Ethnically diverse girls less active, feel unsafe playing sports with men watching

Ethnically diverse teenage girls play sports much less than their peers, often because they feel unsafe with men and boys watching them, the Mulier Institute found in a study commissioned by the Sports & Movement Knowledge center. “There are not enough places in the current sports offer where they feel safe,” the researchers concluded, Trouw reports.

Only 40 percent of ethnically diverse girls between the ages of 12 and 18 have a membership with a sports provider. Among boys with the same ethnicities, that is 65 percent. And among boys and girls with a Dutch-only background, about 76 percent belong to a sports club of some description.

“Participation in sports is not only related to income, but also other ‘status positions’ such as life stage, education followed, and, especially for women, ethnicity,” Laura Butselaar of the knowledge center said to Trouw. “Especially in Islamic families, we see that girls up to the age of 12 still exercise freely, but that becomes more complicated when they get a female body. Then sportswear can no longer be too tight, and they prefer not to do squats and other movements in the presence of men.”

The researchers found that these teenage girls want to exercise where they feel safe. For many, that means no men or boys watching. And that is hard to find in the current sports offer. Even girls-only hours at a swimming pool or girls-only football teams often have male instructors or coaches.

The obvious solution is to create more safe spaces for these teenagers to exercise. However, that raises the question of whether it negates the other advantage of sports - promoting integration. “Organized sport is certainly a nice environment to meet other people,” Butselaar said. “It just doesn’t always work that way in practice. It can also create a feeling of exclusion. Several Antillean girls said that they felt they were looked at differently. Then sport is a negative experience: I don’t belong. Separate sports may not be how we want it in the Netherlands, but it can be a little push.”

The Knowledge Institute also recommends ensuring children have access to a wide range of sports at a young age. Almost all the surveyed girls played sports when they were younger, but the relatively limited repertoire struck the researchers. “Sports is not part of their upbringing. They often follow their older brothers to football or martial arts. There is a lot of unfamiliarity with the rest of the range.”

Butselaar stressed that the group of teenage girls is, of course, diverse, and there is no one-size-fits-all solution. But most of the girls would like to play sports, she said. “That is why it is so essential that the offer is more in line with their needs.