statistics found that the participation rate for boys exceeded that for girls both overall and within each age group category (Australia Bureau of Statistics, 2012). Additional data illustrates that children ages 9-11 years were the most likely to participate in sport with a participation rate of 66%, exceeding the rates for both 5-8 year olds (56%) and 12-14 year olds 60% (Australian Bureau od Statistics, 2012). Additional research suggests that children who grow up in families that have a high passion for sports are more likely to develop an interest rather than a family that shares the opposite views (Brennan,

It is a widely shared view by men and women through traditions, beliefs and social practices. This requires that women are not meant to be competitive in the all sports. Another barrier is the false association between participation in sport with socially unacceptable behaviours. From the worlds view main barriers for female’s participation in sports, it becomes a clear view that participation in sports requires challenging gender norms that prevents the hegemony through the Five Figueroa’s framework. The barriers preventing girls from participating in physical activities are equally relevant, barriers include poverty and scarcity of economic means this would enter into the cultural and structure level needs. Therefore the girls around the local community that it’s also not easy in encourage girls to participate in psychical activities that need to be well considered to reach a goal to participate in

According to the Australian Government Department of Health it is essential for your health and wellbeing to be physically active and limit sedentary behaviour in children, adolescence and adults. Those whom decrease sedentary behaviour through physical activity are more likely to improve their health and live an active lifestyle (Physical Activity and Sedentary Behaviour, 2014). As a nation, we all live and breathe sport whether that be Australian Football League (AFL), Soccer, National Rugby League (NRL), Cricket, Netball and so forth. Each individual has participated in physical education or taken part in a sport or physical activity. People see sport and physical activity pronominally as sport and physical activity although there is more to it. There are three main learning approaches that are somewhat similar but are often confused when teaching a sporting session. It is important to have a better understanding of these learning methods which are technical, tactical and organisational but are most commonly known as Traditional, Game Sense and Sport Education.

Over the past 50 years, women’s sports have become more prevalent not only in the United States but also across the world. The ability for young girls and women to participate in athletics provides an avenue to experience competitive environments as well as build self-confidence in a world still dominated by men. During the early stages of women’s sports, the main idea was to show that women were worthy of having their own teams and organizations as an extension of the existing men’s sports. In other words, to prove to everyone the women could play many of the same sports that men could play.

The sports world has been a new area where women are recognized. In previous times women’s sports were almost non-existent. In schools many girl teams did not receive adequate funds for uniforms and equipment. Boys sports were much more popular, such as football or basketball. If a girl wanted to play a guy sport she would be labeled as a

Gender in sport has been an ongoing issue, especially for women, with many factors influencing their participation in sport

Gender equality is an important part of society. In an article on why everyone should be concerned about what is happening with equality and should be supportive of advances in equality, the article emphasizes how important equality is to the future of young women and girls for their careers (Huhman). Female employees can sometimes be treated unfairly or be held to a higher standard than their male colleagues. Women who take on leadership positions in their companies or careers are able to help make improvements in gender equality and in the workplace. Additionally, in another article, women work together to be activists for equality in sports and work to normalize the participation of girls in sports often dominated by ale participants (Yi and Bhalla). By working to make seeing girls in sports more common, girls are inspired to join sports by other female athletes. This creates a ripple effect and eventually causes more girls to take on leadership positions on teams and higher roles in their sports. Many of these girls can carry on these leadership qualities at school and eventually as young women in the workforce. By inspiring these young female athletes to take on these roles and to inspire others, they can promote gender equality and normalize the idea of females playing contact sports.

Many children develop attitudes towards physical activity during sporting experiences such as carnivals, competitions and physical education classes during their schooling life. Therefore, it is recognised that schools can play a powerful and influential role in shaping the attitudes and beliefs held by children towards sport and physical activity (Oxford University Press, 2015).

Physical activity is essential for children; therefore sport participation has many physical benefits for youths (Willox, 1994). In the United States there is a very unhealthy trend of physically unfit children going on. According to a recent study by the Harvard School of Public Health seven out of ten kids in our nation are out of shape and the incidence of obesity has increased by more than 50 percent among America's children and teen since 1976 and continues to grow at a staggering rate (Metzel & Shookhoff, 2006). When children participate in sports activities they get some of the exercise they need to improve their quality of life and can help prevent children from becoming obese. Physical activity regulates obesity because it increases energy expenditure, suppresses appetite, increases metabolic rate, and increases lean body mass (Willox, 1994). Even though regular physical sport activity has been shown to improve physical fitness, it can also help in preventing many different health problems down the line that youths who participate in sports are more likely not to develop than youths who do not participate in sports. Women who participated in organized sport and fitness programs as

My issue I have chosen to focus on is physical education (PE) and gender in upper key stage 2. This is because 39% of children across the United Kingdom have a poor attitude towards any sort of physical activity by 11 years old (Harris, 2015). My aim is to mainly focus on why some girls do not like the thought of taking part in a PE lesson and what we can do in school to help. Mason (2014), found that some girls do not join in any activity in or out of school due to what they experience in school PE lessons. Supporting evidence shows how physical activity attitudes are linked back to our experiences throughout school (Griggs, 2015). It is important to ensure what children experience through school during physical education is consistently positive and enjoyable to encourage physical activity within and outside of school too. There may be many reasons for why children do not enjoy joining in PE lessons and the excuses to avoid them can vary. However, it is important as a country that physical exercise is encouraged to ensure children are remaining active. I find it interesting that it is mainly girls who are wanting to avoid PE, therefore my aim is to find a way to overcome this problem by implementing strategies that will give children, especially girls, the best experience in school PE lessons possible, in order to encourage them to participate.