Leveling the Playing Field: Correcting Hidden Inequalities in Girls’ Sports [NIAAA]

By: Allison Kelley, Ph.D. and Tim Green, Ed.D., CMAA

It has been over four decades since Title IX opened the door for girls to participate in high school and college athletics. Just six years after the enactment of Title IX, the percentage of girls playing team sports jumped sixfold, from 4 percent to 25 percent. Today, the girls’ high school participation rate is greater than 11 times what it was when Title IX was passed, with 3 million more high school girls having the opportunity to play sports each year.

This explosion has had myriad benefits for girls. It is well-documented that participation in youth athletics boosts confidence and fosters self-esteem, which are particularly important for girls’ development. Yet, pervasive feelings of disappointment and frustration over girls’ experiences on school sports teams suggest that soaring participation numbers might be veiling lingering inequality.

Understanding the Disparity

Over the past two years, we have surveyed over 5,000 members of independent school communities to assess their overall satisfaction with their athletics programs. Responses have revealed that female student-athletes, and their support network on their behalf, often feel undervalued and discouraged. These sentiments have left many athletic administrators scratching their heads; they are providing the same, if not more, funding and sports offerings to girls at their schools compared to boys sports. What is causing these perceptions, and how can they be managed?

Holistic Approach to Equality

Survey comments have revealed a critical insight: promoting equality extends beyond numerical balance and financial parity. True gender equity in sports demands a holistic approach that transcends quantitative measures and delves into perception, recognition, and empowerment. Making female athletes feel as valuable as their male counterparts necessitates a cultural shift within an athletics department – where perceptions, language, and support systems create an environment that actively celebrates and supports female student-athletes.

Focus on What You Can Control

After examining budgetary and participation data from the schools we surveyed, there were no observable or measurable differences in the provision of resources between boys’ and girls’ teams. Moreover, some things that make boys’ sports seem more valuable than girls’ are out of an athletic administrator’s control. For example, football (especially in the southern states) typically draws larger crowds than any girls’ sport.

Additionally, boys’ sports often get better local media coverage. There is little an athletic administrator can do about these two phenomena. Yet, there are still innumerable things athletic administrators have control over that can significantly improve girls’ athletic experiences. In fact, our survey responses suggest that these ostensibly small, controllable factors are often what make girls feel inferior. Examples include:

• “Girls' sporting events tend to have a lot less attendance by faculty and parents.”
• “Simply having a team is not the same as valuing that team and program equally to the corresponding boys team and program.”
• “Some of our female athletic programs do not have coaches that know how to work with teenage girls.”
• “Implicit bias is prevalent in how boys and girls athletics programs are supported.”

Ways to Promote Equal Valuation

The number one thing directors of athletics can do to remedy these inequalities is to communicate with and listen to female student-athletes and their caregivers. They will explain where they are coming from, how they feel, and what matters to them. Of course, it would be impossible and likely unwise to heed every request, but until athletic administrators understand the root cause of these frustrations, it will be impossible to manage them. Moreover, every school has its unique challenges and nuances. General resources and solutions will not fit every situation, which is why listening to constituents can pinpoint the most pertinent concerns at a school. Based on over 5,000 survey responses, we have developed a list of considerations that, when combined with these constituent voices, can help those leading athletics departments ensure their female student-athletes feel valued and empowered.

Promote Female Leadership:

• Encourage female leadership within sports programs, including coaching staff and administrative roles. Representation at all levels helps create a more inclusive and empowering environment where girls can better relate to their leaders.
• Ensure every coach of a girls' team has the proper physiological and socio-emotional understanding of girls’ development; girls should not be trained and coached in the same way as boys.

Promotion and Visibility:

• Ensure equal promotion of both boys' and girls' sports on school websites, social media, and other promotional materials.
• Assign equal resources for advertising and marketing efforts for both boys' and girls' teams.

In-Game Experience:

• Ensure that girls have the same in-game resources as boys (i.e. announcers, music, concession stands, trainers, visiting team locker room access, etc.).
• Have female student-athletes pick their warm-up music, player introduction facts, etc.; duplicating boys’ preferences is the norm but not necessarily what girls would choose.

Support from Students and Key Administrators:

• Encourage students and school administrators to attend and support both boys’ and girls’ games (in addition to the AD attending both with roughly equal frequency); if encouragement is not enough, consider adding incentives.

Awards and Recognition:

• Ensure that accolades and awards are equally distributed between boys’ and girls’ sports based on achievements and performance.
• Celebrate and recognize the accomplishments of both teams through school assemblies, awards ceremonies, social media, and other public forums.

Provide Educational Resources:

• In addition to ensuring that the athletics staff is knowledgeable on girls' physiological and socio-emotional development, provide girls and parents with resources that demonstrate a commitment to empowering female student-athletes (i.e. bring in a sports psychologist, nutritionist, or athletic trainer to discuss female development or consider providing a list of evidence-based books, articles, and podcasts that address cutting-edge research on girls’ sports)

Tending to these details is a victory on multiple levels. First and foremost, it empowers girls at a critical time in their physical, social, and emotional development. A bonus is that it promises to increase engagement and fundraising and enhance the school’s reputation. Sports are often a fundamental component of people’s education and improving this experience for roughly half of the student body will pay tremendous dividends. It is time for athletic administrators to move past abiding by the letter of the law and providing numerical and financial parity to make girls feel celebrated and valuable. There are many actions to keep them in sports and inspire them along the way.